Product: PetSafe Gentle Leader 
Price: $14.95 USD on sale at Petco.com
Sizes Available: Small, Medium and Large
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
PetSafe Gentle Leader, Product Overview
Do you have dogs that tend to pull on their leashes? Have you exhausted your resources on how to train them? Then this PetSafe Gentle Leader is the perfect product for you. The point of this leader is that it wraps around your dogs muzzle. It attaches to their collar and the leash gets attached to a hook under their jaw.
It gently forces their heads to go where you want them to go without hurting your dog like a choker. Chokers can cause esophagus problems for your dogs, especially if they pull hard on their leashes.
My Personal Experience with the PetSafe Gentle Leader.
I have two large dogs, both of whom I needed to train with some sort of training collar. My first dog, Annie, needed the Gentle Lead Dog Collar because every time I took her for a walk, she would lunge at any other animal that she saw with no regards to ripping my arm of the socket. I tried training her with treats, commands, classes, you name it, I tried it. Nothing worked for her.
I took a trip to the pet store and asked the nice gentleman helping me what options I had for Annie. I inquired about the chokers that I knew a lot of people have used and he asked me some simple questions first.
- Does your dog lunge or jump?
- Does your dog pull unexpectedly?
- Do you have to pull hard on the leash to get her to listen?
Answering to him yes to all the above questions, especially lunging at another dog! I pointed at the choker with spikes on it and asked about that one. I said, “Wouldn’t that teach her immediately not to pull?” He calmly looked at me like I was helpless of course. “Well, imagine that she lunges with all her weight at another dog and that spike punctures her skin and right on her vertebrae; that could cause some serious damage.”
I didn’t want that! Jeez, that would be awful! I started to feel sad just thinking about that and the dogs out there that have been injured because their owners use those! So, of course he started showing me my other options and one of the options was called a Gentle Lead. So, I bought that and after her tugging on her mouth, rolling around in anything outside to tear this thing off, she finally got used to it and could no longer tug or pull. It was like magic!
On to My Experience With My Newest Dog.
Atlas, my newest pup, is a whole other ball of wax when it came to walking her versus Annie. Annie would lunge, unexpected! Atlas though, well, she’s just flat out strong. She pulls my arm out of socket just from walking or leaning. I went to pick up my daughter from school once and holding her leash around my gloved hand did nothing to protect her from ripping my skin off and pulling my arm every direction possible. It wasn’t even because of other animals, she simply wanted to greet every child she saw. That night, I told my husband, we’re getting a Gentle Lead.
We made our way to the pet store and the gentle leads were sold out. So, our other option which was much cheaper by the way, the PetSafe Gentle Leader. So, I pulled it out of the plastic, put her on her, and voila! No pulling.
Does Atlas Try To Rip It Off? Yes!
Almost every dog I know when you first put on the lead trainer, they pull at the collar and try to get it off their nose, they roll around, the turn every direction, anything they can do to GET IT OFF! That’s okay, because it takes time for them to get used to it, get accustomed to it, and that takes time and patience.
If you follow the directions, it states to start in short bursts with the leads. Try it on your pet for about 5 minutes at a time in the house and give them some treats to let them know it’s a good thing and okay for them. It’s not a muzzle, they can still eat and drink and bark. Treats will allow them to feel safe and good when you put it on them for the first time.
Try not to let them pull at it with their paws, simply pet them and try to comfort them in the beginning. It takes them time to get used to it. Lots of love and treats helped Atlas understand it was an okay thing on her nose.
My Overall Review Of The PetSafe Gentle Leader.
Overall, this is the best training tool for dogs that pull on their leashes. You want to try to get them out of this habit when they’re young, so they don’t get too accustomed to pulling. So, this try this PetSafe Gentle Leader. It allows you to walk your dog with complete ease. Attempting to pull back on their collars without this just makes the walks less enjoyable. Not only that, if you live somewhere icy and your dog pulls hard all of a sudden, you might find yourself on the ground because of it. You won’t see it coming, you just know you’re not on the ground because they can be so strong.
I’ve included the link for you here, so check it out. In the end, we want our walks with our friends to be pleasant and we want them to be at our side, not pulling us like we’re running the Iditarod! Especially on icy ground.
Have you tried this lead yet? Let me know your reviews or your comments on how it worked for your dogs!
[Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase anything through one of the links. However, this will not affect what you pay!]
You know, recently I saw this lead on a large dog that is walked often in my neighborhood and immediately thought the dog was a biter! It’s nice to know that it is just a more humane way to control your dog. I’ve always had large breeds (dobermans) and they love to pull and then they hack and cough. It’s obvious traditional collars and leashes are not good for a strong willed dog. This lead is going to be on my shopping list! I’m in the market now for a new large breed puppy and will be training them to use this from the get go! Thanks for such a great article!
Jamie,
Yes, I’ve had a lot of people think that my dogs are in muzzles when they have the leader on, but then I correct people politely. It’s a training tool, not a muzzle. They can still lick, eat, drink, bark, and all that with their mouths. It simply stops them from pulling. Just so you know, if your older dogs still pull, this can help teach them as well. No dog is too old to be leash trained. Just in case you wanted to know. 🙂
Glad this helped and it will make your life so much easier when walking the dogs! You’ll thank me later. 🙂
Thanks,
Katrina
This PetSafe Gentle lead reminds me of a training bridle to guide the horse, it does the same thing. It must be easier to train a dog with this gentle lead. I don’t like when people pull the chocker and the dog can breathe when they pull it.
I just love dogs and especially the golden retriever. Thank you for sharing this article with us
Lyne
.
.
.
.
Lyne,
I HATE when I see owners choking their dogs! It makes me so mad! I want to just stop and yell at them, “Would you like to be choked out walking?” Come on! Sorry, my anger at this subject is terrible! I was at a dog show this last summer, and I saw a guy that was literally holding his dog up by his neck and choking the dog the whole time. I kept staring in open anger at this guy, and my husband had to keep pulling me arm away from him. He knew I would say something and it would cause all sorts of mishaps. But I couldn’t help it! I hated seeing that poor dog having trouble breathing.
Anyway, sorry! This is a much more safe way to train a dog with walking and much more animal friendly!
Thanks!
Katrina
We are glad to have read this before becoming a dog owner and learning how to train them obviously the training that you received didn’t work. We are reading and noticed that this is wrapped around their mussel and will be good if your dog is aggressive and hard to train.
you said you used this for both of your dogs and worked because you have control of where their head is turning. Of course, don’t yank too hard or you risk the chance of hurting your dog.
Thanks for sharing a wonderful article and will keep this saved for later reference.
Will also share this with a friend that has a problem getting their dog to not snap at others.
Cheers,
Mathew&Deloris
Mathew & Deloris,
This is actually great for big dogs too, not just aggressive dogs. I have a friend that has a very, very large American Bulldog, and he weighs like 150 lbs, and my friend complained that she could never walk him. He wouldn’t pull to be aggressive, he was just a very large dog that she couldn’t pull back to get him to actually walk with her. Never going after dogs, he was just a gentle giant. So, I gave her mine to try that I used to use for Annie before she passed and she was in tears at how this thing worked. No pulling, no yanking, nothing. She said walking him was like walking a 5 lb dog all of a sudden. You don’t have to pull back on this to get a dog to not pull, they simply can’t pull period. It’s the best invention that’s ever come out for walking a dog, especially the large ones.
Hope this clears things up. It’s a really great training lead.
Katrina
This sounds great! I have never heard of the gentle leader, and I could really use it. One of my dogs, Mr. Freckles, is full of energy, very hyper, he sometimes reminds me of the Duracell bunny, lol, but it is his breed. He’s a Dalmatian mix and Dalmatians have a lot of energy. The other dogs could benefit from the gentle leader too, and especially me 😉 Mr. Freckles pulls hard. It’s a good idea to get them used to it at home. I could walk him with it in the garden first until he is used to it.
Christine,
Absolutely! This is the best tool for hyper dogs. I usually start with just putting it on my dogs in the house at first, they’ll pull, they’ll try to tear it off by tearing at it with their paws. I give lots of treats when they do this. And, let them try to get it off. They can’t, and within minutes, they realize that. But don’t fret, all dogs do this! I let mine pull and yank and twist and everything else, they get used to it. Once they realize, it’s not coming off, they’re fine! No more pulling on you to walk. It is the best thing I’ve ever had when walking my dogs! I hate when they pull me and I can’t control them.
Glad you enjoyed this! Hope it helps!!
Katrina
Hi! What a coincidence.
Thanks for the review by the way.
And I agree, Gentle Leader is a great tool that can make your walks with your pup easy and comfortable.
I’m using it with my dog right now.
He used to have a harness and didn’t have any problems until he reached 5 months! He grew and became stronger!
Just imagine us, whenever he decided to chase the bird!! Gosh!
Then a friend of mine, suggested to use Gentle Lead, he gave one as a present. Told me how to train my dog with it.
We’ve been using it 3-4 months now and our daily walks are perfectly fine.
So, yeah. I recommend Gentle Lead to use if you have a dog especially big ones.
Mina,
That’s awesome! It is the best isn’t it? I love them and I always buy one with a big dog even if they don’t pull yet. I know that all dogs like to run, even when we’re just walking, so I’m prepared for when they do start pulling! I’m glad you have one and love it so much!
Thanks for visiting my site and leaving a comment!
Katrina
First of all, I love dogs. You talked about many things and some things I really didn’t know that. You made the review very simple and help to read for any visitors. Most importantly you also talked about your experience which’s very important for all of us, and also you told us how to train our pets. I will happy to have this product thank you and take care.
Hi Manu,
Dogs are the best aren’t they? I just love them! I don’t know what I would do without my dogs to keep me company all day writing. My Atlas, she lays on my back while I’m typing away sleeping for the day until the rest of the house gets home. She’s definitely a companion through and through.
Thanks for visiting and reading!
Katrina