Halti harness?

[Sparkle79]

We urgently need to fix the car chasing as pup is getting bigger and stronger. Still working on the sensitise desensitise but can't always drive to somewhere without cars so sometimes it's either a pavement walk or no walk and I'm concerned that he is going to snap his collar one of these days.

Has anyway had a successful experience using a halti collar for a similar issue?

Halti’s products work by causing discomfort when they pull - you’d risk putting all your desensitisation work to waste.

You’d be better off with just a nice solid harness and a double ended training lead.

Yes we have a 2posh2pull it’s nicely fleece lined. We tried and tried with the loose lead training, ddog was good sometimes but him pulling me into someone to get at his dog (to play) and me hurting my hand was the last straw, as I realised that I didn’t really have control of him. The 2posh2pull was a game changer for us

I would not use a halti harness as it is painful to the dog and also very easy for them to get out of.

Perfect fit harness with front and back d ring and double ended lead would be

But every time you allow your dog to practice the chasing behaviour it will be harder to change

@PollyRoulson thanks, you said that on another thread about practicing the behaviour, so I'm always conscious that I don't want him to have the opportunity to practice! It's just so difficult as we can't always drive him for his walks. I feel a bit hopeless so clutching at straws a bit.

Continuing to expose him to the stimulus in the absence of structured desensitisation will just make it harder for your training to succeed. Especially if it's fear based, every time a car passes too close the negative state of mind and potential reaction is being reinforced.

Some dogs do seem to get over car chasing with haltis etc but it's hard to tell whether this happens through just shutting down (not great), the application of an aversive, or flooding...none of them great ways to kindly train.

One of the things our dog is frightened by is a German shepherd that lives next door but one and barks from the front garden at every passing dog. When we finally accepted that continuing to pass that dog was harming his progress and just sensitising him, we started to make progress.

Basically, every single walk has to be about training, even if this vastly limits where you can go or what you do - there may be ways to get creative and create more distance from passing cars so you can work with him when you're walking from home. But just continuing to walk there without doing the behavioural training is unfortunately likely to slow down the progress you make, and could risk making it worse.

Would recommend a two ring harness and a double ended lead so you have good control but basically if you are needing to use it, that's a bit too close. Desensitisation occurs at the level where the dog doesn't feel a need to react.

We have a stubborn breed of hound who was awful on the lead when younger despite constant training and practice.

We have a halti dual clip lead with a perfect fit harness, and using the lead with both clips on the harness really helped. We mostly don't need to use both clips anymore but it really helped with the training.

We have used a halti headcollar in the past as well and she was fine with it. Good luck!

I’m assuming the harness is wanted just so you know you have him rather than thinking it’ll fix it - so yeah, perfect fit, ruff wear, that type of thing is probably what you want.

What are you doing to desensitise him btw?

If you can btw, I’d not be that worried about walking him and just spend ages sat outside your house training instead - that way if he can see he’s approaching it being too much you can go straight back inside.

@tabulahrasa thank you. We are doing the clicker training (as recommended by @PollyRoulson I think) outside our house, click when he looks towards the approaching car, and when he looks away give him a high value treat. We are getting further down the garden path without him reacting but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

@ferretface that all makes sense. I don't think it's fear based. He's a collie X so I think it's his herding instinct.

Mine's a collie too, we didn't have this problem (had others!) but it's quite a common thing.

As well as your desensitisation i would work on self control games like its yer choice and also teach him a really strong positive default behaviour of looking at you. A lot of being a working collie is actually controlling drives and the drive to chase then releasing it on command so if you can tap into that self control, you'll be well on your way. He might enjoy a flirt pole as a reward after a good session?

@ferretface thanks, that's all helpful. I hadn't heard of its yer choice but just had a look and will definitely try that. We do similar things and yes he loves a flirt pole!

I'm not sure how old your pup is but most my pups have tried to chase cars , bikes , joggers. They do grow out of it. I was recommended a canny collar I've never used one but they are a training collar not for permanent use. The canny is suppose to be more comfortable. It depends on the size of your dog as my dogs almost 40 kilo and I have two. It's OK others saying don't use one but some training methods don't work and all dogs are different. Rather than risk injury you may have to consider using one until your dog is desensitised to the distractions.

Have a look at the Dogmatic it's a much better alternative to a Halti, it does not ride up into the eyes or affect opening or closing the mouth.