If Your Dog Pulls on Walks A Gentle Leader Could Be the Answer

Heretic that I am on most things (I work at a kennel that uses the Koehler method - EEK!) I actually tried training a dog to walk at heel without a leash at all using clicker training and treats. For what little time I got to spend with him, it worked very well and other behaviors started improving too. You need a safe place to work and you need to know what motivates the dog - from what I've read, toys and other things can work as well as food.

Good luck!

We have had training for our 2 year old Australian Cattle Blue Tick Beagle to no avail. We finally put her in the Martingale Collar, but with a Halti and wow what a difference. However, saying that, if we take the halti off and just want to walk her it is impossible. We have tried the waiting game, the go the opposite direction scenario, etc. all to no avail. Any other suggestions to cure this dog from the constand pulling? Help!!!

Walk at least 2 hours every single day. Don't worry too much about any pulling, just do the walking. This is a big part of the "secret"! Add exercise wherever you can -- retrieves, running the stairs, etc.

After two weeks or so of receiving sufficient exercise every single day, try again with the strategies you are using now.

After a few more weeks, you can remove the halti sooner and sooner at the end of the walk. Start with removing it for the last 5 minutes of the walk.

If you have other questions, visit my website http://silverskyk9.com or email me nicole at silverskyk9 dot com

I have used both the prong collar and a gentle leader. If the prong collar is not fitted properly then it will be worthless. As Angeles has grown I haven't upgraded that collar yet. In the interim I use a gentle leader if we go to the store to pick up the cat litter. Generally I have been using his regular leather collar on our walks and yes he still does some pulling and at the same time working a bit to get him not to pull. I think the gentle leader is a good tool. It does exactly what it says it will. For someone that has used a prong collar before and the "quick jerk" method to bring my dog's focus back to me, I found it a little challenging to just stop and let the collar do the work. I had to learn to act differently. Cotton, my Norwegian Buhund mix prefers the prong collar (she was actually trained with one at doggy boot camp!). And my little Louis, a mini dachshund will be using a harness this spring when he can go out again on walks. He had herniated disc surgery in his neck last year. So don't use a leash and collar on his neck since that time. If I had to pick a collar to recommend for quick results for the average dog owner, the gentle leader would be it. If there were better instructions for folks on how to use a prong collar then that would jump to the top. But alas, the instructions on the packaging leave a lot to be desired (reminds me of old-school Linux operating system - made for the technical savvy - but left the average user guessing!).

I think we've tried just about every collar under the sun! Pinch collars, choke collars, prong collars, regular old buckle collars. Ty, our Shar-Pei, has a snout that is too short for Gentle Leader. Buster, our German Shepherd, would rub his face on the ground trying to get it off.

A few days ago we switched back to the first restraint we tried - an Easy Walk Harness. I think because we have had more time to train the dogs and got more patient with the dogs, this now seems to be working great for us.