...the Gentle Leader dog collar. (Sing! Sing!)
This thing is amazing.
Duncan, our rambunctious 8 month old puppy, is very difficult to walk. He pulls whomever is walking him along at dangerous rates of speed. I don't know how many horsepower he is packing, but I think he could pull a toboggan to an Iditarod victory single-pawedly.
He has gotten so strong and determined that I got to the point where I wondered if it was bad for my body to take him for a walk. Knowing he needs exercise, I went to the pet store and bought him a "correction collar". (That's the nice name for a choker collar.) You know, it's like a chain and it tightens on the dog's throat if the dog pulls. The unpleasant sensation of being strangled is supposed to motivate the dog to stop pulling and to instead, prance along at a leisurely pace.
Well...it helped a little bit, but not much.
Duncan simply grew accustomed to not being able to breath while he yanked our arms out of their exasperated sockets. We, the walkers, not only experienced the physical pain of near dismemberment, but also the social embarrassment of walking a loudly gasping dog AND the guilt of being a bad dog owner because the desire to ruthlessly yank on the leash in futile attempts to tame the wild beast was sometimes overwhelming.
Then...the Gentle Leader came along. I won't bore you with the specifics, (I'm not sure I even understand the specifics), but as you can see, the collar goes over the bridge of the nose and around the base of the skull, sort of like a horse bridle (though there's nothing in the dog's mouth). The leash attaches to a ring under the chin as seen below:
(Ignore the blue collar. It's just there to sport his tags.)Somehow, this new arrangement of things makes it virtually impossible for the dog to pull.
I'm telling you, it works. On Duncan's very first walk with the new collar, his pulling lessened about 90%. Additionally, his crazy, nearly rabid response to other dogs we encountered on the walk improved greatly.
He did paw at his face and rub his nose in the grass quite a bit the first few times he wore it because it was a foreign object, but you could tell it wasn't hurting him. Now, whenever he sees us coming at him with the collar in our hands, he happily sits down and stays still while we affix it to his head because he knows he's going on a walk.
Walking the dogs is fun again!
Beeping Update:
Andrea, perhaps you were right and it was a neglected water softener, vying for attention. Oddly, since I wrote that last post, I haven't heard a single mysterious beep from next door. Maybe our new neighbor is one of this blog's 5 readers and she felt compelled to stop the beepage.
(Yeah, right.)
2 comments:
Great blog once again, and no more "Dog gone." Your little stories are so cute, practical, humorous. It all adds up to "refreshing." I know those dogs like Duncan! He sure has grown fast. He looks like someone pumped air into him--a doggie balloon. Seeyabye.
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