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Originally Posted by Ashley V  Have you ever used a gentle leader or a gentle leader easy walk? Smokey is a terrible puller and he's 13 lbs and strong. The gentle leader allows me to have more control over him with out hurting him and he listens a lot better. Some people look that the gentle leader and think that it is a collar, but it is not pulling on the throat. If you go into a store and look at one, you will see that the hook where you put the leash is at the bottom of the nose, so when your dog goes to pull, it pulls his/her nose down putting pressure on the nose and causes them to stop pulling. The clasp is not attached to the neck part at all. When put on correctly, the gentle leader is a great tool! It's worth a shot.
I would NOT use anything other then a gentle leader (or similar brand) or a harness on my dogs. In fact I got in a mini confrontation with a "trainer" at PetCo about that. She told me that if I wanted to be in her class that I have to use a collar and I walked away. I have to do what is best for MY dogs and their health. I don't care if it will take me longer to train them, their health is more important to me than that. |
Thanks for the suggestion. I will check out the gentle leader. I will be doing puppy agility classes with Lexi in March. It is only for 4 weeks. I am not afraid to stand up for my puppy. I just thought my concern about the collar thing was just me being the worry parent type. I do have the smallest dog in class! Sometimes I think the trainers are so used to the big dogs they try to treat them all the same.
Our previous dog was a big lab, so this little dog thing is new to me. Even at puppy play time in puppy class I was constantly watching the big dogs and the trainer had to scold the big dogs alot for being over aggressive with her. Yea they were learning at the expense of my little puppy! I would like to find a class that was for mid to small dogs only. Sorry no labs, or retrievers!