Walking With The Gentle Leader
We just came in from our daily walk, and the puppies are doing very well. The occasional squirrel is a distraction, and when Kyle and Katie see a squirrel, the only thing on their mind is, “Get that squirrel!”. Other than that, they’re doing pretty well.
When I first started training them I used choke collars on both the dogs. The collar worked, in that it choked the dogs, but also had a detrimental effect. It seems the metal of the choke collar was wearing away some of the hair on their neck. We were concerned that it might be an allergic reaction, but the vet assured us it was just the metal of the choke collar rubbing against their fur that was causing the loss of fur around the neck area.
He suggested a gentle leader, which is a device that fits around the dogs muzzle and neck. However, the dogs have full use of their mouth. They can drink, eat, bark, etc. It does not restrict their mouth movement at all, and the loop around their muzzle rests gently on the muzzle, so causes no trauma to that area.
Using the gentle leader, has been a great improvement over the choke collar. Almost immediately their pulling decreased by 90%, now we’re working on the remaining 10%.
I’d like to say that our walks are pull free, but they haven’t gotten there yet. But, each day brings us closer to the goal.
The gentle leader is a great invention that works. It’s certainly worth a try.