[NAGDU] For Bob, Head Halter a comment

[Peter Wolf]

Hey Bob,

Here’s my input on head halter.  I know of two brands, one is gentle leader and the other is halti.  My dog, being a Silken Windhound, being long and sleek, (22 inches at shoulder, and nearly 3 feet long) actually slips her narrow air blade of a snout through a halt, size zero!

Metukah didn’t want to use it at first, but training this was really easy.  Simply call her forward with a “Come” command, and treat.  Do it with the halter in your hand.  A day later, raise the halter, put the treat in front of it, and let her take it on fulfilling “come”.  Then just inch the treat into the halter nose loop.  Do this gradually, until about five or six sessions later in a couple of days, the treat has to be taken through the loop.  Then begin slipping it on the same way.  But do it, quickly and seamlessly transitioning from a slipping on to a dog praising for having done the same thing.  Soon, the treat will only be for successfully putting her nose through to then enjoy the treat.  Done!

I echo the danger warning.  These halters are self correcting.  Don’t ever jerk.  All you need to do is retain the position or motion that was intended.  The action of the halter is to self-limit.  The pressure exerted by the dog’s own body and weight is sufficient (and the maximum) that should ever exert on her neck.  Remember, this isn’t just head pressure; it is even further forward, on the snout.  So turning leverage is much more than even if you could have grabbed her by the head itself, which is much further back.  This is literal:  I use only the pressure of one finger tip pad against my leash with Metukah, on loops that I have hand-sewn at intervals.  We walk with this fingertip only pressure.  

There is one exception.  If she is blowing it with a curious nose, I simply keep walking.  This happens when either she finds something interesting that she wants to stop for, or she wants to sniff a pee spot, when it isn’t on our schedule and is only being scent curious.  The pressures of my keeping walking are more forward, inline pressures.  I have no issue about pulling her forward, which is the direction we were on anyway.  That is only straight ahead pressure.  She knows exactly what that is, and if she’s being a momentary bone-head, she knows to quit it or the pressure will increase because I won’t stop.  I give her the balance of respect by letting her stop just a little more frequently for this.  Hey if she’s going to get pulled at, twitched, direction changed, and moved around my agenda all day, this is the least I can do to let her run her nose a little more often for satisfaction.  So in essence, halters won’t cure a curious nose, but they do help a lot!
Cheers,
Peter