Journey to Find the Freedom No-Pull Harness

As you know from yesterday's post, we're trying to get a handle on Athena's walking skills.  When we first brought her home in July, she quickly learned how to walk on a loose leash, but as the weather started to get crummy here in Portland, us humans really slacked off in the walking department.  We are totally to blame for Athena's recent pulling habit.

Athena modeling her Freedom No-Pull Harness

Easy Walk Harness:

The first day we brought Athena home from the shelter we had her fitted for an Easy Walk Harness because we had heard that it was the best for training a dog how to walk nicely on leash.  It worked well for a while, until Athena developed some pretty nasty hot spots under her arms.  After the sores healed, we tried the Easy Walk again, only for the hot spots to return with a vengeance.

As Two Pitties in the City would say, here's vintage Athena on her first day home from the shelter wearing her Easy Walk Harness!

Gentle Leader:

That's when we ditched the Easy Walk for the Gentle Leader Head Halter.  At that point we couldn't find any body harnesses on the market that would eliminate the rubbing under Athena's armpits, so we decided to try out a head halter.  Besides tricking people into believing that Athena was wearing a muzzle, the Gentle Leader actually worked some pretty good magic to help Athena in the walking department.  We continued to use the Gentle Leader through our very first Respectabulls walk, but Athena's pulling in the presence of other dogs was no match for this head harness.  She was left with deep groves on her muzzle from the rough nylon of the harness.

Another vintage Athena, this time wearing the Gentle Leader

Holt Walking Collar:

So, we invested in a more high-tech version of the Gentle Leader called the Holt Walking Collar (also known as the Head Halti).  If you're in the market for a head halter, this is definitely the best compared to the Gentle Leader in my opinion.  Although the harness is much bulkier on the face (making it appear even more like a muzzle), it is thickly padded and doesn't twist from one side of Athena's face to the other (a major flaw of the Gentle Leader).  We ordered ours for a very fair price on Pet Mountain.

Athena wearing the Holt Head Harness

Freedom No-Pull Harness:

The Freedom No-Pull Harness had been on our radar for quite some time, but it wasn't until Doodlebug's recommendation that we gave in and purchased it.  We were pretty much sold when we heard that this harness has soft velvet on the underside to eliminate chaffing.  I was positive that this would be gentle enough for Athena's sensitive skin, but I decided to first contact the Wiggles, Wags and Whiskers company to make sure.  I wrote them an e-mail explaining Athena's discomfort with body harnesses and asked if they had heard from any customers who had seen an improvement with this harness.  Here's the response they sent me:

"The velvet lining on the harness does really help prevent the rubbing and chafing sores but depending on how the harness is fitted, your dog could possibly still have some armpit irritation.  I wish I had an absolute answer for you, I am so very sorry.  I will say in 99.999% of all dogs, it eliminates the problem, but there is occasionally one that still has an issue."

With that, we took Athena into our favorite local pet shop for a fitting.  Technically she should wear a medium, but we decided to go with the large to allow for extra room in the armpit department.  We also bought the 1" training leash that has a double connection.  The great thing about the Freedom No-Pull Harness is that it has a connection point on the chest and on the back.  You can attach a double connection leash to both, or simply attach a leash to one or the other depending on the kind of puller that you're dealing with.  This leash has turned me into a 4' leash lover.  No longer do we take Athena out for a walk on a 6' lead.  I feel like I have much more control with a shorter leash, and it helps Athena to stay right by my side.

So far we've been very pleased with this harness and we're happy to report that Athena has had zero armpit irritation!  We've been using the harness on daily walks, for jogging practice, and at flyball practice.

Freedom No-Pull Harness/Holt Head Harness Combo:

One of the very popular trends on Respectabull walks is for dogs to wear multiple harnesses for added support.  The most common combo is the Freedom No-Pull Harness and the Holt Head Harness.  We gave this combo a try on our last walk and did notice a bit of an improvement in Athena's racing walking in the group.  We attach a double connection leash to the back clip of the Freedom Harness and to the front clip on the Holt Harness (leaving nothing attached to the front harness clip).

Mr. Moose modeling this harness combo

Do you walk your dog on a harness?  Which one (or combo) works best for your dog?

Pulling and Snorting Wins the Race

This past weekend was a very busy one for us.  We went holiday shopping and took pictures with Santa, completed our beginning C.L.A.S.S. training, and joined RespectaBulls for a December group walk.

Ready for the rain on our RespectaBulls walk

Since Athena still gets very excited in the presence of other dogs, we have used the RepectaBulls walks as a way for her to learn that her whining and pulling are not going to earn her the privilege to meet and play with other dogs.  The pre- and post- walk have also served as a great controlled training environment where we can practice all of Athena's commands in the presence of one of the toughest distractions: other dogs.

Athena gets a lick of her Leanlix treat while training at our RespectaBulls walk

Another issue that we are dealing with during the walks is Athena's leash pulling.  We really don't have an issue taking Athena on walks around the neighborhood.  She's actually a fairly polite walker when we use her Gentle Leader.  However, as soon as the RespectaBulls walk begins, Athena thinks it's time to race.  She pulls and snorts (the Gentle Leader causes some major snorting action!) as she tries to race to the front of the pack.

Athena's Motto: 

Slow & Steady Wins the Race 

Pulling & Snorting Wins the Race

Even the Gentle Leader is no match for Athena's pulling.  Therefore, we have found this piece of equipment to be useless during pack walks.  Because of this, we have started to explore other walking equipment that may help Athena to stop her pulling.

Move it mom, we are almost in the lead!

As much success that we have had with the Gentle Leader, we have decided to try the Holt Walking Collar as an alternative.  It was suggested to us by multiple RespectaBulls members because unlike the Gentle Leader, the Holt only applies pressure to the dog when they are pulling rather than applying pressure the entire time they wear the collar.

Sookie modeling her bright pink Holt Walking Collar

The Holt Walking Collar arrived in the mail yesterday, so we will be giving it a try over the next few weeks.  We will give you a comparison between it and the Gentle Leader soon.  What walking equipment have you tried to eliminate your dog's pulling?  Have you ever used the Gentle Leader or Holt Walking Collar?

*So far we've tried the Easy Walk Harness (it causes hot spots), the Gentle Leader (it causes pulling and snorting on group walks), and we will soon be testing out the Holt Walking Collar*

Love It: Gentle Leader

Athena is a pretty big puller when we take her on walks, especially if there are distractions in the environment.  We have been working to eliminate this pulling behavior by teaching the heel command and encouraging her to walk at our side rather than in front of us.

For the past 4 weeks we have been using the Easy Walk Harness when we take Athena on walks.  However, Athena's underarms were irritated by the rubbing of the nylon from the harness and she got a hot spot.  We are currently treating it with a steroid/antibiotic spray for the next two weeks, so we can't use the Easy Walk Harness during that time.

We have been wanting to try the Gentle Leader head collar after hearing about how it gives the most amount of control for dogs that pull on the leash.  It was on sale at Petsmart for about $17.00 so we decided to give it a try.

When first putting it on Athena we gave her lots of treats and praise.  She clearly didn't like the feeling of the collar on her nose because she kept pawing at it.  We distracted her from doing this pawing by having her do commands (sit, down, stay) for treats.

Athena wearing the Gentle Leader head collar

Once we had the collar attached to the leash, we took Athena outside.  She did a few gallops and tried to get the collar off of her nose.  The person at Petsmart who helped us fit the collar on Athena told us that we should keep her in a trot rather than a walk when first introducing the collar.  This is because the dog will lose it's balance if trying to paw at their nose at the same time as trotting.  We took Athena on a quick 10 minute walk to get her used to the collar.  For her evening walk we took her out for 20 minutes.  Today we were able to take her on an hour walk in the morning and she didn't seem to be bothered much by the collar anymore.

Overall we have seen a big difference in the amount of control that we have when walking Athena.  If she begins to pull we can give the leash a gentle tug and she is back at our side.  The control of the collar allows us to gently lift her nose if she gets too focused on sniffing and it also allows us to keep her mouth closed if needed.

Although the collar looks a bit like a muzzle, it allows the dog full range of motion with their mouth.  They can pant, drink, eat, and bark.

We plan to keep using the Gentle Leader and are hoping that it will continue to eliminate Athena's leash pulling behavior!

-A