A collar doesn't work great for George as a reactive, small dog.
When he lunged, he'd choke himself which made everything worse.
I learned that dogs associate whatever happens in the moment with the trigger. So if I shout at George when he lunges, he thinks that man appearing made her shout, next time I need to make sure he goes away so she doesn't shout at me again.
Same thing when his collar makes him choke and splutter. It made the trigger worse.
So we switched to a harness.
I was fooled by the social media advertising a certain "no pull" harnesses. Embarrassingly, I was particularly drawn to them because you could get a personalised name tag.
I removed the name tag in the early days of George's reactivity after realising that people saying "Hello George!" was not helpful. I don't think George is going to be a name tag kind of dog.
I did get a couple of these harnesses. They are very easy to put on and off.
At our first visit with the vet behaviourist and trainer, they (very kindly and gently) recommended getting a different harness.
The ones I had with a straight line across the front hinders the natural movement of the dog. I didn't want "no pull" to be at the expense of natural movement. I later learned that they could even be considered aversive, and if dogs are feeling discomfort, that can exacerbate reactions.
I was mortified. And learned a valuable lesson that just because something in the dog world is popular and widely used, that doesn't mean it is ok.
A v- or u-shaped harness is best for George. It doesn't hinder his natural movement and doesn't choke him if he reacts.
I got one with a front ring which gives us the option of promoting no pulling if needed. We haven't practiced that a lot as George is often on a long line at a Sniffspot.
George has become accustomed to putting the harness on. It's not as easy as the initial one (which was quite the selling point), but with desensitisation he has got used to it.
It was interesting the other day when I bought the exact same harness in the exact same size but a different colour, and George was quite wary of it.
We'll do some gentle desensitisation with the new colour!