What we all hope will be a joyful experience of taking a nice walk with our dog can often times be painful for us both. There are a multitude of training devices that can help you to walk your fur kid without having your arm yanked out of socket. CLICK HERE to read about some training techniques you can use with a regular buckle collar and leash. They should also be used for training with any of the harnesses listed below. The only exception being that you can use the Sporn no-jump harness without training, just put it on and go. I recommend though attempting to train the loose leash walking so that if you ever find yourself without the harness you will still be able to enjoy the walk! There are many alternatives to a choke collar and many tools that will help you comfortably walk your dog. Some of these that we have used or seen are listed below with their descriptions and pros and cons:
Halti or Gentle Leader:
This type of collar is good for dogs who's owners who want their dog to stay close to their side and who will be diligent about controlling the length of the lead. It is a self correcting harness in that the dog will turn around to face you if they get to the end of the lead so their natural inclination is stay back by you so they can face forward. It is also good for people who must be able to control their dog's mouth. I use one of these for Tully when we go out in public. The number one reason is that Tully is a pseudo alpha and doesn't not like other dogs at first. He generally settle down and has been great with almost all of my fosters, but his first inclination upon meeting a new dog is to growl and snap at them creating tension and anxiety for everyone. If I have him on a very short leash and controlled, properly fitted gentle leader. He looks to me for guidance, lets the other dogs smell him and much more quickly settles. I would not recommend this technique to most people until you have been through many other training techniques (which I would also be happy to share) to ensure that your dog is more in tuned to you than other dogs. The major con to the gentle leader type harness is that the leash attaches under the dog's mouth and, therefore if the leash is held too loosely and they forget themselves they can dive forward and when they reach the end of the leash will be jerked around to face you and can hurt their neck. The other point to make is that it still takes time to train the dog and get them used to wearing the gentle leader and not try to dive to the ground to scratch it off.
Sporn No-Jump harness:
I use this when I walk Chloe or when I walk Chloe and another dog and put both of them in these harnesses with a coupler so I can just use one leash. Chloe had surgery on her neck to remove a subcutaneous cyst. I do not ever walk her with a leash attached to her neck. Chloe is excellent off leash and excellent with other dogs. However, she pulls on leash and jumps on people. Honestly, I've never worked with her on proper leash walking as I do not want her to ever pull on her neck even when training and am happy to walk her with the harness. This takes about 80% of the pull tension in my estimation away from the dog and redirects it through the harness and stops the dog from pulling naturally. The con is that it does not train the dog to walk naturally on a loose leash and if you go on a very long walk, over two miles, it can cause chafing. It is imperative to use the fleece sleeves that come with it. http://www.sporn.com/
SENSE-ation™ Dog Harness:
This is a new-comer taking over the training world that Kathy reports works WONDERFULLY. It is called the sensation harness. You can order it here: http://www.softouchconcepts.com/
The trainer that Kathy works with often in her area is now recommending those for clients instead of Gentle Leaders or Halti's. This harness is similar in concept to the head harness (Gentle Leader or Halti) but instead of clipping under the dog's chin the leash hooks to a ring on the strap that goes across the dog's chest. You can see pictures and read more about these on their website.
CLICK HERE to read about some training techniques for loose-leash walking!
Good luck to you and your fur-kids! Please e-mail if you have any questions or with follow-ups!!
--Heather Young, MidSouth Co-Coordinator, youngh19066@yahoo.com
