Thought we had picked up a bargain....

Tinkerbell has been coming on really well on the halti, and is actually now a pleasure to walk. She walks by my side and is a lot easier to walk with a buggy in tow too. We really have put a lot of effort in with her and it is paying off. She also ignores people now, although she will have the occasional incentive to jump it is nowhere near as bad as it was, and I am confident walking her through town knowing she will only look at people and not make every effort to jump on every single person we pass. It has taken some weeks to achieve but she is doing so well and I am so pleased with her. Even if she sometimes has to have that one step in front on some days, staffie stubborness I suppose

However she is now refusing to wear her halti, and often on a walk she will just stand and refuse to walk on. Not great as I can't drag her incase someone thinks I am being mean and there is no way I can get her to shift. I try running on ahead of her, making silly noises to entice her to come with me, which normally works. Other times the only thing that works is pulling her halti off, which I am reluctant to do as it achieves what she wants, meaning she will learn that stopping and refusing to walk means she gets that horrid halti off.

We have been looking at buying her a harness, because although she is alot better on her collar walking and is slowly mastering heel on the collar too. When she gets distracted by other people or dogs she will try her hardest to pull over and see them. She also barks in excitment and because she is pulling it sounds like a snarl or aggressive bark. So I'd like to try her on a harness.

We were walking around the markets today when we spotted a lovely black leather staffie harness, and got it for £5. The guy that sold it to us had used it on a large male staffy, which meant it was too big for Tinkerbell even on the smallest holes. Ian has made new holes and it now fits, took her out on it tonight and she refused to walk further than the end of the road. I took her lead off the D ring and put it on her collar and she still refused to walk, so I ended up having to pull it off her completely.

How do I go about getting her used to it? It seems she is only happy to walk on her collar, which I'd rather she didn't because even with a lot more training I think she is still going to get excited when she meets other dogs and pull to go and see them.

I'm thinking about going back to basics with her, letting her wear it around the house first to get used to it, in the garden etc and loads of praise, then work up to adding a lead to the mix. Would this be the best thing to do, or do you think at the age of 15 months she is stuck in her ways?

Dogs can always learn new things. Keeping it on in the house could be usefull. We will walk Suki with both a harness and a collar on. She will pull alot for the first 10 minutes or so because she is excited to be out so we use the harness so she won't choke. We use the collar when there are other dogs around or we need to control her head. It's pretty easy to change the lead between the two. Hope this helps.

Yeah that's one of the reasons I would like her to wear a harness because she pulls so hard she can't breathe sometimes. She is getting heaps better except for the initial 5 mins which I can cope with. We always keep her collar on though so quite like the idea of changing her over to control her head, thanks.

Ho did you get her to stop jumping at people? That is my one problem with Charlie, he wants to jump on every dog and person he sees and most people really do not appreciate it and he has been snapped at by a few dogs because of it too.

We have so far only managed to get her to stop jumping on people as she walks past. She used to jump at people as we were walking along, people who were just walking past, or standing at the bus stop etc. The only way we have stopped this is to get her to heel whilst walking through town on a nightly basis. For a good couple of weeks now, I have been walking down to town where I know it is busy, so she sees a lot of different people. She used to get very excited, pull towards them and lunge when I wasn't expecting it.

Now with the heelwork and saying no as she is about to pull or jump towards someone, a case of watching her body language and getting in there before she jumped, we have got to the stage where she will turn her head to look at someone but not pull towards them or unexpectecdly jump on someone.

We are working on the jumping at people when she is allowed to meet them though But this is also coming on nicely with the people she meets ignoring her bouncing, headbutting and jumping all over them. Then when she gives up buncing and stands next to them they greet her and praise her. She is slowly learning this is the way to go.

And with the dogs, I allow her to sniff whilst she is calm, the moment she gets excited and bounds all over them I turn the other way. She is slowly learning that a sniff and little play is ok, but not a full on pounce. I suppose it is just patience but a big part has been watching her body language and getting in there before she jumps etc.

I find a harness encourages the dog to pull head down low to the ground and using all the weight pull from the front push from the back dont know what every one else thinks.

I thought they were able to pull more on a harness too, but she seemed to be ok when she wore it yesterday afternoon. She didn't pull on it but it was too big so we had to take it off her and adjust it. Since it has been adjusted she has decided she won't wear it full stop, and I have checked it to see if it is too tight!

I have the opposite problem with some of my dogs as they dont like walking with the lead attached to their collar but like it on their harness. My male Logan used to refuse point blank to walk unless he had his harness on but a week or so of walking him around the garden on his collar and lead and hes fine now.

Just a suggestion, but I have a lead with a clip on both ends, some advertise them as police training leads. I attach one clip to the collar and one to the harness and I can choose to take off whichever I want. The lead also has several rings down the length of it, which is about 80" and I can clip in to any ring I want to lengthen or shorten it, according to where we are walking. I find it gives me more control and Harry doesn't pull so much. Harry can be a bit iffy with some other dogs and I need to be able to have a firm hold when necessary.

Oh that lead sounds good, where did you get it from. At the moment she is on an extendable because we need to do some work on her recall before letting her off. But because she likes a run on the lead we bought the extendor to allow her a bit more freedom! I have been looking at getting her a decent training lead/long line though!

Sorry I don't know how to do a link but Amazon sell halti training leads and say they have 8 different functions, I think they are about £5. I have one of these in size L which is lovely and soft to use and I have one I bought at my local pet shop, think thats a Mikka one. Don't confuse the Halti training lead with a head collar its a totally different thing.

Worth a try, I wouldn't be without mine. Good Luck

I think you are right, make her wear it around the house and garden. Just keep doing normal things in your normal routine. She will sulk for a bit but once she realises she has no choice shes not going to want to miss out on cuddles and meal times for ever!

Thanks Lizzie, will have a browse when I get some free time! She already has a halti headcollar but spends the whole walk dragging her head on the floor to pull it off. So I am used to these, espcially as my last dog wore one on every walk. I will take a look at the training leads though!

Thanks Nosipho, I will put it on her later for a play in the garden and again when I am home tomorrow in the house! I do think she may well just need to get used to it as it must feel odd for her!