My Dog's Confidence Goes Down When Wearing Halter

[fainty_girl]

I recently bought Tilly a Black Dog training halter and it has worked really well with stopping her from pulling on the lead.

The problem is that her confidence goes down when she's wearing the halter. She is normally a confident and enthusiastic dog, but she becomes pretty sooky when wearing her halter.

I should mention that she hasn't worn the halter a lot yet, because she normally plays off-lead at parks for exercise, so it is not something she wears frequently.

The past two weekends I have brought Tilly along to some busy weekend food markets, and she has worn the halter. She was very well behaved at the markets both times, but was very sooky. If I stand there waiting she tries to go in between my legs to hide, or will lay down on the ground and look sad, or she will try to rub her face on my shopping bags because of the halter. She was happy to get pats from strangers though (as usual), but she was sooky with them too (a father and his daughter wanted to pat Tilly - the father was crouching down, so Tilly tried to hide between his legs ). She didn't try to hide herself from anyone else though and she got plenty of pats from a lot of people afterwards.

How can I build her confidence so she feels more comfortable wearing the halter?

Tilly also has sensitive skin, so the halter has been the one thing i've used on her that doesn't rub her fur off and irritate her skin, so I don't want to give up on it just yet!

[huski]

This is exactly the reason why I'm not a big fan of head collars, many dogs find them quite aversive and uncomfortable to wear even when they're not being 'corrected'. This can make it difficult to communicate clearly to the dog because the tool is aversive to them the entire time they are wearing it, as opposed to other tools like martingales, pressure point collars etc that only correct the dog when pressure is applied to the leash.

What have you done to desensitize her to the head collar? If you go through the appropriate process to fit it and train her to wear it I wouldn't persevere if she continues to be miserable when she's wearing it. There are lots of other options available.

ETA: If she's got sensitive skin, I imagine the skin on her face would be pretty sensitive, could it be irritating her?

Edited October 26, 2009 by huski

[angelsun]

This is exactly the reason why I'm not a big fan of head collars, many dogs find them quite aversive and uncomfortable to wear even when they're not being 'corrected'. This can make it difficult to communicate clearly to the dog because the tool is aversive to them the entire time they are wearing it, as opposed to other tools like martingales, pressure point collars etc that only correct the dog when pressure is applied to the leash.

I agree huski, and I won't use head halters at all for those reasons, as well as I've seen far too many neck injuries develop as a result of wearing them. Perhaps I"m old fashioned but I still use a correction collar and some good old fashioned patience to solve the pulling issue.

[Kavik]

Someone posted a video before of how to desensitise to a headcollar. Will see if I can find it - I'm not that great with the search function though Think it was a Chow Chow?

[poodlefan]

The pressure of the head collar on your dog's muzzle is supressing your dog's drives Fainty... that's why she's not pulling. It's shutting her down.

She's rubbing because she finds it uncomfortable. If collars rub her skin, expect to see hair loss on her muzzle also.

Does a cotton martingale collar rub her skin?

[Steve K9Pro]

K9: All good replies & this article may help Head Halters

[gsdog2]

K9: All good replies & this article may help Head Halters

Interesting article .

I've never been comfortable with the idea of head halters and this article confirms my determination not to use one on any of my dogs.

[kelpiechick]

Have you only tried the Black Dog version? While I am a huge fan of Black Dog products in general, I don't especially like their halters and neither did the 2 of my dogs who are 'halter trained'.

Unlike some others, I am a big fan of halters - when used correctly with the right dogs, but just like all tools they certainly don't suit all dogs, which is why only 2 of my 4 adults were trained to walk on them - and phased out when no longer necessary.

Susan Garrett has a really good article about conditioning head collars, titled 'Falling in Like with a Head Collar' - not sure if it is available free on her website or not but you could try : www.clickerdogs.com

With a dog that resisted wearing it to a large degree, I would be starting with very short sessions in familiar locations and tons of reinforcement at first and then re-assess if you think it is going to be 'doable'/ the right tool or not.

[huski]

K9: All good replies & this article may help Head Halters

Interesting article .

I've never been comfortable with the idea of head halters and this article confirms my determination not to use one on any of my dogs.

Suzanne Clothier also has a really good article on head collars on her website:

http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/54/97/

[persephone]

I have used head collars quite a few times, on dogs who were already trained,as live-in therapy dogs and the halters were chosen as they enabled better control by the infirm owners. The dogs were labs, and already settled...and adult.

This use of them worked very well indeed, and I can't remember any problems....

[persephone]

that said -(sorry ,edit function not working atm) ..I don't like the thought of them being used on young pulling dogs .

[fainty_girl]

Thanks everyone for your replies .

This is exactly the reason why I'm not a big fan of head collars, many dogs find them quite aversive and uncomfortable to wear even when they're not being 'corrected'. This can make it difficult to communicate clearly to the dog because the tool is aversive to them the entire time they are wearing it, as opposed to other tools like martingales, pressure point collars etc that only correct the dog when pressure is applied to the leash.

What have you done to desensitize her to the head collar? If you go through the appropriate process to fit it and train her to wear it I wouldn't persevere if she continues to be miserable when she's wearing it. There are lots of other options available.

ETA: If she's got sensitive skin, I imagine the skin on her face would be pretty sensitive, could it be irritating her?

I suppose I haven't really desensitised her to the halter. Just given her time to relax before putting the halter on.

I haven't noticed any irritation on the skin on her face...the other things that i've tried have rubbed her fur off and left her with red skin. I've tried a check chain, cesar millan illusion collar and black dog training collar and all have irritated her skin.

The pressure of the head collar on your dog's muzzle is supressing your dog's drives Fainty... that's why she's not pulling. It's shutting her down.

She's rubbing because she finds it uncomfortable. If collars rub her skin, expect to see hair loss on her muzzle also.

Does a cotton martingale collar rub her skin?

Before buying the halter I tried Tilly with this style of Black Dog training collar, that was meant to be gentle and not rub off fur: http://blackdog.net.au/images/bdw/products/TC30Blue.gif

And it rubbed off her fur and left her with red skin, even on a short walk with only a little pulling.

Is there another brand of martingale collar that would be better? I actually didn't mind the style of collar (although Tilly was still hard work on the lead), but I felt terrible when I saw what it did to her neck.

Have you only tried the Black Dog version? While I am a huge fan of Black Dog products in general, I don't especially like their halters and neither did the 2 of my dogs who are 'halter trained'.

Unlike some others, I am a big fan of halters - when used correctly with the right dogs, but just like all tools they certainly don't suit all dogs, which is why only 2 of my 4 adults were trained to walk on them - and phased out when no longer necessary.

Susan Garrett has a really good article about conditioning head collars, titled 'Falling in Like with a Head Collar' - not sure if it is available free on her website or not but you could try : www.clickerdogs.com

With a dog that resisted wearing it to a large degree, I would be starting with very short sessions in familiar locations and tons of reinforcement at first and then re-assess if you think it is going to be 'doable'/ the right tool or not.

Yes i've only tried the Black Dog version.

Edited October 27, 2009 by fainty_girl

[4 Paws]

Someone posted a video before of how to desensitise to a headcollar. Will see if I can find it - I'm not that great with the search function though Think it was a Chow Chow?

Is this the one you are thinking of Kavik

[corvus]

Hmmm, it's a tricky one. Surely anything that slows pulling also rubs skin and fur?

Assuming that the head collar rubs less than anything else and you want to work on Tilly's confidence, could you do a little training while she's wearing it? My dogs tend to forget about a lot of things when I'm handing out treats every second.

Have you tried making a fleecey sleeve for your martingale? The Ruffwear Web Master harnesses come with fleece sleeves for the straps that go under the dog's belly. They are loose enough that the straps can be loosened or tightened without taking the sleeve off, but protect the tender belly from the nylon straps.

[Kavik]

Thanks 4 Paws - that's the one I was thinking of!