Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Assistance Dogs 101: Leads


While being out and about with Henry, we're often approached by members of the public and one of the questions that is invariably asked is about Henry's leads and collar.

Henry has two collars - he has a home collar which is a regular collar. And then he has his working collar which is known as a martingale collar. It is similar to a choker collar but with a smaller chain loop which provides more control over the dog. Henry also has a halti that slips over his nose and clips together behind his ears. One end of his lead, which is very long, is hooked onto his collar, the other end onto his halti, which effectively gives me the handler, a loop lead to hold onto to.
Henry is trained to commands but if he doesn't listen, which isn't very often, we can give his collar a tug. His halti is the last resort for discipline and it is simply to turn his nose towards us. As some have asked, the halti is not to prevent Henry from biting or opening his mouth.
If you see us walking Henry, we keep his lead loose. He is under complete control this way. Keeping the lead too tight, he pulls against the lead.
L has a shorter lead that attaches to the side ring on Henry's left side of his body. The end of L's lead has a neoprene loop that slips over L's thumb and hand.
When Henry is on lead attached to his collar and halti, he knows that we are in control.
In the centre of his jacket at the back is another ring, this is where the retractable lead is attached when he's tracking. As soon as we attach the lead to that, Henry knows that he is control and he leads us
Oh and in these photos, Henry was keeping watch where his boy had gone!



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