Tell me about the gentle leader

[Bernadine]

Is it really a miracle harness?  Millie pulls way too much, and I walk both dogs together by myself usually, so it's hard to train her by herself.

[Stingyshark]

We have them. Wyatt looks at me like I'm a damn fool when I try to walk him in it. He sits and will not move. It's a fail for us- but one of my friends has two huskies and she swears by them.


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[isabel]

The gentle leader is a great tool, but you really need to learn how to use it before jumping in. The slightest pull or tug is felt tenfold to the dog and it can become a real power struggle. That said, it helped with one of our beagles immensely. He didn't much care for wearing it, but he was so much more manageable on walks. Our other beagle would straight up refuse to wear it. She would scratch her face on the ground and just generally go crazy, then refuse to walk. We switched her back to a regular harness.

[Bernadine]

Jul 25, 2014 18:11:55 GMT -5 isabel said:

The gentle leader is a great tool, but you really need to learn how to use it before jumping in. The slightest pull or tug is felt tenfold to the dog and it can become a real power struggle. That said, it helped with one of our beagles immensely. He didn't much care for wearing it, but he was so much more manageable on walks. Our other beagle would straight up refuse to wear it. She would scratch her face on the ground and just generally go crazy, then refuse to walk. We switched her back to a regular harness.

Thanks for this, I'll definitely do my research.  I can see her trying to pull it off, but it sounds like it's worth a try.

[Deleted]

It worked well for my Airedale-Wolfhound mix. When he was good on leash he was very good but when he pulled, he pulled very hard so this was an excellent tool since he could no longer use the strength of his neck and shoulders (with a regular collar) to pull.

[Saint Monica]

I love it.

[Zoly]

We used a gentle leader harness but our dog was not having the one that goes over her head. Even with trying to gradually get her used to it and giving treats, she would spend the entire time trying to paw it off.

[scsarah]

It works well for us and our lab, but I agree with PP that you need to know how to use it, and that each dog's personality will change things. Our dog doesn't know anything else, so she never really had issues, but with older dogs, they may not do as well. The company also makes harnesses, which might work if the Gentle Leader doesn't.

[cbwm1]

Sheldon *hated* it when we first used it with him, but once he got used to it, it was a miracle. LOL

I swear by it.

[topcat]

I can't walk my dog without it. I'm a fan. I still have no clue why it works the magic it works though.

[Deleted]

The Gentle Leader makes it much easier to walk my 80-pound German Shepherd, but she still does pull when she sees another dog. People think that it's a muzzle, so I constantly have to correct them on that. I also have an Easy Walk Harness, but it doesn't help nearly as much as the GL.

[Deleted]

I really wished this had worked for us. My dog would claw at her face and refuse to walk. She'd just sit there. Getting her back in the house after our first attempt was a nightmare since she would not walk not one foot. Unfortunately we never got her off the prong collar. Just the weight of it on her keeps her from pulling.

[BlackCanary]

It works really well with our dog. 

[Deleted]

Luna would not move when we put the gentle leader on her. We switched to the easy walk a few weeks ago and it is amazing. She doesn't usually pull but will occasionally dart if she sees a particularly enticing squirrel.
This keeps her from taking my arm off.

[RoxMonster]

It worked OK for Rox. We used it with her for well over a year after our trainer introduced us to it. She hated it--kept trying to paw it off her face for the first half of her walks. But it allowed her to walk relatively calmly without pulling and we had control over her (she is a nut when a car drives by and wants to chase it. On the gentle leader, we were able to get her to sit until the cars went by).

We do a body harness now, but have stopped walking her in our neighborhood because she is still too reactive to cars and we have tried all the things our behaviorist suggested. It just didn't get better and it made our walks unpleasant. Now we take her to a bike trail or to the park (regular park, not dog park), and since there are no cars, she walks perfectly calmly on just the body harness.

[sawyerthedestroyer]

Sawyer hates it, but it works once we get him moving. It didn't work for Maya, but she does well with a regular lead so no biggie.

[pbutter]

I think it depends on the dog. But for us it works great. I have 2 60lb golden doodles that will walk side by side with them. I've been using it for 9 years.

[sushi]

I was totally uneducated about it, but it still worked wonders. 80# mutt vs me (105# owner). Yeah, I was powerless against her will. She took to the gentle leader mostly easily (as in she didn't like me putting it on her but didn't protest too much), and it prevented future battles on walks. Plus I could actually control her when needed.

I'm a huge fan.

[Deleted]

I love it.

[blueshirt2003]

We have something that's essentially a knock off of the gentle leader. It works amazingly well for my small/medium dog. She's 25-30lbs and a mixed shepherd mix.

[christy082]

We have one. Can't walk her without it, but she will still pull some. She hates it but will still walk with it. She'll periodically nose dive through the neighbors' yards, though, trying to get it off. When we come home and take it off of her, she then rolls her face around and uses her paws to "scratch" her face where it was. She's very dramatic, lol.