Roxy and Her New Harness

Do I have to wear this?

After using Don Sullivan's, The Perfect Dog, collar and training DVD and cards for about 7 months, it seemed Roxy progressed as much as she was going to.  I felt bad not giving her treats when she did what I commanded, which is a fundamental no-no for this training program.  The collar has sharp points on one side of the interlocking pieces and has the capability of tightening around the dog's neck when pulled on.  I followed the method and sure enough, it worked to a degree. 

When doing the training, the method is to say the command only twice and pull on the collar to get her to obey.  I did not like this painful method of correction that hurt her neck.  It was described as being similar to the teeth of a mother dog and mimics the feeling of what a pup feels when its mother trains it.  If you give her the same command over and over, she will learn to obey promptly, which she did.  So promptly though that she would do the action even before I gave the command!  She got bored and so did I.  If I stuck with training sessions every day for 20 min., who knows if she would have gotten better?  The goal of his training system is to get the dog to walk off leash with you with distractions.  Where I live, we have a leash law.  Dogs must be on a leash when out walking.

I liked have the 10' long leash that gives the dog more freedom and is very lightweight.  The only drawback to it is that there is no hand loop at the end to hold so I have to wrap it around my hand and wear gloves so the nylon leash does not give me a rope burn.  

When I saw the Doggie Kingdom harness, it looked really sturdy and comfortable for the dog.  I felt it was time to give Roxy a break.  She walks well on a leash for the most part and only flips out if another dog walking close by starts barking at her.  On occasion she will charge at a bird or squirrel and a dog in a car with its head out the window usually barking at her.  Anyhow, the collar with her tags is still on so if we do need to correct her, we can always give it a tug or two, but there is not absolutely no pressure at all on her neck as she walks along.

The funny thing is, she didn't like the harness the first couple times she wore it.  She would shake and when that didn't get it off, she rolled on the ground biting at it trying to get it off.  If you look close at the picture, the side is scratched up a bit from when she scraped it against a tree.   I am happy to report though, that with each walk wearing the harness, there are fewer rolling/biting episodes.  Today we went for an hour and a half walk with her wearing it and rolling only a few times, some of which were in leaves that she would have rolled in even without the harness.  I think she just needed a little time to get used to it.  I really like the reflective strip on the front and the reflective stitching around the edges for walking when it's dark outside and her name and phone no. shows up very nice. 

It also comes with a lifetime warranty.  Check it out at Doggie Kingdom.net.

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