Leads to help a dog that pulls

I use this one on my boys as gives option to use as normal lead and then over nose if required "Dogs & Co Figure of 8 Dog Lead for dogs that pull. 3 leads in 1. Black"

They chewed the Gencon and it snapped :-( quite thin.

Used harnesses too but couldn't hold 80kg of dogs. They are slightly better trained now.....(Flatcoats!)
 
Others will have different experiences, obviously, but these are just my thoughts; Were you to approach this from another angle, you may make progress. If you can teach him to walk to heal OFF a lead and before you concentrate on heal walking on a lead, you may well find that he starts to listen to you rather than being physically prevented from pleasing himself and doing what he wants to do. It's all to do with how the dog views the handler, I believe.

Off-lead heal walking is generally best started, within a contained environment and the best place for that is often a passage way of some sort, somewhere where he can't go round you, but has to actually pass you.

I've never had any long term success by physically restraining a dog, I've always found that having the dog comply with my wishes because it's what 'I' want, is always the better way.

Alec.

eta: and as a footnote, as harnesses are designed and made to assist a dog with pulling, can someone explain to me how their usage has the opposite effect and assists in preventing a bad habit?
 
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If the dog walker is not applying your methods, any training you are doing may go straight out the window!

We used the Gentle Leader I think, when my mum had a shoulder operation. The dog found the action quite severe but as a quick short term fix it put all the control with the handler.
 
CorvusCorax said:
If the dog walker is not applying your methods, any training you are doing may go straight out the window.
Click to expand...

This, everyone needs to be consistent in his training or he will eventually not pull with you but pull with the dog Walker. If you teach the dog Walker your methods and they apply them as well as long as the methods are good then it willow be a problem for long.
 
Alec Swan said:
eta: and as a footnote, as harnesses are designed and made to assist a dog with pulling, can someone explain to me how their usage has the opposite effect and assists in preventing a bad habit?
Click to expand...

well, of course they can be used to teach a dog to pull if you do it badly, as can a collar. the same principles apply to harness walking as loose lead walking off a collar/slip lead. Having the clip at the front and the back means that the dog is unbalanced and turned if they try and pull-same principle as a halti etc and can be useful for retraining.

Having worked huskies in my youth I was sceptical about harnesses (although the harnesses you have for normal dogs are not really built the same way) until I got a rescue that walked beautifully in one-she didnt pull, whether on a regular lead or flexi lead (which she came with). Goldie pup has been trained to walk and not pull on a collar and a harness-so it can be done, even by a mere dog training mortal like myself.
 
Slip lead, excess twisted up over nose. Kinder than halti, tends not to ride up into eyes and means I don't get pulled over when I'm walking all three. They're very rarely on lead, literally between car and field/woods, but this makes it much nicer for all of us.
 
K9 dog harnesses are fantastic, you can ask their advice before you buy and they're a very pleasant company to deal with.
Dogmatics do the job but the customer service is shocking. One of our dogmatics snapped at the seam within 6 weeks, I sent them photos and asked for a replacement and they replied with no dog had obviously chewed it. She hadn't, it had obviously broke on the seam but they were rude, refused to have it back to even look at it.
Figure of 8's are great but always have 2 leads as they can slip them
 
I use a Dogmatic and harness combination or just a harness with a front ring ( Mekuti ). If I am using the Dogmatic because my lad can react and get himself into trouble, I use a double ended lead, one on the Dogmatic and one on the harness, the Dogmatic only comes into play if he pulls too much, otherwise he is walking just on the harness.

There are different types of harness, those with the back ring sitting just behind their shoulder blades are better and are not designed to encourage the dog to pull. A front (chest) ring gives you two points of contact to keep the dog in balance with you. Those with the back ring further back are designed to encourage pulling.

http://www.mekuti.co.uk/harness_shop.htm
 
SWAG headcollar. cannot rate this highly enough.

we had a nasty injury from a gentle leader.
goes without saying that everyone who handles the dog must stick to the same rules and in an ideal world all dogs should learn to walk to heel but we have to work with what we have :)
 
the SWAG is connected behind the head so there is nothing to twist on the face or pull the neck this way or that :)
 
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