As I have mentioned before, I have to heavily rely on a head halti with Axel. He's just so incredibly strong, and I'm quite strong myself. Example, without the halti, if he wants to sniff something I can pull all I want but he doesn't notice. I obviously don't just pull on his neck but this happened a couple weeks back when he had his head in the bushes and I worried what was in there. So with all my training efforts I have at least made it so he won't pull on the halti for about 80% of the walk now. Much better than 0% when we first started! This morning we went out for a morning walk and he had the halti on for half the walk, but then I decided to try with it off. I was about 15 minutes away from home, therefore part of me was saying 'what are you thinking!' I had a busy road to walk him up to. But I had my treats so I tried... and he did amazing!! Probably helped that he was hot and already walked for 20 minutes, but he was a dream. He did get ahead of me a couple times, but I used my cue word 'close' and he fell back to heel perfectly each time. I finally feel like it is paying off and I'm so happy. I'm now wondering if tomorrow I should keep the halti off and try without it the whole time or should I keep it on for the first 10 minutes, lowering the time each walk. I don't want to rush it and lose progress but I also am curious how he would do.
I'm no expert and currently have an issue or two of my own but I'd go with the lowering the time each walk. Nice to hear your effort is working.
When I use the head collar I increase the time without it slowly. I done the same as you - take it off near the end of a walk. I would then take it off a few mins earlier and continue to do this over a period of time. Don't rush it as you will have days when he slips back a bit, it's good to try and limit how long it's off to not put expectations too high. It took me 3 months to be able to walk to the local shops and back without the head collar (10-15 mins each way). Well done and keep up the good work X
Well done! Sounds like you are making great progress. And i to would lessen the time each walk - to set him up for as much success as possible
Well done on progress. Agree with @Naya would take it slowly and not rush. You will only kick yourself if you do
