Gentle Leader Advice

[ewinston]

I just recently bought the Gentle Leader for my 11 month old Dane and he does pretty good when it is just him and me walking, but as soon as someone passes, i stop to talk to someone, or another dog is around he starts pulling and jumping up in the air and rolling around in the grass. I do not want to yank on him because I am affraid to hurt him so i do pull gently but this does not phase him. He walks everyday and has been extremely well socialized, but meeting new people and new dogs has not got old for him yet. Any advice for an extremely social puppy or how to correct this behavior with the Gentle Leader would be greatly appreciated.

[XcelDanes]

Id use martingale or some other collar.Im always scared of tweaking something in their necks with those gentle leads and head things.Consistant training is the best tool.Just keep working with him.

[ewinston]

He is getting better when walking. The pulling has almost stopped he just gets so excited when he sees someone or another dog and all his listening and training goes out the window. What is a martingale?

[XcelDanes]

Heres a picture in link its a training collar though the ones I buy are at petsmart and they dont have the flimsy plastic buckles mine are one peice.
http://www.things4yourdog.com/product/407064

[ewinston]

Thank you. I will definitely pick that up and try it out. I am worried out the Gentle Leader putting strain on his neck. I pull very gently when he is walking but it is when he is trying to get to something that he pulls himself and I am very affraid that he is going to hurt himself.

[XcelDanes]

Thats me Im always scared they'll hurt themselves with those.I dont trust thise plactic buckles with danes either so I buy the one peice ones from Pet Smart.

[kahluadanes]

Lisa had some excellant advice. Gentle leaders/haltis do have a place in the training world, however care has to be taken with Danes, Dobermans, etc due to neck injury..if they snap their heads around they can cause serious neck injury.
I ,like Lisa, like the martingale collars, although they ,like every other training aid, aren't for every dog or every dog/handler combo.
Training is the key.

Dale

[cailinarun]

I just recently bought the Gentle Leader for my 11 month old Dane and he does pretty good when it is just him and me walking, but as soon as someone passes, i stop to talk to someone, or another dog is around he starts pulling and jumping up in the air and rolling around in the grass. I do not want to yank on him because I am affraid to hurt him so i do pull gently but this does not phase him. He walks everyday and has been extremely well socialized, but meeting new people and new dogs has not got old for him yet. Any advice for an extremely social puppy or how to correct this behavior with the Gentle Leader would be greatly appreciated.

I used a Halti (they look the same as gentle leaders, but I don't know that for a fact) with Darwin starting when he was nearly 18 months old until we finally were certain of his leash manners when he was nearly 3 years old (he was leash trained very late due to injuries). If you are stopping to talk to someone, have the dog sit or lie down and drop treats periodically as long as he stays. This makes stops a welcome diversion for the dog. You can also do the same when a dog is passing.

I also used to scratch Darwin's nose when we stopped to talk to people. Whenever he had the Halti on, he wanted his nose scratched- if I didn't scratch it, then he'd roll around on the ground to scratch it.

Hope this helps!

[Zoeys Mom]

There is another head type collar that keeps them from snapping their neck around. It's called the Canny Collar.

http://www.cannyco.us/

[lwrees72]

All of these collars are tools, but become crutches. I used to use a training collar on my male. My breeder/obedience instructor challenged me to skip it on Kava. Instead to focus on proper leash training from the day she entered my house. I can easily walk her on a flat buckle collar and do not need a crutch.

Tools are just that, they are there to help you get the desired result. We should all strive to get that result naturally, not just rely on the tool. It will make for a better human/dog relationship, IMHO.

[cailinarun]

All of these collars are tools, but become crutches. I used to use a training collar on my male. My breeder/obedience instructor challenged me to skip it on Kava. Instead to focus on proper leash training from the day she entered my house. I can easily walk her on a flat buckle collar and do not need a crutch.

Tools are just that, they are there to help you get the desired result. We should all strive to get that result naturally, not just rely on the tool. It will make for a better human/dog relationship, IMHO.

I agree that these collars can become crutches and continued training is necessary until you CAN walk your Dane using a normal collar. However, I think it is more important for you to be confident about being able to control your dog- especially in public. For some of us, a half- trained Dane that is still growing outweighs us and can literally drag us where they want to go. In that case, for our safety, the dog's safety and the safety of the general public, using such a collar is necessary.

[lwrees72]

I never said that the collar is not necessary, I stated that people need to continue to work on obedience to drop the collar. With proper training, I can confidently attest to you that a training collar is not even needed. It just takes a little work.

[cailinarun]

Sorry, I mistook your comment that your trainer challenged you to train your current dog without using such a collar to mean that you disapproved of ever using such devices. I completely agree with your point that training should continue until such devices aren't needed and that the majority of the time, proper training does not require the use of a training collar. I guess that I was trying to make the point that not all training occurs at the proper time and not everyone has the strength/size to control a half-trained puppy. For example, Darwin wasn't leash trained until 18 months because of injuries. At that point he weighed 120lbs and dragged me across the street on my face on 2 occasions before I started using a Halti. I can imagine that people training rescues face similar situations.

[gr8danlvr1]

I prefer the prong collars. I tried to use the head halters, but did not like them. Only one of my dogs liked the head harness. Even then as soon as I put it on her she would put her head against my leg and keep it there for most of the walk. That is great for a perfect heel, but as soon as I took it off she new it was different and pulled out ahead again. I don't like using just the buckle collars to train because it puts so much pressure on the neck and spine every time you "snap" the leash to get them to stop pulling against it. With the prong collar they train themselves, every time they pull the collar immediately corrects them. You also have 2 degrees of training w/ the prong, the live ring and dead ring, one is for the more "difficult dog". W/ both my girls we started w/ the live ring and worked down to the dead ring as they learned to walk better on the leash. I always walk my girls w/ their prongs on and probably always will. While they are wonderfully leash trained there is always the odd off leash dog or something in the area I walk them in and I like knowing that if something like that came up I would have control. Not everyone likes the idea of prong collars, but for me they have been the best training tool.

[jeann1230]

Tools

Hi, I used in the past also a Halti. But I used it with two leashes. One leash was attached to the Halti another to a normal collar. That way I could easily correct my dog by reminding him gently to pay attention to my commands and make eye contact by pulling his head around to me. But should he decide to ignore this and jump forward or pull, I could correct him with a short pull of leash attached to the collar. Also so he was not in danger of hurting himself with the Halti. This worked for me with one dog (Leo 2) to get him proper leash trained.

My other boy (Luca 3) ignored both Halti and any collar and is as a whole much more thick-headed and tries to get his way. For him I use also a prong collar. The prongs are dull and the collar lays loosely around his neck, unless he jumps into the leash. But since he weighs ca. 180 lbs there is no other way to ensure he stays where he belongs, at my side at all times.

Greetings Jeannette