Canny Collar

J

jhermit

Forums Novice
Hi,

Anybody tried the Canny collar? My girl pulls a lot during walks and I am trying to get her off that behavior. I have tried several things but not getting very far. Someone recommended a Canny Collar. Is it worth it? Is it safe?
 
It's no different than any of the head halters, and not something you should need. Teaching to not pull comes from you, not from a device. If she is pulling and you are continuing your walks, then you are rewarding the pulling behavior. Your dog has no idea that she is exhibiting a behavior you don't like. So when she hits the end of her leash pulling, just stop or "make like a tree". When she turns around like "Hey!", then call her back to you are start walking again. Repeat until she figures out that pulling gets her nowhere. The first few walks will suck :smile2: and will probably be very short.
 
With Emma, when she would pull on the leash, I would either stop or turn and go the other way. She would come up, looking at me, like "What's up Mom? You're going the wrong way!". It worked - I have not needed anything other than her regular collar. Now, however, I do have a harness for her as I put one on Liam - he slips his collar.
 
I'm with Rachael!

I don't think Shelties need special harnesses or whatever. It's not like they are 100 lbs and can pull you along.

That being said, I do believe in martingales because of the unique shape of the Sheltie neck and head. With their thicker neck (and ruff), it requires you to leave the collar a little loose. The problem is that with a loose collar, the Sheltie, with its fine head, can slip it if it gets excited. I only needed it to happen once to Bacca, and we were out shopping.

But more importantly, I've found Rachael's technique for a pulling dog very effective as well. I just stop, and wait for the dogs to come back to me (with a joyful, YES!) then we move on again.
 
How old is she? I don't recommend using head collars on pups, at least before 6mths. Most pups will pull on the leash, they need to be trained not to pull. Instead focus on teaching loose leash walking, best to teach her to walk on a normal collar when she is young.
 
Had the Canny Collar and Kyara hated it. It helped for pulling but it wasn't curing it. Anytime she had just a flat collar or harness on she would pull. I could have put more time in training her to adjust to the collar with treats but just decided on spending lots of time training loose leash walking on a flat collar.

Here are great videos by kikopup that really helped me: http://www.dogmantics.com/Dogmantics/Leash_Walking_Vids.html
Took me a bit of time to realize that it is quite simple to do. It is just less fun to take walks in the beginning but it gets better.

My suggestions:

  1. Always leave enough leash so that you have a nice ''J'' shape like this : http://blog.outugo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Loose-Leash-Walking-Lily3.jpg.

  • Have treats with you at all time and when dog is in correct position treat her. OR use a wooden spoon full of peanut butter that you lower down for a lick when the dog gets and stays in position. Eventually you want to reward after more and more steps in the correct position. I really like using a clicker for this in the beginning cause Kyara seems to ''get'' things faster when I use it.

  • If she starts pulling, call her over with kissing sounds and/or tapping your leg. If she doesn't come after a couple of calls do the tree as mentioned above, and stand there as long as she gets back in position. Or you can also do the U-turn like Emmasmom suggested. I also alternated between the two.

  • BE CONSISTENT. That was my main problem, I would get lazy on a walk and not call her back when she pulled, then the next time it was worst.

Finally, one awesome thing is having a waist leash because it prevents you from accidentally holding the leash tight or jerking it. It also seems like the dog understands better that the leash pulling is caused by himself. (see : this post)

Anyhow I hope this helps.
 
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