Laila is a puppy. Therefore she gets lots of walks each day in order to maintain some kind of control in our house. But Laila is a big puppy and big puppies like to pull. She pulls me over to greet other dogs, she pulls to get closer to squirrels, and she pulls because frankly she's in the mood to frolic. Laila is now right around 50 pounds at nearly 5 months old.
Enter the harness. Today while we were at puppy school at PetSmart, we picked up a Sporn Non-Pulling Mesh Control Harness. Within approximately 10 steps, she had begun to chew through the part that connected to the leash. I went back to the house and sprayed Bitter Apple on it to keep her from chewing and that worked well enough.
The harness itself worked really well when she was trying to pull forward. It gets uncomfortable around the front legs, so the dog stops pulling. However, Laila also likes to pull to the side or she dilly-dallys behind me and it's like pulling a mule. The harness didn't help with any of those scenarios. The other problem that I had was that she didn't like the feeling of the harness fastened at her back (which I'm sure takes some getting used to) so she repeatedly barrel-rolled across several lawns. I'm sure we looked pretty interesting walking down the street.
I've heard that the Gentle Leader is good. Does anyone want to weigh in on this?
...Sigh, remember when she was just a little teeny baby and we didn't have this problem?
I had a good experience with the gentle leader with my parents' dogs. They are golden retrievers, so while they are not as big as Laila will be, they are still big dogs and can really pull. They are awesome on the gentle leader, so I'd recommend giving it a try! Good luck!
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