# Gentle Leader, questions



## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

No less than 5 people have recommended this to me, so I went on amazon and ordered it. My 5 mo pup pulls a lot. He's small, and should remain small, but I hate that choking sound he makes if he pulls at the leash. I had read that it can be bad for pug or pug crosses to pull at a leash because it might cause strain on their eyes. Since he's half pug I definitely don't want to cause eye problems.

Anyway, after that I got to reading that the gentle leader can possibly lead to eye problems itself. Something about it having a strap that goes under the eyes. Some of the reviews I've read people said that their dog's eyes are red and swollen after using it. So now I'm concerned about this. I haven't received it yet, but I'm wondering if I should just send it back and rely on other methods to discourage pulling.

What I've been doing now is just stopping when he pulls, giving the leash a quick bit of tension and waiting for him to turn back to me. I read about this, but I don't know if I'm doing it correctly. Or, I will stop take a few steps to the side of him to get him to change directon. Kind of silly of me, but I will often say, "loose leash, loose leash" when I'm doing this and if he lets the leash slack I'll give him some praise. This often works, unless the beagle in him has seen or smelled something irresistible. 

He (we) are starting a basic obedience class feb 5, so I can ask for more advice then, but any advice on the gentle leader would be appreciated!


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

Is this a nomenclature problem? 

I see it a lot where a head halter is called a gentle leader, but that's not the tool being talked about. It sounds to me you have something like this?








This is more commonly referred to as a head halter, but is also called a gentle leader

When maybe this was the suggestion?








To confuse you, this too is called a gentle leader, but more specifically, the "easy walk".

My guess is you ordered a head halter when you wanted the easy walk gentle leader. 

How am I doing?


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

Oh, right. Sorry about the confusion. This is what I ordered, and what was recommended to me. http://www.amazon.com/Gentle-Leader...&qid=1359564022&sr=8-5&keywords=Gentle+leader

Maybe I should return it for the halter.



Curbside Prophet said:


> Is this a nomenclature problem?


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

Perhaps the better search term is "easy walk harness." 

I would recommend this over putting anything on the dog's head, especially for your concerns. Hope that helps.


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

Great. Thank you for the information!


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## HollowHeaven (Feb 5, 2012)

Curbside Prophet said:


> Perhaps the better search term is "easy walk harness."


I'm going to recommend the harness a lot faster than any of the "gentle" leaders. They are dangerous in their own right (if the dog pulls or jerks the head it can cause spinal damage, damage to the throat, the muzzle, etc. I've seen them leave deep imprints in dogs' muzzles and pull up over dogs' eyes.
A harness is safer overall, and the dog is less likely to freak out over it.


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

HollowHeaven said:


> I'm going to recommend the harness a lot faster than any of the "gentle" leaders. They are dangerous in their own right (if the dog pulls or jerks the head it can cause spinal damage, damage to the throat, the muzzle, etc. I've seen them leave deep imprints in dogs' muzzles and pull up over dogs' eyes.
> A harness is safer overall, and the dog is less likely to freak out over it.


Yes, I don't want any of those things to happen. It surprises me that so many people recommended them. I'm pretty sure I got the product they recommended as some of them mentioned the thing going over their face, and some commented that it kind of looked like a muzzle, but wasn't. Oh well. At least I will be able to return it.


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## RabbleFox (Jan 23, 2013)

We use this on my dog. It was an excellent training tool and he still wears it when we go some place new that could be over stimulating. I would NOT recommend this for a dog who "lunges" and you are not supposed to leave a dog on a tie out with a Head Collar/halter on. There is a desensitization process that needs to occur in order for the halter to work properly. Don't rush your dog into it. Harnesses actually make it more comfortable to pull so I don'y really like them. The halter is kind of a "quick fix". You should ideally also be doing flat collar work so that you can wean off the halter.

If your dog is simply pulling, not lunging, then I would suggest this.

Note: Many people think that it is a muzzle. When I walked Pepper with it everyone asked me if he was a biter. It was annoying having to tell literally every people you meet that your dog is friendly and is just learning how to walk properly.


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

Hm, okay. Well, I went ahead and ordered a halter too. They were both fairly inexpensive, so I will save the head halter and talk to the trainers in the class about it. If I do decide to use it, I want to make sure I do it properly and that I can tell if it is irritating Lenny's eyes.

And yes, he pulls. Doesn't lunge. And I don't intend on using it (halter or head halter) forever. Just for training. If it turns out I don't need either, even for training, that would be just fine!


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## RabbleFox (Jan 23, 2013)

Spazmelda said:


> And yes, he pulls. Doesn't lunge. And I don't intend on using it (halter or head halter) forever. Just for training. If it turns out I don't need either, even for training, that would be just fine!


 

Pepper's eyes are set higher up on his face thus we never really have to worry about the halter irritating him in that way. My uncle's dog, whom I am training currently, has lower set eyes and it does ride up a little. Your trainers will definitely have an opinion and if they do approve of the halter, they will probably let you know some tips and tricks for fitting. A well fitted halter shouldn't ride up that much.


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

Okay, cool. I'll just wait and see what they say.

It's interesting, Lenny looks a lot like the dog they have the head halter on in the picture curbside prophet posted. Though his nose is maybe a tad longer.


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## Candydb (Jul 16, 2011)

Spazmelda, we had Boxers for years on the head halter (I think the brand is called Gentle Leader), there is a certain desensitization process that needs to take place, and then it works fine-- now when we got a giant schnauzer she just would never accept it (would just fling herself wildly about like a fresh hooked fish ) so it did nt work for her... Never did go for the easy walk, (why bother getting a pedigreed dog with excellent conformation and a gait to die for, if you are going to hobble the poor thing with that harness, it was a against my principles), and with some obedience school alotta practice, we did the prong collar then now shes fine on a regular choke chain for walks...
Note, once used to their head halter, the boxers would just walk very nicely on lead, you could walk both 75lb dogs with your pinky finger.... so it can be a great tool...


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## Kobismom (Dec 17, 2012)

Our puppy trainer suggested a gentle leader for our mini aussie, who lunges, pulls and chokes himself on the standard collar and the body harness. He's good on the collar and harness when we're in a non-distracted places (walks really well on leash, doesn't pull, listens to training commands), but when there's a lot of stimuli (like a park, cars driving by, or even people walking by), all bets are off and as much as we try consistency in not rewarding these behaviors and even walking away from such stimulation, he gets a mind of his own and refuses to settle down. Even at the last puppy classes, the trainer was showing us how to settle him down gently, and Kobi didn't want to respond to her commands/gestures either.

We bought the gentle leader last night and watched the video from beginning to end. We decided to try it, used a lot of treats to put it on him and size him for it. He struggled a bit from us, but didn't run or becoming aggressive. I walked him on the leash in the house, giving him more treats. He tries to rub it off with his paws, but it's intermittent and goes between playing with a toy and rubbing it off. I took him on a walk around our complex last night and while he's not thrilled about it, he didn't lunge once and was really able to quicken his walking pace to keep up with a normal human stride. 

This morning was the real test... normally, my BF and Kobi will walk me down to the car to say goodbye as I leave for work at 5:30am (*YAWN*)... normally, Kobi will pull on his leash trying to get to whichever of us isn't holding the leash. Unfortunately, because I'm on a timeline to get to work, we don't have the time to train him properly in that moment, which I'm sure is adding to the problem. We used the gentle leader this morning and he walked directly at my BFs side without the lunging, pulling and whining he normally does in the morning. He still paws at the nosepiece, but he's able to eat and swallow normally, as the video indicated.

We take it off 10-15 minutes after every walk, so he gets used to it and can associate it with treats, toys and other positive experiences. It's new to him, so I expect some resistance, but in 24 hours, we are noticing improvement.


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## Spazmelda (Jan 27, 2013)

Very cool. I'm glad it's working for Kobi. I took both the harness and the head collar to our first obedience class Tuesday night, and the trainers said both were good, recommended using the harness first if needed, but that we may not need either.

After starting to learn clicker training, I don't think we are going to need them either. I've been doing the clicker/treat training for attention and for walking nicely, coming back to me when there is a distraction, and Lenny is doing very well. He's hardly pulling at all any more and walking much of the time with a nice loose leash. I think another week of this and he will be very good on a leash. I might return the head collar or keep it just in case. Not sure yet.



Kobismom said:


> Our puppy trainer suggested a gentle leader for our mini aussie, who lunges, pulls and chokes himself on the standard collar and the body harness. He's good on the collar and harness when we're in a non-distracted places (walks really well on leash, doesn't pull, listens to training commands), but when there's a lot of stimuli (like a park, cars driving by, or even people walking by), all bets are off and as much as we try consistency in not rewarding these behaviors and even walking away from such stimulation, he gets a mind of his own and refuses to settle down. Even at the last puppy classes, the trainer was showing us how to settle him down gently, and Kobi didn't want to respond to her commands/gestures either.
> 
> We bought the gentle leader last night and watched the video from beginning to end. We decided to try it, used a lot of treats to put it on him and size him for it. He struggled a bit from us, but didn't run or becoming aggressive. I walked him on the leash in the house, giving him more treats. He tries to rub it off with his paws, but it's intermittent and goes between playing with a toy and rubbing it off. I took him on a walk around our complex last night and while he's not thrilled about it, he didn't lunge once and was really able to quicken his walking pace to keep up with a normal human stride.
> 
> ...


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## Kobismom (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks...it's still not perfect by any means. Tonight we took him on a walk using the gentle leader. He threw a tantrum not wanting to budge in inch! We just sat there and didn't say a word until he calmed down before proceeding the walk. He did a lot of whimpering during most of the walk, mainly when he wanted to stop and randomly sniff things and I would give him a gentle tug. Then, he would get resistant with me as to say, "I want to stop!" When he did walk well for a bit, we'd stop and let him sniff around. It wasn't as good as last night, but it's better than is history of lunging at passing cars.


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## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

I used one of those 'head collars' once on Syd. Because she pulls and I generally do not like using a regular collar when she's on leash. She didn't move a single inch with that thing on her head, so we went back to the harness. Works perfect for us. I'll always recommend a harness over anything else - but that's me!


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