The Gentle Leader

No, I'm not talking about my boss or the President. Maggie our rescue pup was ten months old when we adopted her. She came to us with no training whatsoever and a very sad past. She had no idea how to walk on a leash. Training a puppy to walk on a leash is one thing...training a ten month old Border Collie mix is quite another.

I tried to walk her with Wrigley. I tried to walk her without Wrigley. The result was always the same.....she dragged me down the street practically pulling my arm out of the socket! I tried everything I knew and none of it worked. I couldn't keep her at my side, and once she got in front of me she would zig and zag all over the place. I can't tell you how many times I almost ate the pavement.

Michael had a problem training his Aussie and he purchased a Gentle Leader head collar. We have a little family joke about it even. One time when we were watching Teagan for them, Michael drew us a picture of how to put the Gentle Leader on her. We laughed so hard at his drawing....the dog in the drawing looked more like an ant eater!!

Anyway, the idea behind the Gentle Leader is that it puts pressure on a dog's nose in the same manner in which a lead dog communicates with dogs lower in rank. The dog immediately understands her place and considers the owner her leader.

When it's time to walk each day, Maggie sits and waits for me to put the Gentle Leader on her. As soon as it's on her.....Irv and I start laughing because she stops moving. She sits and just stares straight ahead and won't even acknowledge you when you talk to her. It is so darn funny.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see it across the top of her nose, under her eyes. See how serious she looks?

We can now walk every day without any pulling, dragging or tripping. Three cheers for our Gentle Leader!!

(Added note: If I'm not around for a little while it's because my home computer died. Certainly not what I needed right now...but what are you going to do. I'm going to talk to someone at work here today and see what they think. If it ends up being a lost cause, I will need to get a new one. I'll be checking in occasionally while I'm at work. We did get 12 inches of snow last night and woke at 4:00 a.m. this morning because we were having a 4.3 earthquake! I'll tell you about it when I am up and running. Make it a good one!)