Completely different question about headcollars

[Erica]

So I use a head collar when I walk the mastiff, Zeus. I use two leashes - one on the head halter, one on his collar, and make sure the head halter one has a good amount of slack at all times. He's really good, though, and I have a skin condition that basically means I'm allergic to touching things. As I'm coming off my medicine (complicated, but for health reasons I don't want to take it forever), even having the leashes loose on my wrist causes a reaction, which makes me rather short-tempered. It's worse when the hives are on my palms/fingers.

Anyways, I'd like, if possible, to start walking Zeus on one leash. My idea is that I'll have the leash clipped to both his collar and the head halter, but not have the loop on his nose unless there's a situation. Zeus freezes when he sees something interesting, and that gives me a good few seconds to grab his collar (and I can stop him charging with just this, despite his outweighing me by 60 pounds...he doesn't think he can pull me over, so he doesn't try, just bounces up and down), and, if needed, put the head halter loop on. Would this be an okay way to walk him, equipment-wise? He's very chill and his reactivity level has decreased so much since we started doing counter-conditioning, to the point where he can stand still and wait while I yell at loose dogs running around us.

[emmabeth]

It could work - in all honesty though if you have time to put the noose over his nose, you have time to do something else too, such as go the other way, treat-bomb the approaching dog, etc etc.

I would also worry that with the lead clipped to both, when you do slip the nose band over his muzzle you will find the headcollar is rendered fairly ineffective.

Since he is on-leash and therefore safe - why not use a really light weight leash on the headcollar, (like a ferret leash, really lightweight!) make a slip loop by threading it through its own handle then pop that over his head - then if you need it you can easily slip it back off and use it, but otherwise its not doing anything?

[Erica]

It could work - in all honesty though if you have time to put the noose over his nose, you have time to do something else too, such as go the other way, treat-bomb the approaching dog, etc etc.

I would also worry that with the lead clipped to both, when you do slip the nose band over his muzzle you will find the headcollar is rendered fairly ineffective.

Since he is on-leash and therefore safe - why not use a really light weight leash on the headcollar, (like a ferret leash, really lightweight!) make a slip loop by threading it through its own handle then pop that over his head - then if you need it you can easily slip it back off and use it, but otherwise its not doing anything?

Mostly it's just deer running away that bother him - and there are tons of deer and baby deer this year. He'll stay nice and still the entire time we see them (and sit if I ask him to), but often, when I ask him to move in any direction (forward, away, sideways), he starts by trying to haul me over to where the deer were. x3 I also unclip the collar when I put the loop on...

I'll try to find our cat leash - I think it is actually a ferret leash, haha - and see if that works...only issue would be that he'd probably get his silly foot stuck in the loop when he stops to sniff something. I do like the theory of it; I'll try to think of a way to keep it out of the way. I think I could make the loop small enough if I use his normal collar to hold it closer to his neck...anyways, yeah, thanks for the tip! I'll see if I can try it tomorrow.

[Erica]

Might as well update while this is up here - I gave up on the not-holding-both-leashes thing and now wear a light arm-warmer on the wrist the leashes rest on. They help reduce the irritation from the leashes. What also helped was changing the leashes themselves, from flat nylon all the way to any sort of rounded handle. Lupine leashes are nice, as are the ones made of repel rope (kinda like this http://www.ellaslead.com/inc/sdetail/34/3030 ). So Zeus is back to a harness and halti with me holding both leashes at once. x3

[Horace's Mum]

This might be a bit late, but what about a double ended lead? You would only have one lead to hold, but it is easy enough to alter the tension to the headcollar end rather than the collar end. Most come with a ring halfway that you can loop the lead through so it doesn't hang down and get trodden on.

[Erica]

Mmm, might be worth looking into. The only thing is I'd need to find one that's round, instead of flat, because of my dermatographia. There's not much worse than having to walk a mile back to the house when your hands are swollen and itchy and burning!