Anybody have any experience with the "gentle-leader" dog walking device?
- Thread starter TheGLOV
- Start date
We bought one for our English Springer Spaniel pup. It made a huge difference immediately. She used to lunge and pull on the leash and it would pull her nose down and almost completely stopped that behavior. My wife still uses it on the dog who is now four but Gracie, our springer, has mellowed enough that I use a flat leash.
These are worth every penny! If you have a strong willed dog, it will make walking them a lot more pleasant. It doesn’t really train them to walk beside you, but they won’t pull excessively on the leash.
Interrobang, actually no. It's just your girlfriend keeps pulling like a sled dog when we go for walks sir!
Any of your personal reviews/experiences would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Buy a prong collar and learn the proper way to fit it and use it to correct behavior. That way you actually have a well behaved dog rather than an uncomfortable one.
Just get a bigger yard then you won’t have to take the dog for a walk.
wb, not familiar at all with a 'prong' collar sir.
I'll have to research it.
Any more info/insight would be helpful.
Thanks!
A pronged collar is just that it has prongs that face inside toward the dog. I’ve seen them in metal or plastic. Basically if the dog pulls on the collar too much the prongs dig in and he feels a little pain and stops. I’ve heard the humane society approves them
Watch a couple of Caesar reruns. He covers this all the time. There are no bad dogs, just bad handlers
When you dog starts to pull, jerk the leash, release, and say heel, show him where you want him, even make him sit at first. Then start to walk when he pulls again jerk ,release ,‘heel’. Repeat repeat repeat but remember the dog wants to please you. He’ll get it but you must be consistent
Watch Caesar
As sluggo said, it’s a metal collar with prongs pointing inward. You have to remove links until it fits snuggly against the dogs neck when you put it on (and you put it on by clasping them together, not by putting it over the dog’s face, it should be too tight to do that and you don’t want to hurt it’s eyes or anything).
If you have it appropriately tight (having a loose prong collar is the #1 wrong way people use them), then when the dog does what it isn’t supposed to, you give it one sharp jerk directly upwards (with the hand you’re jerking up with only a couple feet above) and tell it no. The dog will quickly not enjoy this and modify its behavior.
Of course we also reinforce with positive. Give the prong tug when it’s wrong, but when he’s walking alongside you appropriately, say yes and reward.
This is how you actually modify behavior long term. If you just want it to stop immediately rather than train your dog properly, the gentle leader will probably work fine. It may rub the hair off the top of your dog’s muzzle though, depending on how strong willed he is and how often you walk. We just don’t care for solutions that mask rather than fix the problems.
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You can curb this behavior w a little invested time. I had a golden that struggled on a lead and we fixed it. Key is to get the dog to be mindful of you not their impulses when on the lead.
Purchase a long lead (25 feet?) and choker collar. When the dog wanders let additional lead out and walk in the opposite direction. They will catch on. You have to work at this consistently. You want the dog to know that when on the lead that are to attend to you. This is not play time.
Check for books by Richard Wolter. I used Water Dog.
I went from no one could walk my dog but me to my mother and very young nieces and nephews could. Prior to fixing this every walk was a power struggle
I got this dog my senior year in college. When we returned to the real world I had to de learn him a number of bad habits me and my friends permitted! A 90 to 100 LBS dog jumping on your buddies when they enter your apartment is fun. When it is your mother's 115 LBS friends .... not fun!
When he figured out what I wanted, he became a great family pet. Very well mannered. Dogs typically want to please you.
Purchase a long lead (25 feet?) and choker collar. When the dog wanders let additional lead out and walk in the opposite direction. They will catch on. You have to work at this consistently. You want the dog to know that when on the lead that are to attend to you. This is not play time.
Check for books by Richard Wolter. I used Water Dog.
I went from no one could walk my dog but me to my mother and very young nieces and nephews could. Prior to fixing this every walk was a power struggle
I got this dog my senior year in college. When we returned to the real world I had to de learn him a number of bad habits me and my friends permitted! A 90 to 100 LBS dog jumping on your buddies when they enter your apartment is fun. When it is your mother's 115 LBS friends .... not fun!
When he figured out what I wanted, he became a great family pet. Very well mannered. Dogs typically want to please you.
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I used one for probably 6 months or so, along with following walking techniques from my dog trainers. My dog still struggled with proper loose leash walking. It was better than a regular collar with my dog but my dog would still pull with the gentle leader on, especially when distracted by other dogs on our walks. Because of this I was concerned about all of the pressure on my dog's neck when she reacted to distractions so I stopped using it. I actually had much better results with the Easy Walk harness which is made by the same company, and I'm more comfortable using the chest harness since it has less of a chance to cause injury. The easy walk has been fantastic, with almost no training my dog pulled far less than with either a flat collar or the gentle leader. She still does react to some distractions but less than before, and when she does pull I'm not as worried about her injuring herself.
Personally, I do not subscribe to the prong collar method, or any method that tries to teach the dog via pain and punishment (e.g., shock collars). I follow positive reinforcement training principles with my dog. Cesar Milan isn't someone I watch when it comes to training advice either for the same reason.
Personally, I do not subscribe to the prong collar method, or any method that tries to teach the dog via pain and punishment (e.g., shock collars). I follow positive reinforcement training principles with my dog. Cesar Milan isn't someone I watch when it comes to training advice either for the same reason.
In case you didn't know, Richard Wolters is a graduate of Penn State. I got to know him in the early 80's when I worked for Orvis, awesome guy and has contributed immensely in the dog world
I'll tell you Dan I had a GSP that was a gentleman with others but if I took him out he let me know what's up.
It depends what you're dealing with. If you have a generally docile dog with the types of drives that are easily rewarded (food/prey), then sure, positive may be enough. But if you're dealing with a truly strong-willed dog, then a prong or e-collar will be necessary to correct such behavior. We use only positive reinforcement until they're over a year old so that they do already have their confidence and drives fully developed, then introduce prong to refine behaviors that otherwise could not.
13 month old German shepherd from Czech border patrol lines:
Then with no leash at all and a herd around him:
And then at a busy park with other people/dogs/waterfall around:
My friend had 2 German shepherds ... specially trained, purchased in Germany. Those dog were extremely well behaved. Just like the dogs in wbcincy's post. His dogs' behavior helped me with understanding what I needed to do with my dog .... though we never were that good!
I've had very good luck with Gentle Leader as well.
Let's just say I feel very comfortable when I'm out of town with these maniacs protecting my house and family.
my friends dogs were very gentle and well behaved. But ... in a threat situation, all my friend had to do was say the command word and they would defend his family in a very aggressive manner. And they only did so upon his command.
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