Halti collar

[welshlibranr]

My friend has a working cocker spaniel, she has one of these, stops her from pulling on the lead, he advised me to get one as Callie pulls a lot, so I bought one today, Callie hates it, took her out on it this afternoon, she was pawing it , turning somersaults, lying down in the road, she looked so distressed!........don't think I can persevere with this, she was so distressed by it!........what do you think?.............

[nungate]

Try and stick with it, we had one for Benji who was dreadful for pulling on his lead - and he was a Yorkie!! (in his mind he was a rottweiler) He didn't mind it at all in the end we just had to stick with it, it helped a lot with his pulling the lead

[RATTER15]

We use them on the Wolfhounds, they work really well, we basically use them because not so much because of pulling but they can give sudden jerks and the odd pull which is enough to put you off balance when you have 3 Wolfhounds weighing 10 stone + a piece and with Carakeel not being so good on her legs it now means she can walk 3 dogs safely by herself, it wouldn't have been safe without the Halti, Ours are fine with them most of the time, if we are stood around chatting for a while they will try to pull them off on occasions but they get used to them very quickly. We love them, but at the end of the day they are no substitute for loose lead training

[welshlibranr]

Oh RATTER!.........Callie looked so distressed today!.....she hated it, and kept looking at me pleading me to get rid of it!.....i felt so sorry for her!....D

[RATTER15]

Only put it on her as you are taking her out, she will get used to it, take it off her as soon as you get home. My dogs arent keen on them but they get really excited about having them put on as they know they are going for walks. She will get used to it once she associates it with being taken for a walk. As long as we are walking they are more than happy with them.

[RATTER15]

Failing that, go back to basics with teaching her loose lead walking, lots of good advice on youtube!

[nungate]

I'm afraid you are going to have to harden your heart and don't give in to her, she will get used to the new collar in time. Meantime, things might be a little rough for you (and her) please persevere and just give it a week or two

[welshlibranr]

thanks RATTER an nungate, sure you're right!.......will try again tomorrow!......

[Carakeel]

It does take them a while to get used to a halti, but if you can get her to settle, maybe by giving her a treat as soon as you put it on her and doing this whenever she doesn't try to get it off, she will soon learn that wearing it means she gets rewarded. This may settle her. We use them with our three wolfhounds and two of them do try to rub it off their noses at times, but they are getting used to them. It does make controlling the dog far easier and most learn to be fine with them. But if she doesn't settle, you may have to give it a miss. Never worth distressing them too much!

[woofgang]

My dog never took to a halti either, they slide up into their eyes and he hates them. (Yess RATTER I had the right size) Instead i have this.
http://www.blackdogtr...-info.php?pid228.html

When the dog pulls, it tightens over the nose, not around the neck, and slides loose when the dog stops pulling. Dear dog used to pull like a train, unsafe as RATTER says, even though mine is a mere 34kg. You put it on in the house, give treat, remove it, later same day put it on lead to treat jar give treat remove it, dog will soon get used then take dog out, move briskly and praise and treat for good behaviour.
I have suggested these to quite a few people now and all of them have come back and said how good they are...no i dont own the company or even have shares....

[lankeela]

Most dogs object to a halti or headcollar at first, but the secret is to put it on and get walking! They can only get their feet up to try to get them off if they are standing still, keep moving and they will have to come with you. Mak sure you have a separate link to the collar just in case they get it off. Once they are used to them they don't treat them any different to having their lead put on. Ask anyone who has one on their dog and I bet they will tel you they had histrionics at first!

[paddywak]

Max was terrible for pulling when he was a puppy so I got him a halti. He hated it at first but by the end of 2-3 weeks he was walking to heel perfectly and we went back to a normal lead

[RATTER15]

>>>(Yess RATTER I had the right size)<<< :))

[woofgang]

well i knew what you would say :-)

[welshlibranr]

well, halti on again today, had a terrible time getting it on her even with treats but off we went, it was horrendous!....Callie refused to move, she sat, then lay down, tried to take it off with her paws, did some more somersaults!......looked scared to death!..........even worse than yesterday! as soon as she saw it she went into panic mode!..........This going to be harder than I expected!........still tomorrow is another day!............

[nungate]

Hang on in there.

[welshlibranr]

thanks nungate, will try!..........took 10 mins to get the thing on her this afternoon!......but will keep trying!............just afraid that I'll give in before Callie does!......lol.............

[woofgang]

Then don't put it on. Hold the nosepiece open, give her a treat through it and put it away. Next time get her to put her nose a little way into the nosepiece, next time a bit further and so on. When nose goes in cheerfully, drop the nose and over her nose so she feels it, take it off, next step is to hold the back fastening together and not clip it, then clip it, then add lead and walk a few steps. Keep going until she walks happily with you and treat and praise her for doing it, then try taking her out. As I said, my boy never souls accept a halting but he's happy in a figure eight slip....
If you insist too much, she will fight you more, not less.

[woofgang]

Ps I know whereof I speak. My dog had a truly dreadful ear infection. He needed his ears cleaning at the vet and they were so painful that my gentle boy tried to bite. They put him under g a, treated his ears and need to see him a week later, understandably asking him to come in muzzled. I had 6 days to accustom him to a muzzle and I did it as I have described, very patiently but doing several sessions a day. We walked back into the surgery one week later with him happily wearing the muzzle.

[bednobs]

we use a martingale collar which is similar but different. Our hated the halti, but don't mind the martingale. And it really really works

[RATTER15]

bedknobs, a martingale is totally different, it is a fairly traditional collar with a "check" section, very different from a halti.

Carakeel makes the martingale type collars for sale, we found they get used these collars very quickly rendering them quite ineffective but still a very good collar.