Leash Walking Gear - Managing Unwanted Behavior
Any leash walking tool you use - body harness, flat collar, head halter, prong collar, choke chain, slip leash - is designed to manage a problem, typically pulling on leash.
What we choose to walk our dogs with comes down to our individual education on dog training tools, what we are comfortable using, and the problem we are trying to address.
Reliance on tools is where dog owners & trainers often fall short. We use a tool that works to manage the pulling but we don’t teach our dog what to do instead. When used correctly, management can lead to a problem behaviors begin extinguished, but it is often a slow and unpredictable journey. Teaching what we would like the dog to do is going to get you much greater results and have a more lasting effect on your dog’s behaviors.
Commonly, I hear people say that their dog walks great when they use tool X, but when tool X is not on the dog they are back to pulling on leash. All this says to me is that you have been managing a problem, but not teaching toward a solution.
My goal is to use management tools (harness, head halter, and flat collars are the only tools I choose to use) WHILE I am teaching my dogs to walk with me, then I want to fade out those extra management tools as quickly as I can. Ultimately, I want to walk my dogs on their flat collar and a 6 foot leash.
For my dogs, Nellie is now walked on her flat collar and a regular 6 foot leash. We started out on a harness, then transitioned once she learned that walking with me earned her the rewards she loves. She does not pull on her neighborhood walks at all anymore. Mango is now walked on a Gentle Leader. He is a young, strong, teenage dog who often gets overly stimulated on walks, so being able to control his head is a big win for me and allows me to teach him more quickly. We spent time conditioning him to the head halter and now he readily accepts it and is learning how to walk with me like his older sister. Once I am happy with his leash walking skills, we will fade out the head halter and transition to his flat collar.
Regardless of which tools you choose to use with your dog, it is important that you realize that the dog is who decides what is aversive, not you. If your tool of choice is not helping you in the teaching process, it is time to try something else. Proper use of our tools and excellent teaching is the recipe for fantastic leash walking with your four-legged friend!
