I would like to know of how many people have heard of Gentle Leaders and do you use them.?

Favorite Answer

I don't use them because my hounds don't pull too much and a harness works wonders on my smooth fax terrier.
My sister on the other hand has an English Springer who is fine on the lead and a stocky and strong little Lab/Corgi cross who pulls a lot. she uses the gentle leader on him and anytime I look after her dogs I use it on him too. It's a fantastic invention and I don't see why they're not more popular...Show more

I've used gentle leaders, haltis and other brands of head collars with limited results on my own dogs. I have clients that use them with great success. My own dogs never did stop fighting the device. In fact they pulled my more by trying to rub them off. Like any other training tool they need to be used with care and knowledge. Allowing a dog to lunge can do some serious damage to his neck and back. The goal of any training device is to train the dog to behave without it. after that it's just a crutch or management device. I train my dogs with a goal of walking on a loose leash with a buckle collar or even no leash at all....Show more

Yep. I've used it, on an oppositional 130 pound Great Dane. Worked great! Better than choke collars, or spike collars or...anything. The other types of collars he just ignored. And honestly I was always afraid they could hurt him, but the reality is he just ignored them and kept pulling or did whatever he wanted to. The gentle leader was amazing. Walked him first day and every day after. He eventually got too big for the largest size, so I made one out of two standard collars. Not as good as the original, but it still worked better than anything else.

Oh ya, the top of his nose did get raw/tender fairly quickly if he pulled too much. You have to watch for that and discontinue for a few days if/when that happens. Be careful with that. If you don't watch it I would think that it could become quite raw, quite quick....Show more

I have heard of them and I did use one for my dog(it was suggested by the trainer we were working with). My dog hated it - even after 6 months of working with one on she still rubbed her nose/muzzle on the ground to try and get it off, which lead to her nose getting wounds on it. Plus it rubbed the fur off her muzzle(it was the right size/fitted right).


Using one *did* help in training her to walk nicely(on a loose leash) but I also worked really hard with her to fix the mistake I made in the first place(with not teaching her to walk on a loose leash when she was a puppy). I stopped using it after 6 months and don't use one any more. I don't think I'll use it again in the future for any other dogs I might get. Now that I know how to train a dog to not pull-I'll do that, if I do need the assistance of the training tool, I'll probably look into a different training tool....Show more

They are like duct tape: they fix the problem but the problem is still there. Dogs on head halters do not learn how to walk nicely, so they are still untrained dogs. As long as you want to always walk the dog on a halter and never be able to graduate to a regular buckle collar, which is the goal of proper obedience training, then go ahead and use it.
I like being able to slip on any lead or leash and collar and having a trained dog that walks nicely....Show more