Obedience class using the Gentle Leader

[gale]

I live in a very rural area so there aren't too many trainers around. In the town near us the 4H leaders are organizing an 8 wk long obedience course. The course is taught with a Gentle Leader. It is a requirement-if I don't have my own they will provide me with one (for $25-eek. I think I can find it cheaper?). Is this typical? Should we keep looking for another trainer? The only other one I've found so far is only willing to come to our house and tell us, in one session, how to train our dog. I don't think one session is enough and I want my 11 yo and my 8 yo (very mature 8) to be involved in her training as well. Other than those I haven't been able to find any trainers near us.

[Dekka]

Some very good trainers do use gentle leaders. I am not a fan of them, but can you go watch one of them work with their dogs and see if you like what you see. Ask them if they work to get the dogs off them. (the one very prominent trainer I know uses them for beginners and then once the dogs are very reliable, takes them off of it)

[Maxy24]

GLs are not bad but I don't like anything that is "required". If that is the only class you can find then watch a class before joining, just to make sure they are not misusing the equipment. I would look around a bit more though.

[gale]

Thanks. It won't be possible to watch a class first. It's an 8 wk long course with the first class being people only and I need to preregister. They aren't holding it currently so there's no way to go watch one. I think they do them a few times during the year. I have seen blurbs in the local paper about them in the past but never really paid attention since we didn't have a pup at the time. I know that an old friend of mine did great in 4H dog obedience but that was in a different state-I'm not sure if 4H is consistent with their policies everywhere or not. I will call one of the leaders and ask if they do work to get the dogs onto a regular collar. Or halter.

[eley@peoplepc.com]

I'm not a huge fan of GLs, I used one with my dog for some time and he just never really adpted to it. We did fit it correctly, desensitized him etc, but whenever he had it on he wouldn't be himself. Also, I agree that anything that is "required" is a red flag in my book. I've noticed that GLs are being used as proof of how "all possitve" a class is, but in my opinion that's ridiculous.

A class that requieres a gentle leader makes as much sense as one that requieres a pinch collar, because both are falling under the assumption that all dog will react the same way to these tools. By the way, the most important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, these things are just that, TOOLS. It is the trainer and the time you put into it what will make the trainning succesful or not.

[Herschel]

They aren't necessarily bad, but a lot of condition their dogs so they are unable to walk without a GL or other training aid. Supposedly the pressure on the dog's nose is calming, but a lot of us argue that it is suppressive.

Could you call the training people and ask about the requirement? If your dog starts to pull, you could use the GL.

[Zoom]

Echoing what others have said, I'd be wary of any class that has a specific required piece of equipement, beyond a certain length and type of leash and some sort of collar. Beyond that, it's going to be up to the owner to determine what they feel comfortable with using and what might be needed with the dog. Not all dogs do well with GL's and I've seen enough react negatively to it, besides being very hard to wean off of, that I'm not a fan of them. Not against them, but I prefer to try other things first.

[gale]

Update on this. I was obviously confused. When I went to the vet I saw a flyer on the wall about the classes and wrote down the info. It was through 4H. When we got finished at the vet the receptionist handed me a piece of paper about classes and I assumed it was the same class. Well it is not. The one she handed me the paper for (which she is the leader of I guess) is through the local kennel club and was the one that requires the gentle leader. I was going to go in and sign up for it today but noticed on the paper that it said puppies have to be 16 wks and Daisy will only be 15 wks when it starts. Then dh told me he saw a flyer for 4H obedience at the elevator (feed store) and it made me wonder if it was the same. So I dug out the numbers I had written down and called. It is not the same classes, the dog only has to be 3 mos old, and they do not require any certain type of collar. They have different types on hand to try out though. So we are going to try that one instead. It is easier on our schedule too. The first one was tuesday nights and my kids swim tuesday from 5:30 to 6. The classes started at 7 and we live about 30 min from town so I wouldn't have had time to drive home and back so we'd have to take her along somehow. This 4H one is sunday afternoons so the whole family can go (even dh-he only takes sundays off).

Thanks for everyone's input!

[MafiaPrincess]

Congrats. I'm glad you've gotten into what seems like a wonderful class. :)