<p>Has anyone here used the Gentle Leader for dog training? If so, how has it worked for you? Has it proven to make dog training successful for you? I have a puppy that needs some serious training so that her owner (me) will no longer feel defeated. The vet suggested the Gentle Leader headcollar. I purchased one yesterday afternoon and have just watched the DVD. Any additional pointers?</p>
<p>I took our puppy to obedience classes at the local kennel association. Their approach was to reward good behavior and ignore bad behavior. We got great results with this method. For example, for the pulling problem (which I assume is the reason you got the head lead), we were taught to stop walking every time dog pulls, and not to resume walking until the dog correctly positioned itself next to the left foot. Rewards initially were small bits of food along with patting and praise, but later you can skip the food. I have also seen some people use a favorite toy as a reward. Good luck!</p>
<p>I tried the Gentle Leader and it does work. My dog hated it, though, and never really did get used to it. He is a very spoiled Golden Retriever. What I found that works better is called a Training Halter by Sporn. It is sort of a harness that goes under their front legs. Their mouth and head has nothing on it. It allows me to control my 120 pound dog easily, and he doesn’t object to it at all.</p>
<p>Thanks. I will keep those things in mind. I have been working with Scout (my puppy) for a while today and she’s doing very well with sit, stay and come. Our other dog, a three-year-old Corgi was so easy to train that I didn’t realize the job I have ahead of me. Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>what is the breed of the puppy?</p>
<p>She is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix. She was found with six siblings by a rescue group and we got her at an “Adopt a Pet” fair. We’ve had her for a few weeks and have been using the same training methods we used with our Corgi. She has done exceptionally well with crate training and shows signs of promise with other commands, but at times is so hyper, I just feel like I may pull my hair out. Today has been an especially good day, though. I am working with her on becoming less mouthy and I’m also very anxious to get her to stop jumping on us. She will be a fairly large dog and I feel the need to nip it (the jumping) in the bud very quickly. She’s very sweet, though, and just wants to be with me always. She thinks she’s a lap dog which could be a bit painful when she’s fully grown.</p>
<p>I use a Gentle Leader with my standard poodle whenever we go out into situations where I need her at my side. She doesn’t mind it much (after a year or using it). </p>
<p>My trainer’s motto when Elly was a puppy was “a tired dog is a well-behaved dog.” Do you have a local off-leash park where your dog can play with other dogs? Lots of exercise–an hour of vigourous exercise every day–will make a huge difference.</p>
<p>I HIGHLY recommend the book <em>Culture Clash</em> by Jean MacDonald for basic dog training help and to help you understand how dogs learn.</p>
<p>We have a St. Bernard named Moose that we inherited from my sister at the age of two (the dog, not the sister). He weighs 150 pounds and when we got him, he went wherever he wanted and pulled us along, usually at a run. It was horrible! We got a face harness at the pet store (I think it’s the Haltee brand) and it made a huge difference. Immediately, he started to walk with us, never in front of us. Whenever he did lunge toward something, the halter turned his head back toward us, and dogs can’t/won’t go forward unless they are looking forward. I highly recommend it. He got used to it in a couple of days and now we walk him every evening with no problems.</p>
<p>My family also has a spoiled golden retriever who we first used Gentle Leader, then the halter, to train. He’s much better now, but I don’t know whether it is causation or correlation (he’s about 4 now).</p>
<p>I use a ‘halti’ - sounds like the gentle leader. It’s basically a halter for a dog, used with a regular snap collar. I love it. My terrier could really put up a fuss while on a walk (we’ve done more obedience training than I care to recall) but the halti works beautifully. He doesn’t fight me, just comes along. It was recommended by our trainer. </p>
<p>Oddly enough, a couple years ago I was told you were not allowed to have a dog using a halti on the grounds of an AKC sanctioned show. People often mistake a halti for a muzzle (it does NOT impede a dog’s ability to bite, it just happens to have straps across the nose) and the fear was that people would think the dogs wearing haltis were mean or uncontrollable (!). I’ve heard they’re very popular in Britain (and they treat their dogs royally). </p>
<p>Really, I used to feel like I had a ton of bricks at the end of the leash before the halti. Now I feel like I’m going for a walk with my dog - together.</p>
<p>We have a jumper too. We use a squirt gun filled with water. He does not like it at all. </p>
<p>Something we find difficult is the barking when people come to the house. Its a fine line. the barking is good. We like knowing when someone is around the house…its getting the dogs to stop without thinking the initial barking was bad. Its what we want them to do. But of course, when someoe broke into my Hs car, they slept right through it. Sigh</p>
<p>To my knowledge, the AKC has no problem with either a Gentle Leader or a Halti. I spent today at an AKC-sanctioned event, with Elly on a Gentle Leader. However, you can’t use either of them in place of a conventional lead in either obedience or conformation events. Dogs are leashless in agility, so it doesn’t apply in any case. The CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and Delta Dog testing must be done with a conventional leash and collar.</p>
<p>I realized belatedly that I had the wrong name for the author of The Culture Clash; it’s Jean Donaldson.</p>
<p>The best training for jumping is consistent rewards for not jumping (i.e., the dog gets a treat only when his butt is firmly planted on the ground) AND the person leans in and steps toward the dog when the dog starts to jump up–this works because most dogs get rewarded by the person stepping back, which in dog language sends the message that jumping is okay. You can also teach the dog that when someone enters the room, treats appear on its rug.</p>
<p>My dog also barks when people come to the house. I approach her, say thank you, tell her to sit, give her a treat for sitting–and by then she knows I think the people are okay. But she also barks only the first time people come–after that she knows them.</p>
<p>Our Beardie has the jumping gene so we’re trying to work with him in classes.</p>
<p>Off-topic – Does anyone have/use/know about pet insurance? We got the literature from AKC and Petco, but any firsthand experiences? Thanks</p>
<p>I have a border collie-aussie mix that we adopted from the “pound” three years ago. “Reese” is amazingly smart and very energetic and “guards” her “herd” (AKA US!!) very well (we have not been eaten by a school bus…AKA “big yellow bear” yet, I’ll have you know!). I had to have major spinal surgery last summer and was very worried about being able to control Reese if she got excited about something or someone outside. The vet recommended we get the gentle leader and leave it on her with a short lead during the time she is in the house. Her breed tends to be very dominant, so the vet pointed out that just getting her in a head-down (or submissive) position would curb her attempts to herd us or otherwise run our lives. We can do that easily with the gentle leader (with the lead attached), and it has done wonders. And when she wants to go for a walk outside, she picks up the leash in her mouth and hands me the other end!</p>
<p>The Gentle Leader and Halti seem to be a great solution - fingertip control. However, it makes it very very easy to accidentally wrench the dogs neck if the get excited or pull. They don’t weigh as much as we do, so it is just like picking up a child by the arm, which can injure the shoulder.</p>
<p>With 30 years being hypersensitive about lameness in horses and 8 years watching my competition agility dogs closely, I always try to prevent injuries. Dogs are susceptible to the same aches, pains, and misalignments that we are. I take my dogs to a veterinary acupuncturist/chiropractor during competition season, and it makes a big difference. I also have learned dog massage, helps alot. </p>
<p>For additional control when necessary, I prefer a 2" wide harness (“martingale”) collar, such as are used on lure coursing dogs. When the dog is not pulling, the collar is loose. When the dog pulls, the collar tightens. However, it spreads the pressure out over a greater area and is not as likely to harm the dog.</p>
<p>Yulsie,
I’m very interested in finding out more about agility training for my aussie/bc mix. She is very intelligent and eager to please…I just don’t know how to train her! </p>
<p>Any tips for finding good agility training in the Atlanta area (North-east of town)?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Janey is that you?</p>
<p>I used the gentle leader for my 6-moth-old yellow lab, and she dislike it, she will rolling around on the groud very often to try to get rid of it…</p>
<p>Cookie is very smart, and behave well within the house, she already learned many commands (sit, down, rollover, crowd, shakehand, get-feeding-bowl etc and knows how to retrieve…but she will always get hyper whenever she sees other people or dogs, she will run into them doesn’t matter how hard we try to hold the leash…so we got this gentle leader hoping it will make outside walk a little easier…</p>
<p>The first couple days, it worked very well, it’s so much easier to hold her and she seems much quite, busy on trying to get rid of the gentle leader…about a week or so, she starts to ignore the pain, pull very hard to wherever she wants to go, which caused a lot of scraches on her eyes and around the nose, some part even show some bleeding sign, it could be part of my fault though, I didn’t tie the leader tight enough for worrying it will make Cookie too uncomfortable… so we stopped using the gentle leader …</p>
<p>Just a experience to share</p>
<p>ChurchMusicMom: This training facility is where several people in my Agility Poodle group train: <a href=“http://www.siriusdogagility.com/[/url]”>http://www.siriusdogagility.com/</a></p>
<p>aMother: your dog sounds like he’s starved for a chance to play with other dogs. Do you have an off-leash facility anywhere near you? </p>
<p>It took me quite a while to persuade my dog that the Gentle Leader was a good thing. She gets lots of treats and she gets to go really cool places when she has it on–and we only use it sometimes. It needs to be very tight behind the ears and under the chin (hard to buckle) and just loose enough to get a finger underneath across the nose. You’ll also want to use a fairly light-weight leash so that the dog doesn’t have a constant pull on his head.</p>