Animal Chat

“This product has changed my life.” If this statement were generally true I would be 30 pounds lighter, have terrific abs and make $5,000 a month at home in my spare time. Since none of those things have happened to me, I am fairly skeptical about the statement “This product has changed my life.”

Imagine my surprise when someone walked into the clinic, pointed out a product on the shelf and announced to everyone in the room “This product has changed my life.”

The product she referred to was the gentle leader. The gentle leader is a training device that fits on a dog’s head. It is similar in appearance to a horse’s halter and the lead attaches under the jaw. Many people are under the mistaken impression that this is a muzzle, it is not.

The design makes a dog focus on the trainer or handler. It puts the handler, in the eyes of the dog, as leader of the pack. When a dog is paying attention and is submissive to the handler training happens much more easily. Proper use of a gentle leader is easy to learn, ask your veterinarian for assistance in using and fitting the gentle leader.

The person who called the gentle leader a life-changing product said that her dog changed from an obnoxious pest to a great dog. She said he is the kind of dog that everyone wants.

My personal puppy had decided that sliding under the front gate to visit the neighbors was a good idea. The neighbors and I thought this was a bad idea. I used a training collar from The Invisible Fence people. I had never used this type of collar before so I read the manual that came with it (always a good idea). Two hours later my puppy would not even attempt going near the front gate.

Behavior can be modified. Men can to put the toilet seat down and women can parallel park.

In dogs, behavior problems are the number one reason for euthanasia. Talk to your veterinarian. Behavior problems are fixable problems. There are many resources available to help you modify your dogs behavior.

As soon as your realize a behavior is becoming a problem, contact our office. The sooner behavior issues are addressed the easier they are to change. Everyone wants the perfect dog, sometimes it just takes some work to get there.