I noticed you use a gentle leader with faith. I was considering using one with my dog(not because she pulls but to get greater control and I can feel her alerts better/faster). Do you get a lot of people who think it's a muzzle? How do you answer these? I've read a lot online that people don't think a fully trained SD should use one. What do you think?
Unfortunately much of the public is not educated on what a head collar is, and they therefore mistake it for a muzzle. If this is the case, I’ll kindly explain what the head collar is for, why I choose to use one, and how it differs from a muzzle. Faith still has full range of motion in her jaw when using the head collar. It doesn’t prevent her from doing anything with her mouth such as eating, drinking, carrying objects, biting, etc. If it did then she wouldn’t be able to perform some of her tasks (picking things up off the ground for example).
There are some handlers who believe that a fully trained service dog shouldn’t be using ANY training tools because they shouldn’t need them. Yes… a fully trained service dog shouldn’t NEED a training tool due to behavior issues. They should all know how to heel beforehand. However, I personally really like using a head collar due to the increased communication Faith and I have when using one, so I don’t let these comments get to me. And I know many other handlers feel the same way ;)
I hope this helps!~ Lex (& Faith)











