Martingale collar

Once Stella got old enough to go outside of our backyard, we were ecstatic! We took her to dog parks, mostly Fiesta Island and Balboa Park in San Diego, but also dog beach at Ocean Beach and some smaller local dog parks. She loved exploring, meeting new dogs, and, maybe more than anything, meeting people. It was wonderful to show her off and see her grow and change each time we took her out. Having her off leash is wonderful, and she always stays near us.

But when we started taking her on walks on a leash, I always got so nervous. I just had a vision of the future and being so embarrassed by having a 150 pound dog yanking me down the street. People were always making jokes that "the dog is walking me" just because she was already so big at such a young age. I did not want to have any problems with having her heel, so we needed to properly train her. But being a first time dog owner, I didn't really know how.  First, we just tried keeping her by our side, but she didn't want to be there; she wanted to explore and tell us where to go.

We tried putting her on the pincher collar, and she did not pull at all. But I was nervous about this too. She was young, and I didn't want to traumatize her with harsh correction, and I knew she was fearing the collar instead of respecting my command. She would walk great, so the next day I would try walking her on a regular collar, and I would be miserable with her pulling  me along, and me getting angry and frustrated. I would get so worked up because even if it wasn't too bad, I knew if it continued with her pulling, it would get worse as time went on, and I wouldn't know how to fix it.

So then we moved onto trying the martingale harness because we had read up on it, and they said it is a softer correction because it turns their leg, and therefore their body and their attention toward you and doesn't allow pulling. So we bought it, and tried to fit it correctly, and something was just off. It wouldn't  fit correctly, and after trying on several occasions to fit it right, we decided it wasn't working. Stella just wouldn't respond to it because it was so awkward for her.

Then we started personal training! Meagan and Kelly at the Collared Scholar are so awesome! They showed us the martingale collar, and we have been using it since. It looks like a regular flat collar, but its small bit of chain allows for you to give her quick corrections without overcorrecting. She responds so well, and we have been able to teach her to heel and she now walks on a loose leash YAY. I love that it isn't big and attention grabbing, but that it just has that little extra training assistance that helps when showing a puppy how to behave.

Stella looking good (well, kind of silly in this picture) with her martingale collar: