Hey, what's going on guys? I'm Tom Davis. This is Lakota. Today I'm going to talk about everything you need to know about the Hermespringer prong collar. The first thing I want to talk about is how to size the prong collar. Two very commonly used prong collar gauges is the 3.0 and the 2.25. So the 2.25 comes standard in 16 inches and the standard 3.0 prong collar comes standard in 22 inches. I want to just show you what the actual gauge means. So as you guys can see in the 3.0 the gauge of the actual prong is going to be larger or thicker than the actual 2.25. So on a larger, more powerful dog you're going to use a 3.0 or above. Smaller dogs you could get away with using the 2.25. So I want to go over a couple of metal options that Hermespringer has. Right here is the steel chrome plated collar. Right here is the curigan. It kind of looks like a gold. This doesn't contain any nickel. So if dogs have any different allergies to chrome or anything like that. And then right here is the black which is I don't have a collar set up for it right now, but this is what the black is. It's exactly how it sounds. It's black. So next we're going to talk about sizing and how it should actually fit on your dog which is extraordinarily important when you're fitting the prong collar on your dog. So right here is the 2.25 curigan on Lakota. We also have some of the Hermespringer Martin Gales here. But the 2.25 curigan on her should sit right above the ears. So the prong collar shouldn't be down here where these Martin Gale collars are when we're applying pressure and when we're training with a collar. You want to make sure it's nice and high and tight. It should fit pretty snug, but you don't want the prongs to be pushing against the dog's skin. You want it snug enough so it doesn't fall down when you're training and you want it to fit right here behind the actual ears. So on most prong collars you're going to have a O-ring and what I call a half ring. So you're going to put your leash on the half ring of the prong collar. So what this does is it activates the prong collar or gives the prong collar action. And this is what you're going to be using to actually put your leash on right here. So you want to make sure when you're putting the prong collar on that you're not twisted like this. So make sure that when you open your prong collar up that you have a really clean triangle. That way your action doesn't get glitched and interrupted by the metals getting tangled. This is exactly what you want. Now if you get a prong collar that's too big or too loose. All you simply have to do is take prongs out or put them back in. You can buy or purchase extra prong collars pretty much anywhere you get your prong collar. Or a lot of times what we do here at the academy is we have a ton of different prong collars where we can interchange the prongs we're needed. So simply to do that because a lot of questions have come up how to take a prong off is you really just pinch the actual prongs and then it slides back in. Same thing on the way up you're just going to pinch and pull out. I always tell people if you're sweating you're doing it wrong. Should be very easy come out pop this off and then readjust your prong to make sure it fits properly on your dog. One other thing that happens with normal wear and tear with prong collars is as you guys are bending these prongs in and out every day multiple times a day sometimes the prongs can get a little bent. So all you guys have to do is just simply bend the prong back to its original state to make sure that the prong collar is properly fitting the dog and it doesn't come off in usage. Now like any other very successful international company there's going to be rip offs and knock offs and you have to be very careful about these poorly manufactured collars and I have a knock off and I have a real Herm Springer here which to the naked eye is going to be pretty difficult to tell the difference between the two. Well here we have the counterfeit prong collar and here we have the original authentic Herm Springer collar. So again they look pretty similar to the naked eye. Some things to look for right off the bat guys is Herm Springer as you guys know creates the best metals in the dog training industry. So when you actually take your prongs off of your prong collar they should always be rounded never squared and never sharp. A good indicator of a counterfeit prong collar is a square prong. Look for that if your prong collar is square even though it says Herm Springer on the collar it's not a Herm Springer. Now I've actually encountered some counterfeit prong collars off Amazon. So just because it's being sold on Amazon or other links make sure that they are an authorized Herm Springer dealer. One thing that this company did which is pretty tricky to be honest with you guys is almost everything looks the same on this collar except obviously the metal is made a little bit differently. It's not as high quality as Herm Springer but also if you look here just Springer spelled wrong it actually has two Rs instead of a P. So look for spelling in a Herm Springer to make sure that you're getting the absolute best which is Herm Springer. I've been using Herm Springer products for a long time as a professional dog trainer. I can actually hear the metals of a knock off Herm Springer. So once you get used to actually using a Herm Springer you'll know pretty quickly the difference between the real deal and a knock off. One mistake I often see dog owners do with the prong collar is is sliding the collar over the dog's head. If you can slide this collar over your dog's head it's too big. Make sure that when you're putting the prong collar if it doesn't have a quick release buckle you're putting the prong just like this. That's really important to put your prong over right over manually over the dog's neck. Another frequently asked question that we get often about the prong collar is is when to take it off when to leave it on when to use it. Just like any other prong collar or any other collar that we use in dog training you want to leave it on when you're training. So if you're in your house and your dog's on the leash you're training that's okay. If you're outside training that's okay too obviously. But when you're inside and you're not watching your dog and your dog's unattended you can take it off. I would never leave the prong collar on unattended in a crate just because it could get caught like any other collar. We're going to talk about the difference between the chrome plated prong collar and the stainless steel. So if you're looking for the most durable rust proof good in the ocean salt water type stuff you're going to want to go with the stainless steel prong collar from Herm Springer. So the chrome plated prong collar is a nice collar but it is going to be a little little softer on the metals. So it's actually dipped in chrome and the stainless steel stainless steel all the way around. So it's going to be weather proof and it's going to be the most durable collar that you're going to find. And the way you guys can find that is it's right on the tag. It'll say stainless steel here and then you can see on this tag here it'll say steel chrome prong collar. So that's the difference between the stainless steel and the chrome plated prong collar. The prong collar is a great effective humane way to communicate with your dog on a different level. I would highly suggest having the introduction of the prong collar done by a trained professional using the Herm Springer prong collars. I hope you guys have fun with your dog as always and I will talk to you next time. Break!