That's the bottom line, People. The objective of the halter
is not to FORCE control, but to gently redirect the dog, not
"GUIDE" him by force as most of our dog lovers PREFER
to do. Unfortunately, they themselves have deviated from
the original intent of the K-9 Kum Along by Dr. Alice De
Groot.

Just my two cents:

Many, many years ago, when I was 14, 15 and 16--so about 20 years ago--I was
a volunteer worker in a very good animal re-adoption and rescue center in
California, and there I had the great privilege to work with Dr. DeGroot. At
the time I was allowed to attend operations, work with her on training some
of the dogs that came in, walk and play with her Irish wolfhounds, and after
the first year work on rehabilitating the nervous, angry, depressed, or
otherwise badly stressed dogs we would get in, most of these large dogs
because people do not think ahead and research much of the time and so tend
to be intimidated by their own large dogs if they don't know what they're
doing, and resort to overly strong and inappropriate methods of control. I
worked under her tutelage with many a "problem" or abused dog, and never was
force considered a viable method of training any dog.

I was researching Halti's for my new Dane the other day--and I will go with
one, with my vet's full approval, because used right, they are what she
intended the Kum Along to be: a way to gain more control over the head and
therefore the entire animal WITHOUT force or punishment. I have seen that
properly used, it creates a very relaxed situation for everyone, human and
dog. In the course of my research into the Halti, I found references to its
uses as a "correction device" and it just made me sick. That is so far from
the original point of dog halters as to be extremely offensive to me.

To make the point, Dr. DeGroot had said to me, "Would you try to control a
horse with a collar?" That would cause no end of control problems. They're
just too strong. Even a very well trained horse, if distracted by something,
would not notice the little tugging human until quite a bit of force was
applied to the lead, if the human was relying on a simple loose strap around
its lower neck. One would have to jerk fairly hard to get its attention.
Having led horses around in just this way, on occasion, I can attest to
this, whereas with a halter, the attention is focused immediately on the
human with just a gentle drawing on the lead (what the horse chooses to DO
with this attention is down to the rest of its training, its basic
personality, its relationship with that particular human, etc).

I have worked with jumping and other horses all my life, and when the
techniques currently in fashion for dog training are used on horses--force,
violent correction, beatings (even light) , withholding of food, prolonged
confinement in too-small spaces, etc.--the result is a stressed and
dangerous animal just waiting to fly out of control at the slightest
provocation, an animal that must be kept under very strong control at every
moment and has the innate desire to please only to avoid punishment.
Rehabilitating horses and dogs from this condition into one of willingness
and even desire to "do right" can take years if it's even fully successful,
and they will never be fully trustworthy again if put back into the hands of
someone who does not know how to work *with* them and resorts to trying to
force control again. The same goes for zoo animals, and yes, I've done quite
a bit of work with them too--chiefly primates.

This parallel of force versus persuasion can also be drawn with children. If
someone out there is now saying, "But children are smarter than non-human
animals", well, fine--so look at homes for the mentally impaired where the
children are "taught" with force and deprivation methods. The incidence of
reactions of violence, depression, ill health, mental instability, and anger
is vastly higher than in places where the methods are different.

So, overall, head halters are absolutely great--if the point is to avoid
force and work with the animal in a spirit of camaraderie and elicit a
relaxed working relationship.

--Katrina


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