# Leash & Heel



## Dropbear (Nov 30, 2020)

Max A. Million and I had this mastered, or so I thought…

Since we added two new pack members, though, Max has begun pulling on the leash and heels roughly. I feel like a lot of it has to do with him wanting to be in the lead of the pack maybe? He performs great as long as he and I are in front.

To remedy this, we picked up one of those bite collars and it seems to work well as long as it’s on. My trainer hates bite collars but my other half swears by them. The thing is it’s only at home and among our pack he does this so I don’t use the bite at all during training class and don’t need to.

The new vest we picked up for him has a d-ring in the front chest area to attach a leash. I don’t have enough evidence yet to say that this is going to replace the need for the bite collar honestly, but he seems so far to do pretty well with that also.

what are your thoughts? I’d appreciate any help! Thank you.


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## Dropbear (Nov 30, 2020)




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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

What is a bite collar?


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## jarn (Jul 18, 2007)

dogma13 said:


> What is a bite collar?


A prong?

My experience of harnesses is that they pull more (though we also do activities like skijoring where they're in harnesses and I want them to pull, so YMMV). If the chest attachment one is working. I think if you and Max know the heel command what he's in won't matter as much - I always see those sorts of deterrents as useful if the command isn't known.


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## Dropbear (Nov 30, 2020)

jarn said:


> A prong?
> 
> My experience of harnesses is that they pull more (though we also do activities like skijoring where they're in harnesses and I want them to pull, so YMMV). If the chest attachment one is working. I think if you and Max know the heel command what he's in won't matter as much - I always see those sorts of deterrents as useful if the command isn't known.


Yes, it has prongs in it. She called it a bite collar when she presented it to me. I have had one dog in the past fifty years until Max, and never used one of these with that dog (an Airedale).

He definitely knows the command. He follows it when I am walking him solo or we are training it extremely well. It’s just when others of our pack are walking with him that he pulls on his leash to jump ahead of the rest.

Both the prong collar and the chest d-ring of his vest seem to be working as deterrents, but that is the only occasion I really need it to. He’s nearly 80 lbs., very strong, and can pull me off of (or up to) my feet. Which is good for the service dog training we are getting into, he can basically pick me up on command from a sit or on flat on the ground, but not good when walking with his doggie siblings and he wants to be leader of the pack.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I think I might try just using the chest d-ring intstead of the prong collar for a while and report back on this in a week or so. I want to get out of attaching a leash to his collar mainly because even if he is choking himself doing it, he still wants to power his way to the front of a pack walk and I am not sure how else to deter that.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

Absolutely walking several dogs at once can make one or more of them want to "lead the pack" and stay out front. My younger dog is like that off leash since the lead dog get the opportunity to chase the rabbit and squirrels first!


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