Tango on a leash

Well, we went for a walk this morning and Tango got to experience a Halti. Apparently he walks nicely on a pinch collar, but I tend to like the Halti better becuase I have had good luck with dogs learning not to pull at all wearing the Halti.

The updside of the Halti is that it uses the same principle as a horse hackamore - steer the nose and the rest will follow. They're pretty easy to use, and although I have the older model, the newest models now have a safety line on them. Before, if a dog pulled hard, turned to face you, and backed up, he could pull out of the Halti. The new line attaches to the collar so if the dog pulls out of the face harness, you are still connected.

The peril of the Halti is that if your leash is slack and your dog gets up some steam and lunges for something, it could probably do some damage to his neck. You can guard against this by paying attention and being sure he doesn't get enough slack to get a running start.

The dogs generally don't like the Halti much, at least not at the beginning, and the more stubborn ones will stop periodically to try to paw it off of their faces. They get over this, however. I rationalize working through this period by pointing out that if the dog is more pleasant to walk, there will be more walking.

I have also found that some dogs, after a few months of Halti walking, will walk nicely without one. I think this just depends on the dog.

Anyway, at first Tango was pretty annoyed by the Halti, but by the end of our walk, he had figured out that he WAS outside and checking out the neighborhood. I think it will take him a couple more walks before he doesn't try to scrape the Halti off, but he's progressing.

He is also figuring out that he gets more and better attention if he comes up and sits by you instead of just walking up and shoving his nose in your face, lap, armpit, whatever. We have more work to go on that, but he's making progress.

Tango is not only lovey-dovey, he's smart. He figured out pretty quickly that the standard routine is to go straight outside when coming out of his crate. This morning, I watched him leave his crate, go out the back screen door, and then make a direct loop for the doggie door on the other side of the patio. He knows that if he goes straight out and turns right around that I will just kick him out again so he was going from one door to another instead. Clever boy.

I have let him sleep in the bedroom in his crate the last few nights and he whines just a tiny bit and then quiets down and goes to sleep. I think he likes being in with the "pack".

We are still working on being quiet during the day when he is in his crate. Because I work from home, he tends to get whiny when he sees me moving around. I am confident that he will figure out that he can just hang out quietly with everybody else (my dogs tend to chill out in my office when I'm in there).

Well, more work to do. I'll do some "school" later today, basic obedience and maybe some tricks to keep things fresh.