So I have a friend who has a new rescue who pulls, and she is determined to get “one of those anti.pull harnesses”. What is the best one? I cringe posting this, but she’s a real softie, and also determined to at least try one.
The easy walks work great IF, IF IF IF they are fitted correctly (ie: TIGHT!) They have to be HIGH on the chest and tight or they can pop right out in a second. I would not think it to be a bad idea to use a backup leash on a collar if you went this route. It worked well on my Dane foster (who wasn’t a puller necessarily, just needed some control) but my low-riders that put their head down and pull, you just have to be cautious about how they are fitted.
The ‘under the armpit’ contraptions (i don’t know if there’s a specific brand) DO work but just to me personally, I feel like they could create rubs in a MINUTE! I own one (acquired it somewhere, didn’t purchase) and tried it on one of mine who doesn’t pull, just tends to walk 2x as fast as my other guys (trots ahead, stops, trots ahead, stops) and it seemed to irritate him even in our less than an hour walk.
I am a big fan of two leashes, a gentle leader, and positive reinforcement! Keep your hand on the collar leash unless there’s pulling, use the gentle leader, reinforce when the pulling ceases. Good luck to your friend!
No idea what an “anti-pull” harness is, but I’d point her towards a Gentle Leader and tell her to get instruction from a professional handler for using it.
GENTLE LEADER!
Highly recommend it, much more effective than a harness, and has the added advantage of giving you the ability to control the dog’s head, hence its attention. If used correctly, it is indeed gentle, and gives you fingertip control (works on pressure/release principle, the more you can get the dog to tune in to the release, the more responsive the dog becomes.) It’s a sanity saver for any owner of a dog who pulls. (I am a trainer at Petsmart, and have put many a student’s dog in one, I have yet to have anyone fail to thank me, profusely.)
A harness–even an anti-pull “Easy Walk” type–still encourages the dog to pull with its chest and shoulders, and down and away from the handler. And yes, encourage her to get a good fit (the backstrap should be snug, and high up on the neck, right behind the ears. Many of the GLs contain instructional DVDs, a bonus!)
Good luck to her 
If she’s a softie, she may have to be coaxed to work her dog through his initial resistance to it (most of them try to rub it off), but tell her to hang in there, distract him with treats, and be happy and enthusiastic. If she says “he doesn’t like it”, ask her whether she likes the IRS? :winkgrin: Once he and she get used to it, she will find that it’s a virtual Godsend.
I also have an Easy Walk. Large dog, lots of hair. Have never had rubs. This made a HUGE difference in my ability to walk her.
I would vote Gentle Leader too.
It works on natural pressure points and I’ve yet to see a dog who will pull on that…conversely have seen lots of harnesses that don’t quite do the job.
I have a Halti and an easy walk and a big black lab that is older. Pulls in both even with positive reinforcement. Latest idea is having the dog sit every time he pulls so we spend a ton of time sitting and we still haven’t figured out how to communicate with each other well.
[QUOTE=BuddyRoo;6151825]
I would vote Gentle Leader too.
It works on natural pressure points and I’ve yet to see a dog who will pull on that…conversely have seen lots of harnesses that don’t quite do the job.[/QUOTE]
:yes:
Most people who aren’t around working dogs will frown upon this but this is what we use on the team:
I have a search and rescue dog and this is what he wears and every other search dog I’ve worked with. When you have a dog that is excited and wants to work you have to use something to get them under control. The dog can hurt himself or someone else if you don’t gain control. Trust me, prong collars are a safe training aid. You do have to know how to use one though.
However, search dogs are the most over the top, energy filled dogs I have ever seen. When they know they are going to get to work they act like they just drank 8 cups of coffee. I don’t know if this dog fits into that category though. However, my over the top dog is being a great foot warmer right now.
She really doesn’t need anything for re-training- dogs pull because their owners let them, and if she doesn’t grasp that idea no device on earth will solve the problem. However, a device CAN assist her during the retraining process.
I prefer a prong collar for re-training a dog with bad leash manners. If you combine prong + training methods such as “be a tree” you can rapidly produce a dog who never pulls, and with a prong it’s really easy to transition from the training tool to a regular collar. The prong is very safe, and requires no knowledge or skill on the part of the owner to use.
The front-attachment no-pull type harnesses work fine as a training tool with some dogs. I prefer the Halti brand over the Easy walk brand. If you use an Easy walk, make sure you have a backup device on the dog, because dogs can REALLY easily wiggle out of easy walk harnesses.
I really don’t like the nose-loop devices. While they keep dogs from pulling while the dog wears them, it’s extremely difficult to transition the dog from the device to a regular collar. Indicating they aren’t training tools, they are crutches. Also most dogs find them extremely aversive to wear and the dogs have to actually be trained to accept wearing them, and some dogs never accept them; many dogs act permanently depressed and unhappy when forced to wear nose halters. Plus these things can cause really severe neck injuries to dogs.
Plain choker type collars require considerable skill and training of the handler to use properly to train a dog. Choke-chains should only be used by experts, and even in the hands of an expert they’ve been shown to cause permanent neck damage, so in general they should be avoided. Prongs are the preferred tool, being very safe and not requiring any skill on the part of the person holding the leash.
Great post Wendy! I also forgot to mention that I have heard of dogs who throw themselves on the ground and refuse to move when wearing the gentle leader. The prong collar may look barbaric but it really is a safe and effective training tool.
Wendy, I don’t disagree that prong or choke collars can be very effective–when used properly.
But therein lies the problem. Most people simply do not know how to use them properly. I’ve seen dogs with puncture tracheas from overzealous use of the prong collar.
Also, some people just don’t have the strength (or timing) to do appropriate corrections with such devices.
The reason I started using a gentle leader or halti on my monster lab a few years ago was because I had a kid doing dog walks for me who weighed less than the dog! LOL Given his height and weight, the kid just couldn’t make appropriate corrections and the dog was becoming spoiled and harder to handle. (was about 2 YO at the time.)
With the halti or gentle leader, anyone can walk the dog with no more than their pinky finger in the loop of the leash.
I think that in some cases, especially when you have lots of different people handling the dog who maybe aren’t so dog savvy, it makes sense to go with what you know can keep everyone safe with the least amount of “people training” involved.
I’m still having a hard time teaching my step daughters how to get the dogs to sit. It’s not a dog problem. It’s a people problem. KWIM?
When I first got my 80 pound GSD who had no training at all, I picked up one from Walmart (because they were the only ones in my area who had anything like it and I literally could not hold onto the dog since I’m quite small, so I didn’t have time to order one or anything) that worked pretty well. I can’t remember the brand but they still carry them. It was one that went under his legs and tightened when he pulled, but loosened right away when he relaxed. It was effective until I could get something better. It didn’t cause rubs or seem uncomfortable to him at all.
Then once I had time to do some research and buy the product of my choice, I used a Gentle Leader for him (or maybe a Halti, can’t remember exactly). He did hate it at first (he was one of those who threw himself on the ground :lol:) but he got over it and it was so much easier to use as a training aid. I’d definitely recommend that route.
Whatever she chooses should definitely be paired with training though. Hector’s a total gentleman on the leash now even in really exciting situations, the headcollar was just a means to get us there.
And while I don’t have anything against prong collars used correctly, I also agree with BuddyRoo that I wouldn’t recommend one to just anyone. Honestly, I don’t even feel comfortable using one and I’m pretty good with dogs. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, but I don’t get the impression that the OP’s friend is qualified to use one (based on her having to ask a friend about anti-pull harnesses and such).
I had a trainer that put a Gentle Leader or Halti on my dog once, and even the trainer was shocked at how quickly she got out of it. Since seeing that, I would not use one without a backup leash attached to a collar. They just don’t seem that secure to me, and I’ve asked people about it and they suggested another leash attached to a collar.
They do make plastic prong collars now. They aren’t as harsh as the standard metal prongs.
Casey–
I agree with you that Halti’s especially can be gotten out of more easily, especially on a dog with a short snout.
Gentle Leader much less likely because the nose piece is adjustable and if adjusted correctly, is quite snug.
That said, most dogs I’ve been around are much more tolerant of the Halti than Gentle Leader for that very reason. AND, if you’re going to be running with the dog, you have to loosen up the Gentle Leader or they can’t pant properly IME. But I’m no vet and no trainer. This is just my experience.
Agree with BuddyRoo (as usual), and WRT the Gentle Leader, if they are getting out of it, it is too loose. The Halti is more of a problem, since they can easily wriggle out of the nose loop (especially the short snouted breeds, for which is was designed), and the backstrap is often too long, not adjustable enough to enable you to fit it properly to the back of the dogs head, and as a result, you often can’t get it snug enough, and it slides around (you do NOT want these head harnesses to slide around the dog’s face, it can obstruct their eyes and chafe.)
If the backstrap of the GL is properly adjusted, it should not come off. In the case of the Halti, there is a “safety snap” that attaches to their regular collar, so even if it does slip off (due to the bad basic design of the thing :(), you won’t lose the dog.
Casey, if the trainer adjusted it properly, the dog shouldn’t have been able to get out of it–unless it was a HALTI that was too loose (as mentioned, this is the head collar that they CAN wriggle out of.)
Personally I am not averse to a prong collar on a big, hard pulling, insensitive dog, but like the razor in the monkey’s hand, you need to know how to use it. Training the dog NOT to pull is OF COURSE optimal, but many people don’t have the patience to repeat the “if you pull, we don’t go” behavior shaping ad infinitum, since it takes many dogs a long time to learn this lesson. Most dogs are underexercised, and they do NOT want to walk at 4.5 MPH next to the human after they have been cooped up in the house all day and have a lot of pent up energy (and who can blame them?) Please don’t take offense if this stereotype doesn’t apply to you (most of my students live in the suburbs, so their dogs comprise the majority…;))
I like to tell my students that “Headcollars are like Training Wheels”, and work especially well with high energy adolescent dogs who need to learn the rules of walking WITHOUT making the human attached to them exhausted and stressed out to the point of giving up. You can wean off of them, if you ALSO take the time to train the dog to walk politely. In order to do this, the dog needs to be paying attention to the handler (checking in regularly, visually, and getting rewarded and positively marked for it), and when they are driving forward and leaning away from the human and into a harness, this is not always possible. That said, I do recommend the non-pull harnesses for miniature dogs, who have delicate necks and tracheas.
Ultimately, these are simply “tools for training”, but they can be sanity saving, and can also enable people to enjoy (not dread) exercising their dogs, which should be the priority here.
Agree whole heartedly.
Better to get the dog out and moving with the “training wheels” than not at all. Tired pup is a good pup.
Thanks for your insight, Dr. Doolittle. Agreed and then some!
Interesting. One day I’ll have to try it again, tighter. She got out of it by wapping it just right with one of her front legs. She is pretty powerful, and furry, so the abundance of hair might have contributed.
Well, part of it too is not letting them be in the position that they can try to “wipe” it off with their legs. Keeping them moving helps.
Both of our dogs will throw themselves on the ground and paw at their faces when you stop IF YOU LET THEM, but if you don’t, all is well.
