Reactivity help from Dr. Sophia Yin

Lamar's sideways look does not ease Fozzie's anxiety about the head halter!

Now that we're back from our travels, its time to resume working on getting these dogs to behave more like those calm little Oregon dogs on the leash.


Dr. Yin in this video demonstrates more on use of the head halter. 

She is using it as a negative reinforcer, but only so she can get enough control of Podee so that she can then use positive reinforcement and change Podee's associations with the other dog. 


Key points from this video:

• Keep your dog's attention with action, movement, and games when you are around another dog. 
• Take just a few steps at a time, backward, to keep dog's attention. Ask for frequent, happy sits. Especially useful if dog has already learned Sit as  default behavior!
• Use the head collar only when necessary to get focus
• Brief on-leash greeting is OK--while using the head collar and treats for control and focus

There is controversy about the use of the head halter within the positive dog training community--and my own personal belief is that there are excellent trainers with good points on both sides of the issue. 


My feeling is that the best use of the head halter is in the sense of a "calming elastic" as used in TTouch: a piece of fabric or elastic placed over the dog's nose, crossed under the nose, then tied behind the neck in a figure 8. Here is a discussion on head halters from the TTouch folks that provides perspective on this non-aversive use of head halters as guidance, rather than control.  

I do believe that:

• The head halter's purpose is manipulating the head to redirect it from triggers. That is to say, don't use the head halter just to drag a dog along and say "let's go." For this, far better to just say "let's go!" 
• Using the halter to move the head should be a last resort. When a dog is responsive to luring or verbal cues, use those.