Dog Leash Training - The Right Leash Equipment

Leigh Siegfried: Hi! I am Leigh Siegfried with Opportunity Barks Behavior & Training. Today we are talking about teaching your dog to walk politely on a leash and now what we are going to be discussing is how to identify the right kind of equipment that can help prevent pulling on leash in the first place. Humane anti-pulling equipment can make a huge difference in teaching your dog to walk politely and to not pull on a leash. One of my favorite pieces of equipment is a Head Halter. There is the Gentle Leader Head Halter and the Halti. Both of these require an adjustment period meaning you have to sort of ease the dog into wearing the equipment and there is an acclamation period involved with that. You generally can't just slap a Head Halter on your dog and then take them out for a walk. So we will be showing you how to actually put this on your dog and how to fit it. The other thing that I really, really love, that works for a lot of dogs is a Front Clip Harness. Now this is a body harness that actually clips to your dog's chest. So how that works is that it displaces the pressure from most normal harnesses, there is a lot of harnesses out there. Unfortunately, the ones that where the leash attaches to your dog's back don't necessarily do anything to prevent pulling and it's the Front Clip Harness that's actually designed to reduce pulling in the first place and have your dog walking where you would like him to walk. So what we have here is a Gentle Leader Head Halter and this is designed to work by going over your dog's nozzle, a part behind the neck, clips high and tight behind your dog's ears. It's designed to fit high and tight and not low like a collar and then your leash attaches at the piece underneath the nozzle. The way we teach a dog to put on this piece of equipment is we use a small treat to teach the dog to put their nose through the nozzle piece themselves and then we clip it high and tie it behind the ears. Once it's on, we continue to feed a little bit and then give the dog a break. Generally, you might have a dog pawing at their face or rolling around on the ground, trying to get this off because it feels a little awkward at first, but most dogs absolutely adjust to weariness and it can make huge a difference, especially if you feel like you have little to no control with your dog when you are out for a walk. Now the other piece of equipment we have is called the Sensible Harness or a Sensation Harness. These are Front Clip Harnesses. How they work is you put them over your dog's head and you clip them right underneath their front legs and then your leash attaches on the O-ring, which is on the front of the harness. Now the nice thing about a Body Harness, especially a Front Clip Body Harness is there's usually little to no adjustment period and in most cases, you can put one of these right on your dogs and go for a walk and they are happy to wear them and life is good. So now that we have discussed equipment, they can really help make a difference in teaching your dogs not to pull. Now we are going to take a look at teaching your dog a few skills before we venture out into the real world.