Walking Aids

Topaz has a tendency to pull. Her walking manners are not completely lacking. She usually walks nicely, however, there are moments (on just about every walk) where something cool lies ahead or to the side and all of the sudden the slacked leash goes taut and the arm gets a nice yank in whatever direction she just jerked. She has managed to strain/injure several people's arms and a few have face planted.

She has been taught leash walking rules that to this day continue to be reinforced. In  addition, walking aids have also been used over the past 2 years. When using walking aids, she always has her regular collar on as well.

The first walking aid we tried was a harness when she was two to three months old. She promptly ate them all.  My parents had two for their dogs and I had one for her.

Next was a choke chain collar. She only wore this collar when going on walks. It did not take long, maybe four pulls, for her to give up the habit (so long as the collar was on). However, after several months, I noticed that her fur was missing in spots around her neck that seemed to be consistent with pattern for the collar. I thought perhaps she was allergic to certain metals so I switched all her food bowls to ceramic or plastic and stopped using the metal collar. It would be nearly a year later that I would find out that the problem was a food allergy.

We went months before trying another walking aid. However, after she injured my mom's arm and mildly strained a few more peoples arms it became clear that something was needed. After searching options on the market, I decided to try the gentle leader. It came with high recommendations from several friends who had similar pulling issues from their dogs. I have also seen it used by dog trainers such as Tia Torres to help train her dogs not to pull.

Of all the aids we had tried, up to this point, I preferred this one the best. We used it for several months before we got into trouble with it. My dad, brothers and I had taken Topaz and Jasper, their big dog,  (that happens to be Topaz's brother) for a walk. My oldest brother is an athlete and he decided to run with Jasper. The rest of us walked. At half a mile, I checked both dogs who seemed to be handling the walk with ease so we decided to walk further on. We ended up walking a total of 2 miles. We stopped to offer the dogs water multiple times, however, neither dog wanted water. By the time we were within an eighth of a mile to the car, Topaz was showing signs of overheating. We rushed home and I immediately began trying to cool her down. Sadly, it was to late and she suffered a heat stroke. Thankfully, I knew what to do and she lived through it with very little to no long term damage. The vet said from the descriptions we gave him that she should have died that day. This is when it was determined that she had food allergies. He said her overheating was caused by a combination of her system already being stressed from her allergies, the temperature that day and the gentle leader restricting her full ability to pant.

The gentle leader works great for healthy dogs like Jasper who was also wearing one and ran some of the 2 miles and had no complications from wearing one. However, for Topaz it increased her risk of having another heat stroke. So while I liked the gentle leader and it worked, I was back to the drawing board.

At a trip to the lake with my family about a month later I met a labrador wearing an Easy Walk harness. I went home and researched the harness. It seemed perfect for us. It prevents dogs from pulling without restricting their ability to pant or by putting pressure on their tracheae. The fact that the same company that made the gentle leader was just another plus. They had already made a product I liked but that didn't work for us, so I was hopeful that I would like this product and it would work for us.

We have been using the easy walk harness for nearly a year. The only complaint that I have with it is that the L is just slightly to big for her but the M is not durable enough for us. However, since I purchased her harness it appears that premier has created the M/L size that is just as durable as the L which would fix my complaint.

She only wears her harness when going on walks. Thankfully, this is a harness that she does not eat. So she either outgrew that stage or she does not hate this harness.