Collars, Harnesses, and Halters

One of the reasons we were bad Aussie owners was that we rarely took Moree on walks. He pulled. A harness simply gave his stocky little frame more pulling power, but at least he wasn’t choking himself. Putting it on him was also a challenge. He was a squirmy dog, and it could take up to 10 minutes. Because of that, one time we decided to leave the harness on him, to make it easier to take him on walks. Within a few days, he had chewed it off.

We decided to try one of the halters, or head leads. We first bought the Halti brand, because it was cheaper and we were on a budget. The very first time we tried to use it, he had his off before we got Smokey’s on. So, we put Smokey’s on first, and then put Moree’s on and tried to walk. He paused for 10 seconds, pawed at his nose, and off it went.

Back to the pet store we went, to get the Gentle Leader brand head lead. At the time, the packaging guaranteed that your dog wouldn’t be able to remove it. Technically, they may have been correct. Moree was never able to remove the part that went around his neck, but the part that went around his nose, he could remove it with a couple swipes of his paw while walking down the street.

We used pinch collars when we were doing training classes. He got really good at behaving on leash in class, despite being surrounded by other dogs, but he stilled pulled more when we were working in the yard at home, and never so little that we were actually comfortable taking him on walks in the thing.

Fast forward to now. June is also a pully dog, though at half the size of Moree, it has less effect. Still, it makes walking her not the most fun experience. So, back to the pet store we went. Because of our bad luck with the halters, we decided to try a type of harness where you attach the leash to a ring on her chest. It makes pulling awkward, and also cinches. It has reduced her pulling quite a bit. However, we can’t get the thing to seem to fit right, and one of her legs will randomly slip free while we’re walking. (She doesn’t seem to be trying to escape from it, it just happens.)

First, we had the medium size. Definitely too big, but we could tell just by looking (and reading their list of example dogs) that the small would be too small. Luckily, this brand makes in between sizes, though we did have to go to a local specialty store to get it. (The big box pet store employees actually wish they carried the in between sizes because apparently, all barrel shaped dogs- like beagles – need them.)

We now have the small/medium, but we still can’t seem to get it fitted right. Again, it works really well when its on her, but if she’s pulling for an extended period of time- ie 30 seconds, one of her front legs will slip right out.

So now we have to decide if we just return it, or take her to the pet store with it and see if they can help us fit it to her properly.