riopup

Have you tried it?? My friend gave us hers after RAVING about it to try, we gave Rio lots of treats on our first walk with it and he blew me away at how well he was "heeling"!!

Thinking about buying one of our own... would love to hear what your experiences are. Do dogs do well going back to a reg collar after the GL??

jak

The gentle leader was PERFECT when we first got Saffy!
She was an uncontrollable dog, and the Gentle Leader really helped us be able to control her, she literally lost control when she saw another animal

We have used it a bit with our Dobermann pup, and my grandparents spoo, and it makes them so much easier to walk, as they both pull sometimes.
It just seems to calm them down, and they literally don't pull at all

riopup

Yes, it was really amazing when we tried it, instant loose leash and staying next to me with no use of force or corrections for the dog.

Does your dog go easily from the GL back to a regular leash?? Does it still not pull now that it's been trained with a GL??

Fluffyspoos

Several dogs come through the salon with them on, I can take them off the dogs fine, but when it comes to getting the dogs ready to go home.. I can't figure out for the life of me how to get the damn things back on. The owners SWEAR by them though!

jak

Well, what happened was, once we had made huge progress with the socialization, we stopped using the gentle leader.
So then we had to tackle the problem of tugging on the lead.
We started obedience, and so we did heelwork, and Saffy was already an obedient dog, so walking next to me came easily.

But the problem with the gentle leader is that it avoids addressing the problem of walking on lead calmly, and only works really with it on.

jak

Lol, you get used to it very quickly, they can be confusing though

PonkiPoodles

I love the gentle leader and I have several in different sizes that I use on foster dogs that come into my home. They are great for training... especially if you have trouble with dogs that can't/have never walked on a leash properly.

Bella's Momma

We have to use one with Bella on walks or trips. Eventually we want to wean her off of it, but for now it helps a lot. Though if the kids are playing in the front with neighbor kids she still freaks out and tries to run and play with them and pulls a little. She HATES it though. Especially when freshly-shaved. I usually just take her to the groomer on a collar and leash now, though. She'll throw herself onto the grass and try to rub her face around to get it off, or against our legs. We just have to watch her to make sure sneaky-poodle doesn't do that.

The trainer told us it's just very important never to pull on them when they have it on. If THEY pull and get the 'correction' that's the point, but you should never pull them by the leash while wearing it.

Bonnie

The GL works great on Finny too! He is very strong and the GL helps me to control him. At times he will try to rub his face to get it off. Bella walks fine so I don't use it on her. I hate the way it looks though, if people aren't familiar with it, it looks like it is a muzzle to keep him from biting.

Aidan

I think the gentle leader is great for someone who can't handle the dog otherwise, but I think it also keeps people from training their dog to walk properly in the first place.

It's another quick-fix item like the pinch collar and easy-walk harness. It's a tool, i don't think it was designed to use forever..it's supposed to aide in the training and it can work very well for that purpose it just takes some patience.

I had to use a pinch collar on Vega for about two weeks and now he walks perfectly on a regular buckle or martingale collar.