Any advice on Halty collars

[Moshamoon]

One other thing I hear is that harnesses are meant for pulling (sled, etc.) I don't want to encourage the pulling. Are there any techniques using the freedom harness mentioned?

I think I will stick with the Martingale collar for a bit. It is a nice rolled leather (flat around the neck), with a chain martingale. The flat collars just get caught up in her fur, while this one does move up her neck more easily.

Again, thanks for all the responses. This forum has been so helpful.

[Rua]

I've used a Dogmatic on Juno. It works better than the Halti because it doesn't ride up into her eyes and it gives better control.

I don't particularly like the look of it, but it nearly passes for a muzzle, and has a muzzling effect of the dog lunges forward. By law Shepherds have to wear muzzles out here, so I could kill two birds with one stone by having her wear it.

I'm switching to a proper band muzzle with a D ring at the bottom in about a week or so. I hope it gives as much control as the Dogmatic. If it doesn't, I may have to resort to a prong collar because Juno loves to pull pull pull.

[Lilie]

I have used the Halti on my guy since he was a puppy. He is a three year old now. Although he really doesn't need the correction of the halti any longer, I like the control it gives me in the event we get into a jam.

My guy is aloof, and doesn't care for folks to come and fawn all over him. He doesn't react, he just doesn't care for it. I have found that using the halti, people do mistake it for a muzzle and will not approach for unwanted petting.

[Rua]

Originally Posted by Lilie

I have found that using the halti, people do mistake it for a muzzle and will not approach for unwanted petting.

Yeah, that definitely has it's benefits. Especially when you have a dog like Juno that doesn't really like strangers. The Dogmatic tends to look even more Muzzle-ish because it's design is slightly different to the Halti. I'm not sure they do them in the US though, do they?

[sheep]

I tried to use one of this, and thought he was getting used to it on our first walk with it, with occasional pawning and pulling, when we passed by another dog, his reactivity escalated and he pulled madly and scratched his own muzzle in frustration. It was a horrible sight, and then he got two scratch wounds on the muzzle. Ironically, he never got wounded by the prong.

I tried it as I wanted to drop the prong, and I believe that it can be a great tool, as the prong is not a good tool to deal with reactivity. It is even used in some cases to motivate and build the bite drive. With the halti, I'd take away the neck pressure and can pull his muzzle away, breaking the eye contact. Also, I can close his muzzle with that, which demotivates him to be reactive.
But this tool is not safe for our case in daily walks, it has to be used in training sessions, as in daily walks we can't always avoid other dogs, making it hard to avoid passing threshold.

[Lilie]

Originally Posted by Rua

Yeah, that definitely has it's benefits. Especially when you have a dog like Juno that doesn't really like strangers. The Dogmatic tends to look even more Muzzle-ish because it's design is slightly different to the Halti. I'm not sure they do them in the US though, do they?

I really don't know. I'll look around and see if it's available here.