[Dailydrool] Harness Vs. Leashes

[rebecca lando]

We have tried pretty much every type of collar or harness on Humphrey since
we adopted him last January. He pulled too much on a regular collar, so we
tried the Gentle Leader, the one that goes on his face. We all hated that
and quickly retired it. Then we tried a regular harness, which definitely
only encouraged him to pull harder. Next, we tried the Gentle Leader
harness, which works incredibly well - for those unfamiliar, it cinches in
the front instead of over the shoulders, and when the dog pulls, it brings
his front legs together so he can't move forward while pulling. I'd highly
recommend this harness for anyone with a dog who can't use a collar or
anything on their throats, but is still a strong puller. However, we found
that it could be kind of annoying on such a low dog, since the leash
attaches at his chest; if the leash was too slack, he'd trip on it and get
tangled up. So for over a year we've been using a plastic pinch collar. It
works the same as the metal ones, but the prongs are rounded plastic, so
they're not as sharp and the pinch produced by them isn't as severe. Because
of the solid plastic, the collar also doesn't look like a pinch collar, so
people don't stop to lecture us on how we're abusing our dog (which can
happen quite a lot in NYC).

Here's a link to the collar we use. We love it and so does Humphrey - when
he sees us holding it, he runs over and sits down for his walk. He does
still pull a bit, but not nearly as much and he's much more responsive to
our leadership on walks.

*http://tinyurl.com/d57njw*

In addition to the pinch collar, we have trained Humphrey to stick to us
with the command "walk with me" (for some reason, 'heel' never caught on).
This was remarkably easy to do. Here are the steps:

1. Teach your dog to make eye contact with you. Put him in a sit, and hold a
treat out. Bring the treat up to your forehead, making sure the dog's eyes
follow the treat, while saying "Look at me." When the dog looks in your
eyes, reward him with the treat.
2. On a walk, pull your dog to your side (heel position) and say, "With me"
or "Walk with me." The dog should fall in line with you. While walking,
bring the treat up to your eyes, pulling your dog's eye contact with it.
When he looks you in the eye, say "With me," again, and then give him the
treat. Do NOT stop walking to give the treat; the whole point is to keep
your dog moving at your side.

This works really well for us - if Humphrey starts to pull on his leash, we
just say "With me," and he falls right into line. Then we can reward him
with a treat, rather than have to bribe him away from whatever he was
pulling for. He can walk for a solid 5 minutes at our side, attentively
watching our faces, without needing a reminder. Sometimes he'll even come to
our sides and look up at us hoping we'll give him a reward for good
initiative - we enforce this by giving him the command ("Walk with me,") and
then giving him the treat.

You can also add a clicker to the "Walk with me" command training, but I've
never seemed to have enough hands to work a leash, a clicker, and a treat at
the same time.

Drool to all in need, especially HOP on their loss of Gus.

- Rebecca, Kit, Humphrey & Professor Bix (who is too slow to need anything
other than a regular collar these days)
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