I should`nt have read that with a mouth full of coffee

My 2 have been going to training classes for 18 months now. Individually they can walk to heel on a slack lead or off lead. Together - well they CAN do it, but on a walk (as they weigh about 6 stone each) I use a gentle leader. This gives me full control of them, because if they DID decided to take off I would have absolutely no chance of stopping them with their combined weight. I tried a Halti (rode up into their eyes and they hated it) a Dogmatic (was very good, but they managed to chew it apart where it joins underneath, and it is expensive to replace) so tried a Gentle Leader as a stop gap measure, and it worked. It doesn't ride up into their eyes and they are comfortable with it. I use it as a safety measure more than anything on a walk out where there is maybe heavy traffic or cats (they do 'leave' when I tell them to, but if one springs out in front of them, their natural chase instinct takes over)

QUOTE=Steve Wishart;1398717The halti should only really be used as a last resort, or as something to use inbetween training.

No! No! No! Please remember this is only someone`s opinion! And mine is that you use what is right for your dog!

If you have a big enough garden, or house for that matter, try and lead train him there. He knows all of those smells and he is immensely more receptive to you at home. If you can master it at home, it won't take too much effort trying to replicate it away from home.

Where do you want your dog to walk nicely? In your lounge? No! So train him where you want the behaviour to apply. I lead train my dogs walking the streets Ergo they are good in the street!


In essence, if you are only trying to leash train him over the park with other dogs he wants to play with and near smells he wants to sniff, he won't pay attention long enough at all, no matter how many of his favourite treats you brought with you.[/QUOTE]

I lead- train my dogs for a few minutes in the park when they`ve had a run. This gets them used to the idea that they don`t alway have their freedom to play around other dogs

In regard to the poll - I think the harness or whatever depends on the build and character of both dog and owner. You wouldn`t use a flat collar with a boisterous large breed and frail owner. Or a headcollar with a child who might jerk it and hurt the dog.
So I haven`t voted.

I haven't voted sorry...because one...I got confused with the answers at the very beginning...sorry must of missed something, or the after effects of last nights celebrations
And secondly because I do have harnesses (rarely used now)... now we just use collars...but I am mostly a non-lead walker, but I do keep the leads round my neck incase they are needed.

Hi Leanne,

I use harnesses with my dogs because, as Patch said, they feel less restricted and are more recpetive to training.

When we got Bryan he didn't know how to walk on a lead so it took a long time to get him to where he is now. We started out with a normal collar and lead and used the stop start method. This got us nowhere.

So I got a Canny Collar which does work very well, but I felt it was much too restrictive for my dog (not to say it isn't a good product, I just wan't keen on it personally). I've heard bad reports about Halti's because it's poosible for dogs to back out of them.

With the harness he's visibly more relaxed on lead walking. Like Lene said, clicker training is really useful (I started this recently) and helps the dog to focus on you much more.

So, IMO, go with a comfortable trail harness and maybe try some clicker training

lol, well, there ya go Leanne, theres some more 'different' opinions for you to pick your way through.

Clicker training is a good idea, but I only rarely use it as a bridging stimulus, if I am unable to feed the dog a small treat whilst he is doing the behaviour, to reinforce the command. Such as having something in his mouth.

Again, do what is comfortable for you and your dog when it comes to training

*awaits further comments from OP pedantically picking his post apart that will also be ignored, lol*

I haven't voted as what has worked on one dog has not worked on another. Also it depends what you do with your dogs when we did working trials a harness meant full speed tracking so would be useless for walking.
Also depends why you want it, to teach the dog not to pull?, in which case I'd say none of them, or to be sure youwould be in control if a problem arose in which case you need to try them out.
Must say when I've had puppies as opposed to rescues, I've heel trained them free before training on lead.

Well I have had 4 dogs and used different on each, Storm was a lot better on a halti, Jake was a nightmare on everything but a harness, Star has walked perfect on a normal collar while Skye is a nightmare on all though slightly better on a normal collar. But saying that all of them(jake aside) are good offlead.

I think it shows that all dogs are different and there is no one size fits all.

Steve, you're really not doing yourself any favours with these type of comments