Stop! Halti time ...

Dah dah dah dah, dah dah dah dah. Thank you MC Hammer!

Now, on with the show. First off - sorry for the lack of posts. I've done a little travelling, and have let the blog go a little. But things will change!

Both Kyle and Magic are happy dogs. Magic started losing some hair, and got a pretty nice knock on the top of his noggin thanks to (we think) coming up and connecting with an open window frame. However, both things seem to be on the mend. Di gently bathed the head wound daily with salt and water, and bingo, all is good.

But - on to the post. As we're urban, we need to walk our dogs. Is this simple? No. No it isn't. Both dogs need different methods. Magic uses a chest harness (more to follow in another post re: this), while local walks require Kyle to have a halti. When both are on the beach then a harness is fine for both, but we need the fine control with Kyle on the sidewalk.

Maremma's are big, and they can be a challange. Magic refuses to wear a halti, while Kyle welcomes it. Kind of. It's probably a matter of training, or time - but it works with him.

A few notes - the halti is not a muzzle, it is a leading device. Kyle can yawn, bark and drink with it on. You must get a halti which fits snuggly. Our first one was loose and it just wasn't right. The current one we have now we connect through his collar, so if he does get out of it we still have him close.

And finally - there are some tricks. If Kyle pulls (and he does) we do one of two things: hold him by his collar to lead him, or walk him in a circle with the halti. Now - we have a big, rugged commando collar so we know Kyle is both comfortable and safe with a hand holding on to it. He loves his walks with the halti.

Here's a number of pics showing how he looks in it.