Day 12 - A Little Help

Mollie is still a baby so even with all her practice, she won't be perfect with her leash skills just yet. When dogs are still learning to walk on leash politely, I sometimes use equipment to help. I like to use head halters because, if used correctly, they are humane and easy to use. I'll especially use them if I need to walk a dog but I don't have the time or the ability to really focus in on their leash skills. I still do regular training sessions with the dog so they learn to walk nicely and eventually I like to wean them off of the head halter.

Having something foreign on their face is not always accepted in the beginning. I start dogs out slowly at first.

I begin by luring them through the nose loop with a little treat and then quickly taking it back off again. I'll do this for several sessions before I move onto the next step.

Eventually I will get to the point where I clip it behind her head. Again, I only do this for a second and then take it off. Each time I am luring her nose through the loop with a treat. So far she thinks this is a really fun game and she eagerly pushing her nose into the head halter.

In the next step, I fee her with the head halter on. She is very enthusiastic about her meals so I want her to develop a nice, positive association with the head halter. I will do this for several sessions (as long as she needs) before I ever hook the head halter to a leash. So far she is doing very well with the head halter. I expect that we will be walking with it for the first time in the next day or so.

The nice thing about the head halter is that it is difficult for the dog to pull on the leash. It, instead, turns their head if they pull, just like a head halter on a horse. It's important though that you don't jerk on the leash when they are wearing their head halter. That can damage their neck and it's counterproductive in her training.

We're working a little bit on "down." It's definitely not a crucial skill for Mollie but it's nice to have her work on that when she is learning to settle.

But she is already doing such a good job with her manners in general, I think her "sit" will be of far more use. It's so nice to have a lot of this in place before Mollie reaches adolescence. She'll need a lot of reminders when that time hits but she'll have a lot of skills and knowledge to fall back on.