Gentle Leader Headcollar

When I had rotator cuff surgery, I was told I couldn't hold my dog leashes on that side until everything had healed. However, I needed to walk my dogs. I bought Gentle Leaders for my two standard poodles, both of which pulled badly and wanted to chase rabbits and deer, plentiful in our area. I learned very quickly that the halter needed to match their own coloring, as they could see this band across their noses and did not like it. Once I had buff halters on my white dogs, they settled down. They still occasionally tried to paw the straps off their faces, but they got over it. The wonderful thing about Gentle Leaders are that if the halter is sized and fitted properly, it can't be pawed off. Much to my delight, I found that I could hold BOTH leashes on the surgery side, my arm still in a sling, when my dogs were wearing the Gentle Leaders. Our walks were wonderful! I lost only two days after surgery before we were back to walking several miles a day.Gentle Leaders are much better for dogs than the Easy Walk Harness by the same company. When researching which halter or harness to buy, I came across an article by a vet on the Easy Walk Harness. The vet discussed the anatomy of dogs, how most of their movement and body weight is handled by the front legs, shoulders and chests, and how even a very loose Easy Walk Harness causes them to minimize their shoulder movement in ways that distort their development and the proper use of chest, shoulder and leg muscles. The harness comes down very far over the dog's shoulders and applies pressure over key muscles for normal canine activity. Over time, I've observed that dogs who are on the Easy Walk Harness for every walk, especially long walks and hikes, do have narrower chests and underdeveloped shoulder muscles. People tend to leave these harnesses when letting the dog off leash, which distorts normal physiological development and movement even more.The Gentle Leader can easily be removed from the dog's nose and left hanging around their necks while they are off leash. It's a small item, so it also can be stuffed in a pocket or attached to the leash handle as well. If a dog tends to walk more easily on leash after it's had some exercise, the Gentle Leader can be used as if it's a regular collar without the nose piece and still gives slightly more control because a proper fit up behind the ears makes the dog more responsive than a collar that slides further down the neck. The other option is to just let it hang off the nose and use the regular collar. The Easy Walk Harness is harder to deal with if the owner doesn't want to use it for part of a walk, and doesn't provide a way to leave it on the dog without impeding movement and hindering proper muscle movement and development.I've seen questions about using the Gentle Leader with a retractable leash. I've learned that if I use the Gentle Leader with a retractable lead, it should have a weaker pull, or the dog gets used to the constant tension on their heads and the head halter quickly becomes less effective, at least on my dogs. Since there is always tension, my dogs end up pulling more because there is no way for them to make the tension cease through behavior, except staying by my side at arm's length. My dogs have never made that choice on their own. When I use a 6-foot leash or a weaker retractable leash than I would normally use (e.g. one for a 44-70 pound dog with my 65-pound dog), they have all been much more responsive to the Gentle Leader and my control. I use my strong retractible leads only when I'm NOT going to be using the Gentle Leader, or I lock them into a 6 to 7-foot length to stop the tension on their heads except when they pull. If you've found that the Gentle Leader doesn't work to control your dog's behavior on leash and you are using a strong retractable leash, that may be why. Try it with a size that borders on being too weak for your dog, or with a 6-foot leash.

The ONLY thing that helps stop my dog from pulling...tried it all! I have a 75lb Irish Goldendoodle...and he is exactly like an Irish Setter hunting dog...the nose NEVER stops! He hates it though, but he's used to it. I LOVE it...my dog's pulling has injured me (shoulder/rotator cup, wrist, and hip)...this stops it NOW! Things I tried before Gentle Lead that didn't work...obedience training, prong collars, Martingale collars, treats/rewards...nothing worked...his prey drive and hunting instinct is just too strong! The Gentle Lead seems flimsy, like it won't be strong enough to control him, but it's not about that....it's about how you control it. It kinda reminds me of a horse harness, like how you lead a horse around. There's no harm to my dog either! Only use it for walking though...it's not made for tie-outs! I highly recommend!

I have two labs. We tried to get the gentle leader to work for at least 6-9 months with my older more docile lab to deal with pulling. He HATED it and we figured he would eventually get used to it. Wrong. He would stop every few feet to roll on the ground to attempt to get it off of his face. Treats didn't work. Nothing worked. Though admittedly, we didn't carefully follow the instructions with the video with him. Eventually, we used the perfect dog training dvd set with plastic prong collar and now he walks great.Fast forward several years and I am now pregnant with my first child. In the past few months our youngest dog, who is not only a constant puller but lunges at other dogs, squirrels, people, you name it, pulled me down to the ground twice despite being in a prong and working with him on the perfect dog training techniques. At our wit's end, we decided to try th gentle leader on him. We followed the instructions to a T and didn't even take him out for a walk in it until he had worn it for at least a week in the house wth lots of treats and praise, etc. Our first couple of short walks, I thought it was going to be the same hopeless story -- he was pawing at his face and woudl refuse to walk as he was so focused on getting it off. But then my husband suggested a distraction -- giving him his tennis ball (with which he is OBSESSED) while walking. That did the trick. For the first several walks, we had him carry it the entire time. Then we transitioned to holding it and when he started acting up, showing it to him and giving it to him as necessary to get him to stop pawing. Now I can just walk him in the gentle leader with only periodic stopping to paw.Its literally night and day. I was scared I was not going to be able to walk him at all once the baby came -- a stroller with two giant dogs, one of whom lunges at everything? No way. Now when he lunges, he just looks like some crazy rodeo horse because all it does is pull his head down rather than pull on me. Its really so incredible. Also, he seems like a much happier walker. He used to walk with his head down, no tail wag, and just charging ahead. Now, I think perhaps because we have established the alpha role or at least caused him to be somewhat submissive, he is much happier -- head high and tail wagging. And I feel so much better that he is not constantly pulling through his prong collar.BOTTOM LINE -- this collar does not work for all dogs. But for those that it does work for, its a miracle. And at $15, totally worth trying out for your dog. Give it some time and try distractions if your dog has toys, etc. that s/he loves. Best of luck!