Although we all love to see our wolfhounds galloping freely, there are times in the life of any dog when we require him to walk quietly at our side without pulling. Training methods to achieve this desirable state are many and varied, probably because none is 100% effective, or may not suit all dogs.
McKenna has always been very tolerant of her Halti.
Chewie gets into a bit of bondage.
Body harnesses give good control, but aren't very dignified.
We have used Haltis (head collars) in the past, and they are popular and certainly effective, but not all dogs tolerate them well.
The difficulties of walking a young wolfhound in crowded streets with no Halti/harness/bridle to hand was brought home to us some years ago when we visited Stratford-on-Avon with Harry Potter, Darcy's litter brother.
Picture the scene: the streets are crowded with sight-seers and shoppers. Paul and Anne are walking Darcy; Fran and Bill (Darcy's breeders) are walking Harry Potter. The Torteval 'team' are having to constantly remind Darcy not to pull with an increasingly stern and ineffectual series of 'steady' commands, whilst suffering the discomfort of shoulder strain and glaring pedestrians who would prefer not to have an uninvited wolfhound nose up their rears! The Harry Potter 'team', however, are cool! Harry is walking sedately, calmly and coolly at his dad's side - no sweat, no stress!
Darcy's collar and lead are under severe pressure!
The secret? Harry Potter was being walked on a cunningly arranged horse lead. The photos below show how simply it works. The dog requires no training (neither does the owner), and seems to accept the temporary restriction to movement without complaint or distress.
All you need is a 6ft (2m) long, cotton rope horse lead, widely and cheaply available in a range of colours from tack shops. Tie a firm knot in the end to give extra purchase. (If you want to wear the lead over your shoulder when not in use, insert a metal ring into the knot, then attach the 'trigger' clip to the ring to form a loop.) It's important both that the lead is of cotton, as it is heavier than man-made fibres and the weight is a crucial factor, and also that is is long enough.
1) Hold the knotted end in your right hand and allow the lead to fall.
2) Reach down around the dog with your left hand and pick up the slack length of lead. Bring it up over the dog's back.
3) Transfer the knotted end to your left hand, so that your left hand holds both the slack lead and the knotted end, and rests lightly on the dog's back.
4) The length of lead across the dog's chest effectively but comfortably restricts forward movement - and you even have a hand free for shopping!
For extra control, the lead can be dropped down as far as the dog's elbows.
"It's as simple as that, and it really works!"
To demonstrate, we needed a headstrong Irish wolfhound. Darcy denied the accusation, but said she would do her best to impersonate one.
First, stand with the wolfhound on your left and attach the lead to the collar in the usual way. Then:
The lead must be made of cotton
and appox 6' (2m) long-
horse leads are perfect.
P S
A horse-lead is also an excellent way of walking two wolfhounds together as a brace, provided they are wearing martingale collars. Simply attach the 'trigger' to one collar in the normal way, the feed the loose end through the smaller loop of the other dog's collar and attach the 'O' ring that you have knotted into the end ring back to the 'trigger'. You then have two wolfhounds firmly attached to each other, with a double length of lead between them.
The gang of four in the photo are about to be walked single-handed along the (admittedly quiet) road, by one person, two dogs on each side, for a length of about half a mile, something we did regularly without incident - though it was more by good luck than good judgement that they never saw a cat or rabbit, or it would have been Ben Hur all over again!
We always use Martingale collars - they work well with horse-leads, and dogs can't 'slip' them.
