The K-9 Kumalong, Gentle Leader, Halti and Canine Come Along are four brands of several head halters made for dogs. Each are made a bit differently from one another. The K-9 Kumalong is the first and original brand made in 1980. It is designed and developed by veterinarian Dr. Alice De Groot. The Halti is the best one in my opinion.

The halter is great for controlling dominant and aggressive dogs (dog fights, food guarding, biting*), jumping on people, pulling, lunging, and bolting on leash, and possessiveness over items. It applies the proper amount of correction to get the best and sufficient correction to stop the bad behavior. For more about aggressive and dominating dogs please go read my aggression page.

*For very severe biting, please consult me.

Halters aren't muzzles, they are training tools. You actually correct them with it. Another words, you pull the leash and the nose noose of the halter wraps around their mouth and it closes their mouth/muzzle and then it releases quickly which can not do with muzzles. The muzzle is just a stopping tool. You can't really correct with it. All you can do is put it on and apply physical correction and/or verbal correction. It's harder to teach a dog when to not display a bad behavior since it restricts the mouth all the time, which gives the impression to the dog that they can't do normal things all the time. Or, that they don't understand what they are doing wrong because their mouth is restricted all the time. With the halter, you can show the dog what they are doing wrong and correct them at the time when they are doing undesirable behavior. This teaches them what you desire from them because you are showing them when or when not to do a particular behavior. When properly used, the halter has stopped the most aggressive and biggest dogs.
 
 

The head halter allows you to have control of your dog's head and to close its mouth when he or she attempts to bite. The halter may cause a big adverse reaction when you attempt to put it on your dog the first time. If he or she is a very dominating dog, the dog will fight having the submitting strap put over its nose. However, if you can get it on, this is a very big step in the training, because this will cause him or her to become more submissive and less aggressive. This method and the Jolly Routine method can be combined together. In fact, I suggest that you do so in order to get your dog's mind off the halter. Putting your hand on your dog's muzzle is also a way of making the dog submit toward you, but don't do this without having the halter on your dog.

In wolf packs, the dominating wolf always puts pressure on the muzzle of the submissive wolf, whether it is a little nip or just a bump of the muzzle. Therefore, this dominating action always causes submission in the canine family. Putting my hand on my dogs' muzzles is how I test to see if they are dominant or submissive toward me. If you put your hand on your dog's muzzle and he or she doesn't do anything to try to remove your hand, your dog is submissive toward you and sees you as the leader or boss. If you put your hand on your dog's muzzle and he or she does not let you keep it there, you have a dominating dog. During this exercise, if your dog places a paw on your arm, this means he or she is trying to remove your dominant action that is causing him or her to submit. When your dog does this, he or she is fighting the dominating action in a subtle way and is trying to get you to release control back to them. If your dog is an aggressive dog, he or she may fight back with a bite instead of just using the weight of a paw, or will push down forcefully with its front leg(s) to break your hold on them. This is why I suggest you do this with the halter still on the dog. You may be asking, "Why make my dog submit more, if the halter does it?" The reason that you do this is to make sure your dog learns to behave the same way when only your hand is on the muzzle.

It will probably be best to practice this submission routine little by little, depending on the dog's first reaction to this training pattern. If he or she "just about goes sky high" when you first put the halter on him or her, leave it on your dog for only half a minute every hour or so. If the reaction isn't that bad, but still quite extreme by racing around or trying hard to get the halter off, leave it on with a leash attached to the halter from 1-5 minutes every hour or so. Once your dog is not showing wildly dramatic behavior, you will need to gradually increase the time that the dog wears the halter to get him or her to slowly become submissive toward you.

When your dog shows little reaction to the halter, the dog can wear it most of the day with the leash attached when close to you. Don't leave it on your dog unsupervised, as he or she could get tangled up and become injured.

Now is the time when you should try to place your hand on your dog's muzzle while the halter is on. When he or she fights the dominating hand action, you need to grab the small strap under the dog's chin and pull down on the halter firmly (but not hard enough to hurt the muzzle) as you give the command "NO!". Use the same timing process or slow steps, to get your dog in a submissive state toward the use of your hand alone, after he or she has become completely accepting of the halter. Once your dog shows very little dominant behavior and there is no growling or attempts to bite you as you place your hand on your dog's muzzle for about a minute several times an hour, then you can try placing your hand on the dog's muzzle without the halter. If there is no reaction, then the process is complete and your dog will be much easier to control and correct without the growling and/or biting behavior.

The below instruction may vary in application depending on your dog problem. If you are uncertain whether this application applies to your dog problem, feel free to e-mail me to find out if this will work for your dog.

While your dog is adjusting to the Halti or Gentle Leader, I would begin the following procedure:

When he or she starts to show the undesirable behavior take hold of the leash a foot or two away from the leash snap and give him or her a quick jerk (not too hard), while you command him or her "No!", and bring the leash back to slack. It may be best to take a hold of the tiny strap of the halter under his or her chin and pull it firm but gently to close your dog's mouth and at the same time command in a firm voice "No!". After a few times of this step he or she will get the message and all you will need to do is command your dog "No!" and you may not need to reach for the halter strap. However, the minute that your dog does start to show the undesirable behavior after the command, do the procedure again. When she or he starts to obey without you reaching for leash or the halter strap, then you can try him or her without the halter and see what happens. If she or he starts back with the behavior put the halter back on your dog and correct him or her again with the jerk and "No!" step. Praise your dog physically with petting while vocally praising when he or she doesn't show the undesirable behavior after the quick jerk and/or "No" command. When your dog is able to wear the halter all day long, you should do this and while your dog is under supervision. Then you can act upon the undesirable behavior when it suddenly happens. Dogs can still eat and drink with it on. If you are walking your dog places and you feel you need more control, you may want to have a second leash hooked to his regular collar and especially if you fear him or her getting out of the Halti. If your dog is getting out of the nose noose, then try tying a knot just above the ring on the strap hanging down, where you hook the leash. This will make the nose noose smaller to make it more difficult to get out of it. The strap around the head should also be up right behind the ears and fairly snug. If after trying this and the Halti still doesn't seem to be working well enough, then I suggest you get the pinch or prong collar. You try a different size of Halti or try the Gentle Leader which is made to be worn closer to their eyes on a dog's muzzle. But, the Halti has worked on the most aggressive dogs and very big dogs too.

If your dog jumps up on people, you can replace the "No!" with "Off!" or "No! Off!" or "Get Off" (use whatever you desire*) and then pull your dog down with leash. Choose what you prefer to have your dog learn. *Note: "Down" may confuse the dog with the obedience command down to lay down.

Press here to go see and buy the Halti head halter at the online Pet Market Catalog.

The leash I recommend is the Latigo Economy Obedience Lead at the online R.C. Steele Catalog. Their site changes too much for me to have a link to the product so click here to go to their homepage. Copy and paste the leash name into their product search engine. I suggest you get the 1/2" 6 ft. leather leash for small dogs and the 1" 6 ft. leather leash for medium to large dogs. If your dog is a big chewer and you need to leave the leash on your dog while under supervision, then I suggest you get a double nylon leash in the same size as I give above for medium and large dogs. For small dogs you may have to get a 3/4 single ply 6 ft. nylon leash because the snap may be too heavy on the 1" 6 ft. nylon leash for small dogs. You should not let your dog chew any leash. Your dog needs to learn that it's not a chew toy.
 
 

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