The Empress' New Clothes

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in having a reactive dog is their amazing ability to pull.  Towards what you ask?  Anything and everything.  Abby has pulled me through mud, into puddles, over snowbanks, and into oncoming traffic.  She has pulled me towards people, dogs, and obscure objects that only she can see.  When I think back to the walks we had during the first two months that we had her, I realize that it must have been funny for others to watch me try to walk her.  Although Abby is only 40 pounds, she has a great deal of strength, and at first it was almost too much to try to corral her.  The "Name Game" helped initially to try to get her focus back towards us on walks, but sometimes there were challenges that were just too tough to try to get her away from.

A few months ago I was really excited to get Wiggles, Wags and Whiskers' Freedom No-Pull Harness.  We previously had a a Premiere Easy Walk Harness and that had worked really well for Abby.  The new harness has two pivot points that help steer our girl, and the velvet underlining doesn't irritate her when she wears it.  So when I found out that they made a Martingale collar I had to get one.  My goal at some point for Abby is for her to be able to loose leash walk without the assistance of a harness.  However, I am realistic enough to know that there are situations where my girl could possibly pull the collar over her head.  So after a few mismeasurements and exchanges, Abby finally got her new collars in.  I put the first one on last night, and I tried so hard to take pictures of her.  Our girl has been a bit camerashy as of late, so she pretty much ran away from me.  And although today she was very depressed to be in the fog, she finally let me take a few pictures of her.

I swear that if I could put a speech bubble next to her final picture it would be, "Again?  Really?  All right fine, just take the damn picture already."

My husband laughed at me when I described the collars through text, but I stand by it.  Her new collars make her look Sassafrass.  If she'll ever stop running away from me there is the potential for me to post pictures of the other collar soon.