Right Behind the Ears

     Henry has cycled through a variety of collars. The standard collar that he arrived with did not seem adequate since he pulled so much. So he was fitted with a front attaching harness. It helped with the pulling but when his behavioral issues cropped up he started wearing a gentle lead to correct his undesirable behavior. The gentle lead was helping, but because of his excessive barking, it wore out too much hair on his muzzle. So he started wearing a prong collar. It was a difficult decision to put something which looks like a medieval torture device on him. But I tried it on myself. It does not hurt and is probably safer for him than a standard collar.

     Just to try something new, I hitched the prong collar up as high as it would go. This is a position some trainers recommend because it gives the handler better control of the head and therefore better control of the dog. I had tried this when I was a dog walker with little success. Whenever a dog would pull, the collar would slide to the base of the neck. But with Henry I kept just enough tension on the leash so that Henry could not drop his head. And I held the leash just an inch or two from where it attaches to the collar. This way the collar stayed right where it is supposed to; right behind the ears. And it does give me more control over Henry. By keeping him close to me, slightly behind me with no freedom to lunge, he is less reactive to other dogs. And when he does become overexcited at the sight of another dog I can turn him around, both literally and figuratively (behaviorally) more easily. With patience, I have gotten him to walk right next to other dogs with no barking. Once there, I can give him some freedom on the leash and he behaves well.

     Henry went to a dog park for the first time. He still is eager to rush up to other dogs but on a short leash with his head under my control he can not. We approached the other dogs circuitously. When he was overexcited I steered him away from them. When he was more calm, I walked him toward them. One by one, he was introduced to the four or five other dogs that were there. Once he got close enough to sniff them, I could relax the leash and he behaved well. Once he had met all the other dogs I let him off the leash. He played nicely with the other dogs for a few minutes. 

     Then a new bunch of dogs arrived. Henry was overexcited, approached the other dogs barking and he even nipped two of them. (He has a habit of nipping dogs that are running away from him on the flank or back.) When I saw that, I wanted to put him back on the leash but there was no reigning him in. He was running around, ignoring me, having a great time. I followed him, walking, hoping that eventually he would come to me and I could leash him. It didn't happen. But after a few minutes of trying to catch him the need had passed. He was just running around, his tongue hanging absurdly far out of his mouth. He has some room to run freely during his play-dates at Northeast Coonhound Rescue, but this space was much larger. And Henry made use of it. It was wonderful to see him enjoying himself, just running for the sake of running.

   Eventually he ran close enough to Janelle for her to get a hand on his collar. I will have to think twice before letting him off-leash in a space like that. His recall is probably better than average for a hound, but still not good enough to let him run free anywhere. It was important milestone for Henry to have a (mostly) successful day at dog park. And it was a pleasure to see him enjoying himself so much.

Zico & Henry in the car after dog park