It’s true. Ask anybody and they’ll tell you the same thing. I love her, but she makes me a little crazy.
Our puppy Rylie just turned 2 about a week ago. We got her from the SPCA when she was just a few months old. She’s a lab-mix, but as far as her energy level, she’s all lab.
The funny thing is, this is what Jarrod and I live with pretty much all the time. But the moment someone else comes over, this dog goes berserk! And it drives me insane! To put it simply, she embarrasses me. I hate looking like we have such and ill-behaved dog, when in all actually, she does a good job most of the time. But those times that she frustrates me tends to put a damper on the other times.
Another issue that we’ve had with her is walking on a leash. We have to take some responsibility with this one because we haven’t been good about walking her on one in the past and making sure that she got used to it. So now that she’s much bigger, I have been unable to walk her by myself because if she starts pulling, she’ll probably beat me in the tug-of-war match.
I’ve had several friends over the past year or so tell me about the Gentle Leader collar and how much of a difference it made for them. I kept meaning to look into it, but never actually sat dow and did it. But a couple of weeks ago, Jarrod and I decided that we needed to take more initiative with the leash-walking and with training Rylie. So we bought the collar and gave it a go.
We’ve only used it a handful of times, but oh my! what a difference it has made! The first time or two was a little difficult because Rylie did not like having a strap over her snout. She kept pawing at it and dragging her face through the grass. (I told you, she’s crazy.) But  now that she’s gotten used to it, I’ve seen such a difference in her walking. She doesn’t pull; she stays by our sides; she doesn’t freak out when we pass other people or dogs.
I think this collar is going to make a big difference for us and she continues to get acclimated to it. I’m looking forward to being able to walk her more often and enjoy being with her without worrying that she’s going to pull my arm out of the socket.
She really is a sweet dog and I hope that as she gets a little older, she calms down (dramatically!) and becomes that great companion-type dog that I know she can be. And maybe one of these days she’ll learn to greet people in a non-insane kind of way. A girl can dream…