Well..Ive heard so much about how good these gentle leaders are I decided to buy and try them out for myself. My lad Charlie pulls like a train and I always get back to the house with my back aching like mad. I put the gentle leader on him a couple of times in the house to get the fit correct. And this morning I decided it was time to try him on a walk with it. At first I thought wow!! What a difference this is making to his usual pulling and how easy it was to control him and stop him pulling. Then he saw a cat on the opposite side of the road and wanted to give chase!..stopping him was quite easy with the gentle leader but he was by this time becoming irritated by it. He was shaking his head to and fro trying to escape from it. I calmed him down and got him to carry on his walk..several minutes later he saw an elderly lady on the opposite side of the road...normally when he sees anyone he wants to get to them for a stroke and a fuss!! This time he was very different!!! He was agitated and started to froth at the mouth and then started barking at this lady then he started going ballistic!!! Growling snarling barking and fighting to get free!! This lady was terrified and understandably so...I got hold of Charlie and turned him away from the lady and tried to apologise but she was concerned for her safety as I think anyone would be faced with a BM foaming at the mouth and fighting to get to them. I was horrified to think I had caused this lady such distress and I hope I see her again (without any of my dogs) so I can apologise properly and if I can find out where she lives I will send her a large bunch of flowers as well. I waited for her to get out of sight then decided to look at Charlie and noticed he was not only foaming from the mouth he was also bleeding under his chin. His breathing was very heavy and he was panting uncontrollably. I took the gentle leader off him immediately and slipped the lead onto his normal collar. He calmed down considerably once I took the gentle leader off him and we managed to get home without further incident. He took a good hour to calm down properly and now seems to be fine. Ive never seen my dog so distressed before and Im hoping I can take him out in future now without him going mad at people. Im hoping he will be his usual happy self looking for people to fuss him once hes back on his normal collar or harness. Needless to say!! My views on the gentle leader are..never again!!! Charlie went from the most placid friendly dog to a monster in less than ten minutes!!!
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 08:23:47 +0000
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