One of Boomer’s favorite words was “Leash?”. He knew it meant that he was going outside for a walk.
As Boomer got older, he got bigger and stronger. Like most big dogs, when you took Boomer for a walk he was really taking you for a walk. He would strain against the leash and it took all my energy to restrain him.
And he rarely just walked. Given his playful spirit, he just loved to play tug-of-war with the leash, which was quite dangerous if the roads were icy! But he couldn’t help himself.
Katy also took him for a lot of walks, especially down to the bus stop in the morning. When the weather turned colder, however, she had a problem. If Boomer pulled too hard and a patch of ice was near, it would be very easy for any of us to get hurt!
We talked it over with our dog trainer and heard about something called a “gentle lead”. A gentle lead attaches to the leash and then part of the lead is looped around the nose. The theory is that when the dog strains against the leash while going for a walk, their nose would be pulled backwards and they don’t like that at all.
We put it on Boomer’s nose and he could not stand it. He threw himself down on the ground and tried to scrape it off of his face! But when we pulled him off the ground and actually started to go for a walk, it worked. If he started to pull too hard he would slow down. He continually shook his head and rolled on the ground, but after a while he got used to it (but he never did like it).
For the next 9 years we pretty much used that gentle lead with great success! The picture below shows how gloomy he could act when we put the lead on his nose!
Boomer attended many a soccer game and always wrestled that lead off of his nose….
