I think the gentle leader works because it is the dog's nature to pull against the leash, and this puts pressure on the BACK of the head. This circumvents their instinct to pull against pressure.
I think you have found a good solution and with your knee, you not getting injured is the number one priority.
This hopefully can be an intermediate measure for you, but if you are not able to accomplish with training what you can with the gentle leader, then at least you won't have to get pulled around.
My dog is so high drive that I am convinced I'll always need some sort of power steering with her. Right now we either do the GL for walks, or the prong. At the moment the prong is our device of choice, but the GL works, and we use that when the kids walk her.
I think you have found a good solution and with your knee, you not getting injured is the number one priority.
This hopefully can be an intermediate measure for you, but if you are not able to accomplish with training what you can with the gentle leader, then at least you won't have to get pulled around.
My dog is so high drive that I am convinced I'll always need some sort of power steering with her. Right now we either do the GL for walks, or the prong. At the moment the prong is our device of choice, but the GL works, and we use that when the kids walk her.