Sheryl Carver is an engineer. Until she discovered her talents with animals, she worked for IBM. So naturally, before anything else she set us up with the proper equipment.
We had been using a Gentle Leader head collar, which is supposed to help you control your dog by gently turning her head and as a consequence, turning her attention and mind in a new direction. But Daisy was not to be swayed so easily. She might turn her head, but she would keep plowing ahead in whatever direction she was going, and you along with her. Worse yet, she would walk very nicely just until you let your guard down.
Then suddenly she would catch the scent of something fascinating. And you would find yourself flying in that direction, too -- that is, if you wanted to keep your arm attached to your body. That girl is strong! She could easily pull a VW Bug, if not a Mini Cooper.
We told Sheryl that we really did not want to be dragged around the hills behind our house anymore. She had a brilliant solution. First, we dug out an old harness occasionally worn by Daisy's predecessor, Perry, who weighed about 170 pounds and wasn't even chubby. This was the type that fits around the chest so you can attach a leash on the back. The harness hadn't helped us manage Perry, so we were doubtful. But Sheryl wasn't finished. We also pulled on a Halti head collar, which hangs more loosely around the nose than the Gentle Leader. We were not much impressed by that either. Perry had never kept one on more than a minute.
But wait, between the two went a leash! Suddenly we had control over a much stronger structure than a line between two points: We were holding a triangle.
So if Daisy started yanking, we could leap out to the side and just hang on. The pressure from two points was simply too much for even Daisy's gargantuan powers and she would stop. One we learned out to manage all that leash, we were set.
2 comments:
Wow. What a great idea. Do you think you should try it with a second leash attached to the harness ring as well? Dogs sometimes slip the halti. When Lisa was totally nuts, I used to walk her with a leash on her neck collar and one on her harness. It looked really stupid and I had to put up with many obnoxious comments from onlookers, but she had busted a couple of those no-pull harnesses and I wasn't taking any chances. The city can be very unforgiving, even when it's not blowing up! She's pretty good now, so one leash suffices, attached to a harness. With her history (embedded collar) I can't bear to pull on her neck at all...Mara
We had no luck with the Gentle Leader. In fact we were getting referred biting during blow-ups. We progressed to a halter...even worse with much less control. Then came the prong/pinch collar which although awful looking wasn't too bad. Then came the dreaded electronic collar which didn't last long. Finally...the Cesar Milan "Illusion" collar! Yea...Heidi did phenominally better! A loose leash was even possible...and yesterday a major breakthrough. She looked at me for treats rather than reacting to a "marshmallow" dog! I'm so proud of her.
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