Gentle Leader Usage, Facts and Myths

You all know my dog Tucker by now.

Lovable lab. Energetic personality. Super eager to participate in life.

A little background: Tucker came into our lives as a young puppy, about 4 months old. He had been listed on Craigslist as an ‘unwanted puppy’! What even, right?! We adopted him and quickly fell in love with his big lovable energy. 

Coming from an animal behavior background, I got to work right away training this puppy. We worked on the basics like house training and simple obedience. Once we was a little older, we began going for short walks and I began teaching him how to walk on a loose leash. 

I quickly learned that I have no control over the outside world.

With a puppy as personable and cute as Tucker, it was difficult to explain to people that I was training my dog to ignore distractions such as themselves and therefore, I did not want them to pet him. 

I know it’s difficult to not pet a cute puppy, but being able to ignore distractions was a very important training goal of mine. But not everyone could understand that, and I was way too shy to stand up for myself. So more often than not, our walks turned into outings where Tucker knew he would meet someone new. Therefore, anytime a new person or dog would come into sight, he would pull with all of his little puppy might to go meet them.

(This is your casual PSA to please ask to pet someone’s dog before just going for it! It can be very frustrating to those of us training our pooches…!)

The reward of meeting someone new was far exceeding the reinforcement value of anything I had to offer Tucker. So he learned to pull on the leash when he wanted to meet someone new. I was worried about him choking himself and eventually, worried about how strong he would be as an adult dog.

Today I’d love to share with you one of my favorite training devices in Tucker’s toolkit, and the saving grace to this difficult behavior he learned.

What is a Gentle Leader?

A Gentle Leader (or head halter) is a device you hook the leash up to instead of the collar. Think of it like a halter you would use for a horse. The Gentle Leader has a loop that sits on top of the dog’s snout, hooks behind the ears, and you attach your leash to a loop underneath the jaw. Instead of pressure being applied at the neck and throat if the animal pulls, the pressure goes over the top of the snout. This redirects their head to turn back toward you instead of creating more and more pressure.

Why this instead of a typical collar hookup?

You know when your dog pulls too hard on the leash, and they make that loud choking and hacking sound? Yeah, that’s legitimately what is happening. They are choking themselves trying to get to whatever it is they want to get to. I was worried about Tucker doing this and developing damage to his throat over time. Not worth it! With the gentle leader, the pressure to the throat is eliminated. If they pull on the leash, the pressure instead is directed to the top of the snout, redirecting their head back towards you. 

Proper Usage

Just like any new experience, don’t expect your dog to immediately take to the gentle leader. It is going to be a weird feeling having something sitting on top and around your snout! 

For the first couple of days, we let Tucker wear the gentle leader clipped behind his ears without the nose strap in place (it was just hanging below his mouth). Over the next week or so, however long he needed, we gradually introduced him to the nose strap. We gave him plenty of treats and praise and rewards to make sure it was a positive experience. Once he was comfortable wearing the gentle leader around the house, we began hooking the leash up and resuming our loose leash walking training. 

It is so important to let them get used to it at their own pace. Make it as positive of an experience as possible – the last thing you want is for the gentle leader to be seen as a restrictive, punishment device.

Now, Tucker essentially puts the gentle leader on himself. He knows he gets to go for fun jaunts whenever he is wearing it!

Myths and Misconceptions

-Will it get my dog to stop pulling on the leash?

No no no no no no.

Let me just say this bluntly: There is no magical device that will make your dog stop pulling on a leash. Save your money, and don’t fall into those marketing ploys. The only thing that will guarantee a good walker is to provide consistent, positive training. Consistency is key.

-Isn’t it like a muzzle?

Again, no. I know that it kind of looks like a muzzle in a way. But while your dog is wearing a gentle leader, he has every opportunity to open his mouth. He can pant, drink, eat, grab a tennis ball. And yes, he can absolutely still bite if he needed to. 

This is not a muzzle.

So, how do I like it?

We really love using the gentle leader with Tucker. The tendency to pull toward people and dogs is still strong even after years of training. Using the gentle leader instead of a conventional collar to leash hookup has given me a peace of mind about him not destroying his throat from pulling. Ultimately, I have had to accept that I cannot control the environment around me in order to completely train that out of him. Boy we’ve gotten close (he’s a great walker on leash) but he’s not perfect. And that’s okay! I feel very comfortable walking him now since using the gentle leader.

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