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pulling and walking several

19 14:15:21

Question
Hi I emailed you a few weeks ago about wanting to get another dog if you remember, anyways I haven't gotten the other puppy yet but have now firmly decided to get a female or male lab or lab cross if no pures are avlible in the end of july!.... can't wait I love big floppy lab pups :D. Ok heres my questions:

My female lab pulls when I walk her.. as I noted when I took her to the vet to have her spayed and such, they reccomend a gental leader head collar well there kind of expensive and reallly didn't seem worth the price when I took it out of the box and looked at it so I got a 1 inch wide body harrness, the kind you they step into with the rope between her two legs, anyways she was pullnig quite a bit when I first got it but when she didI'd pull her back, tell her don't pull and resume walking... she still pulls but not as much or as hard and I still use the same correction thou sometimes I stop when she pulls really hard and she turns are looks at me as if to say well why did you stop? lol. I'm updating my jack russles vaccines soon and he will be joining our walks..... can I walk them at the same time or will they tangle? I can't have Haylie pulling like she does when she sees a bird on the ground or dog in the window when Lukes with us... I'm not sure how Luke is on lead I'll have to see when we go to the vets. If I get Haylie a gental leader head collar will she try pull? when she does try to pull what will happen? I don't want to hurt her just correct her, can I use one of these on Luke if needed?, please let me know how these work, if they work and if it'll be possible to walk all three dogs together in the future?

Answer
In general I am a big believer in head collars such as the Gentle Leader.  I haven't used them much, but have had very good results with them.  They may be the only thing that would work with several dogs.  Both the conventional slip collar, and the pinch collar require a snap of the leash.  I never have been coordinated enough to give the right leash the snap.  With the Gentle Leader, the dog that is pulling corrects itself as you maintain a steady, but light hold on the leashes.  It is preferred tool for problem pullers in the service dog schools I volunteer for.

Keep the leads short to reduce tangling.

Since I have known of them, I have had such easy dogs, that I haven't needed it.  I have even stuck with the flat collar past the 5 months where it is safe to switch to slip collar.  I did use on a 15 month, intact, chocolate Lab I had for a couple of weeks.  After a week I was able to switch back to a slip collar, and in 2 weeks, he was accepted for dog guide training.