Haha, then yes, I am the Jeff with Link, not the long haired Jeff of Solid K9 Training.  

Megan, thanks for your input.  I agree with you about the bad logic of that thought as you've stated it, but as you've stated it nobody made that statement so I'm not sure what or who you're addressing.  

What I have said is that there are in fact  very good reasons for a dog to heel when it was stated there are none outside of obedience competitions.  

I think it's awesome that you're so physically involved with your dogs and can enjoy running and mushing and sledding and joring with them.  You clearly have no need or use for heeling, and more power to you.  

However, most people who have Huskies don't do these things.   Most people need to just safely and calmly walk down the street or through a park with their dogs, not their sledding Huskies.     Many people have reactive or leash aggressive dogs who can't handle being out in the world or walking down the sidewalk because their dogs are so unstable and dangerous.  

It's not very practical, from a training perspective,  to teach people or prescribe to people that they should put a harness on their dog and hop on a bike or skates or a sled and just go.   That's a very specialized recreational activity for very specific people like yourself.  

Conversely,  we can easily teach people to walk down the sidewalk safely and calmly with their dog in heel, even huskies, and eliminate all of the dangerous,  bratty, reactive issues they struggle with.   Real world dog training is about everyday life,  not urban mushing.  

Just to clarify  with more context.

Thanks Jen!

And we ended up leaving it like the second picture for his walk and he still seemed okay. He did stop a few times to scratch it but I'm sure he will get used to it. In the future we may want to take him sledding or to do other physical activities but for now I just want to have more control over him.

After the last 5 months of trying to get him to behave when another dog is near has been failure for us, so this has been a great alternative from the harness and he is still enjoying his walks. Sometimes he walks slightly ahead but I don't mind as long as the leash has slack, if he starts to pull he usually corrects himself or I will tell him to heel with slight pressure and he slows down. This happens a lot more frequently in the first half of the walk but after that he gets in the groove.

With or without the collar he still has quite a bit of work ahead of him!

seattlesibe wrote:

Haha, then yes, I am the Jeff with Link, not the long haired Jeff of Solid K9 Training.  

It's not very practical, from a training perspective,  to teach people or prescribe to people that they should put a harness on their dog and hop on a bike or skates or a sled and just go.   That's a very specialized recreational activity for very specific people like yourself.  

Conversely,  we can easily teach people to walk down the sidewalk safely and calmly with their dog in heel, even huskies, and eliminate all of the dangerous,  bratty, reactive issues they struggle with.   Real world dog training is about everyday life,  not urban mushing.

Never once said that. I said I agreed with the poster who said they had a calm dog, that can loose-leash walk without having to heel, which I said I agreed with. I do walk my dogs normally, and they pass other people, and other dogs, and they don't drag me all around. They walk loose-leash. But they don't have to heel, and I don't feel it is 100% necessary for them to heel like you are stating. You can achieve great handling with your dog, without having to make it heel. Loose leash walking is proof of that.

To add on, regardless of what you may think, I don't suggest people to go out urban mushing. I actually advise against it at first if someone has a new untrained dog, and highly encourage them to work on commands while on walks first. How can you trust a dog to pull you if its going to crash into the street at the first sight of a squirrel? I am talking about real world dog owners, because I don't suggest everyone to go out mushing. And just because I recreationally mush, doesn't exempt me from being a 'normal real world dog owner'. I'm talking about in real life, how the majority of people can achieve loose-leash walking, without having to make their dog heel, and still have a calm and obeying dog, just as I do.