My one regret with Outwitting Dogs is that it went to press before Terry and I could include information about an amazing new tool for leash walking.

I have a reactive dog.

She's the sort of dog who, if she walks into a room and there's a shoebox on the floor that wasn't there yesterday, it's a Major Event. She will circle around it. Maybe bark at it. Finally slowly . . . cautiously . . . approach it. Stretch out her neck for a cautious sniff. Ready to startle and scramble away if the New Mysterious Thing should make a sudden move.

And that's indoors.

Outdoors --  forget it!!! The second the sights and sounds and smells of the outside hit her senses, she's on full alert. Training becomes extremely difficult under those circumstances! As Terry and I wrote in the chapter on leash-walking in Outwitting Dogs, "Outside is a high-distraction environment . . . when you do any sort of training outside, you are competing for your dog's attention."

Of course, I have also made training mistakes. Unlike Terry -- alas! -- I'm not a professional trainer!!! I haven't had exposure to hundreds or thousands of dogs. And every dog is different. So for me -- like other "lay trainers" -- I've had to learn as I go. I've had to learn on my dogs. In Laykey's case, I snapped a leash on her when she was a puppy, before I had much practice with clicker training (the technique I used to train her). So I'll never know whether maybe, just maybe, she would have had better leash manners if I'd been a bit more skilled as a trainer during those first few weeks . . .

However it happened, I ended up with a dog who pulled on leash. Actually, "pulling" isn't really an accurate description. Walking my dog was like playing a hooked marlin. If anything exciting happened -- a squirrel, another dog, a person, a bicycle -- she'd hit the end of the leash, often so hard her feet would fly out from under her.

Of course there were some lulls. She quickly learned that if she walked next to me, or "checked in" by looking at me, she'd be rewarded. But in that high-stimulation environment, it was often as if I wasn't even there.

I tried everything! I used the "Be a Tree" technique I learned about on Melissa Alexander's Clicker Solutions Yahoo list. I applied some advice Bob Bailey offered on that same list (a key tip from him: watch where you deliver a treat; make sure your dog is positioned where you want him or her to be as he/she takes your reward).

I tried a Gentle Leader head halter. By then I was working with Terry on Outwitting Dogs, and had the benefit of her excellent and generous advice. And the halter showed tremendous promise, encouraging Laykey to pause and look at me when she felt the leash go taut -- creating great opportunities for me to reward her for a loose leash.

But then, one day, a squirrel ran across the sidewalk in front of us. Laykey "forgot" she was leashed and sprang toward the squirrel -- and when she hit the end of the leash, it pulled her head back sharply. It was a major neck injury waiting to happen. I never put the halter on her again.

Instead, I faced facts. I was a failure. I'd failed my dog, and I'd failed myself.

I'd like to say I I took Sue Ailsby's wise advice: "Whatever you are doing isn't working. Stop it." But the fact is, I simply gave up.

Then, a month or so after Outwitting Dogs came out, I learned that Terry had been helping Premier Pet Products test a new tool: the Easy Walk Harness.

Terry had high praise for it. So I decided to give the harness a try.

I'll never forget the day I first snapped this harness on my dog. It was early spring, and the temperatures had suddenly soared into the high sixties. The sun was shining. The air smelled so fresh and new.

And there I was. Walking my dog.

And the leash was slack.

Something about that harness. When she felt some tension on the leash, she'd slow. Or pause and look at me. Not every single time the leash went tight -- if something really really exciting was going on, she'd pull toward it. But now, instead of pulling 80 or 90 percent of the time, she was pulling only 10 or 15 percent of the time.

Needless to say, I was clicking and treating like a mad woman!

But that's not all. I was also laughing.

And crying.

The relief was overwhelming. I can now walk my dog.

I'm not a failure -- not any more.

Today, you wouldn't believe Laykey is the same dog. In the months since that first walk, we've been practicing leash walking. I've been rewarding her for keeping the leash slack. Gradually, we've been taking on more difficult challenges -- like passing other dogs. And she's showing steady improvement.

Something about that harness -- it's like it cuts through the clutter. Suddenly, my dog is more aware of me. (And the strange thing is, I could feel her better too. When she is excited, I can actually feel her quiver!)

Like all dog people, I've sampled a variety of products. Most of them are just fine. But I wouldn't take the time to promote them on my website.

The Easy Walk Harness is different. It changed my life. It changed my dog's life.

I simply cannot praise this harness highly enough!

Blessings,

Kirsten

P.S. If you want to try this harness yourself, here's a link: