PetSafe Gentle Leader Head Collar with Training DVD

It works well for my lab and it is light, fits him well and does not feel threatening

My dog, as he transitioned from a well trained puppy for a more edge pushing dog, taught himself to pull hard on the lead whenever he saw another dog nearby, or a tree he wanted to sniff, or pee on, or a person he wanted to greet, etc. He's easily distracted and when he gets something into his mind he'll go for it.He's still extremely trainable, readily learning new tricks or to associate words with different things, but I couldn't get him to stop frequently pulling on the lead when he saw something he wanted.That was until now. It took a few short walks to get him used to it and to stop struggling against it, but since then his walking has been absolutely PERFECT. No pulling, much better attention and of taking directions, etc. I'm absolutely astonished by how well this works.

We adopted a Pyredoodle (Great Pyrenees/Poodle mix) about a year and a half ago. He is a rescue dog named Karl. Adopt don’t shop! He was only a year old and we were his fourth home because he is huge and no one had taken the time to work with him and so he was out of control with his manners. He is absolutely gorgeous and the sweetest dog you ever met. He has calmed down quite a bit since we’ve had him and worked with him, but he was super wild on a leash and would end up yanking me down the street, so I never was able to take him for a walk. I had seen people who had these things on their dogs, and I always thought that it was like a muzzle or something and that the dog must be a biter or the people were mean for putting that on their dogs snout. I saw this on Amazon and it had excellent reviews and I saw what it was for, so I figured I would get one, even though I basically had zero faith that it would work.. I got it a few weeks ago and put it on him around the house for a few minutes at a time several times. I let him eat with it on, as was suggested, to make sure it was not too tight. Today we tried it out! I am in awe! Karl was a perfect gentleman the whole time we walked around the neighborhood for an hour. I don’t ever write reviews because I’m not easily impressed by things, but this is simply amazing! I think everyone who has a dog who is having a hard time being trained on a leash should get one of these. Both dog and owner will be so much happier!

Update:The collar clasp is now done for. After removing one side snapped off. I've never had this happen on one of these types of clasps. The plastic seems more cheaply made or brittle not soft. They really skimped on an area that I would believe to be the most important area to avoid the collar coming off and the dog escaping.We have a larger dog that pulls very strong and quickly. Really hurt my wife once pretty bad, requiring surgery.We tried a harness, dog is able to pull right out somehow of everything we tried by slipping backwards. She has a narrow sleek frame so harnesses dont seem to work well with those types of dogs.We tried the double collar method. Worthless.We tried the FI GPS collar. It will tell you about nothing, and will cost you a monthly fee. If your dog only has two legs, it will pinpoint your dog within 100 feet, otherwise it will send you on a wild goose chase. We tried everything, it just doesnt work.The goal here is, to stop the dog from pulling so hard and to keep the dog on the leash.The gentle leader accomplishes both. The dog CANNOT pull too hard because then its neck and head will be facing the opposite direction suddenly, not what they want to have happen. While the dog can still learn to pull straight ahead and learned quickly, a opposite pull from the owner helps keep the dog from pulling too hard.The only concern is have is, while the idea is great the materials used seem rather cheap. The plastic clasp for example is the typical plastic spring type clip that stays put because of two thin plastic straps. You see these on less expensive helmets, kids toys etc. I do not have alot of confidence in this collar because of this. It already appears to be losing its 'snap'. The part that goes over the nose is rather thin with a thin piece of padding for comfort of the dog, I'm watching the threading carefully to ensure it doesnt come undone. Any point of failure means a lost dog here.The collar itself takes some getting used to in order to understand how you need to put it on the dog for each outdoor session. I love that fact that once you set it, you pretty much can take it on/off very quickly once you get the hang of it. Anything that is a pain to use, we just wouldnt likely keep using it. So between the german prong collar which we named the 'kill collar' and this leader, I'm hoping we start using the gentle leader more often but again I'm nervous it will fail at the worst time (cold/night/crowded area). So we will likely only use the gentle leader when we are out in the country and continue to use the steel prong collar to keep trying to train the dog to stop running off or pulling us down the street.

This is my third gentle leader. If my dog takes one bite, it’s gone it’s very lightweight fits very comfortably. I just wish it was thicker.