Harness for me.

It gives me so much more control over Benson, and also reduces his pulling by at least half. As soon as I walk him on the collar again, he's all over the place.

I have a dog that pulls quite badly. I walk him in his flat collar most days - if he pulls I stop and he knows that unless he is by myside we don't go forward.

I have a Dogmatic headcollar that I use if he is going to be on the lead in an exciting environment or if I only have time for a short walk and don't have time to stop if he pulls. Although the dogmatic definitely stops him pulling the problem is still there when you take it off - which is why I try to make him walk nicely in a flat collar, we're getting there!

No, no problems I don't use a half check on my lot (although I have used them in the past). I just wondered and to be honest, once other people said about them I meant to open it up as a general thing rather than one that is specific to you. A lot of people do use them further up the neck, so the training methods involved would be different to the way that you use them, thats all. Just being nosey!

I voted flat, but mine have 1/2 chokes, the reason....skye chews all leather collars off the others. 1/2 choke means that they don't pinch or choke, and mine (the two girls at least) are rarely on leads.

I use a harness on Max but purely because he has an extremely sensitive trachea, and if he gets excited and starts to pull or lunges at something, he ends up coughing like there's no tomorrow!

I use a flat collar because I use a harness for 'whatever' walking. I'm confident I could teach loose leash walking in any, but my dog will be required to walk on a loose leash in a collar for pet therapy program, so thought teaching it now on a collar is good practice.

When training to walk to heel I always use a flat, close fitting collar on Molly, and a mostly a flat, close fitting collar on Roxy.

However, as Roxy has a long neck and a wee head she can slip flat collars easily, even if they are close fitting. Not that she would slip them now though, but I wouldn't take the risk when walking on roads and in circumstances when she needs to be on a lead. So, I use combi collars on Roxy.

At first I used the combi collars with the chain loop, until I discovered they were available with the material loop and I changed to them. They're excellent for Roxy. I've not fitted it tight on her so as it's chokes her, i've just adjusted it enough so she can't slip out if it, it's not too tight on her.

Kali and Snorri undertook their initial training with flat collars, even some time with full chokes (which I abandoned, as they didn't seem to mind strangling themselves ). I didin't come across head-collars (Haltis) until it was too late. When I have a new puppy (which will happen, but, sadly, not until Kali has passed on), I will use Haltis from the start. However, I hope to have Kali about for considerably longer, so I may have changed my mind by then!

Snorri

I use a half-check but above all I use my encouraging voice and make myself the focus. I have to move on to where my dog is working at a distance away from me and there'll be no lead & collar to help then. So I do lots of turns and changes of direction at a reasonably good pace and encourage the dog to be with me. Its much much easier to actually show people as ive tried to explain this by phone before and the lady just got totally confused lol It doesnt take long before the dog is looking for me to 'lead' it and stops faffing about with its own agenda. Hope this doesnt sound harsh cos im very kind to my dogs but training is training and fun & games is different,, once the dog is attentive even the games are more controllable and everything that I go on to teach them has a firm control basis from the onset..

Just incase any one is wondering...I call half-checks combi collars!