leads, collars etc

hi, is a short lead better than a long lead
is a harness better than a collar
what about a halti

im using a half choke collar and a short lead and he really pulls

How long's a piece of string?

It all depends on what you & your dog are comfortable with. The only thing I would say is that a short lead isn't always practicle. It's better to have a longer lead that you can shorten if necessary. I use an 8' training lead that can be shortened & is double ended.

I use a half check, but only because Dempsey manages to pull out of conventional collars. I don't like harnesses (just my own opinion) because i don't have enough control over the 'sharp end', ie the pearly white shark teeth!

What have you been doing to stop the pulling?

The 90% of the time that Blue doesn't pull has nothing to do with what lead or collar he wears. I only have to say oi or look at him and he stops.
The coin flip is the other 10% of the time when he decides he is pulling no lead or collar/harness stop him

We use a combination of all of them and really depends on what we are doing. We use a half check collar as well as a harness most of the time. If we have to be sure we can control her head we use the collar and then clip the lead on the harness when we don't

I highly recommend a nose halti harness, it worked a treat with mine, it just takes time. Something else you could try, with or without the halti nose harness: Practice walking inside the house or in your backyard, either way it's important you are in familiar territory to start off with. Have a hand full of treats ready to go. Start with your pup sitting next to you, then take a few steps and place a treat next to your foot where you want your pup to stay next to you and say "yes" or whatever you treat or keyword is. Repeat this every few steps, going around in circles, if you practice this every day inside until this practice has solidified, then venture outside for a short walk doing the same thing.
It takes small steps and a lot of persistence, but this definately worked with mine, let me know how you go