Me and Padfoot at Arlington Cemetery, where dog walkers are welcome.

Recently Desiree and I switched our Sunday morning walk from Wesleyan  to Arlington Cemetery, which is much larger and welcomes dogs. Desiree (and Felix and Padfoot) and I easily log more than 3 miles there, more than twice our distance at Wesleyan.

Padfoot has graduated from his prong collar to a martingale for our usual walks, but he’s still reactive in strange environments. Here he’s wearing a light-weight prong collar and a harness with a honking big handle on the back.

I’m not crazy about prong collars. In Padfoot’s case, he self corrects with the prong collar and is a great loose leash walker unless he’s triggered. I tried the Halti head collar—which I prefer to the Gentle Leader—but he hated it and kept biting the chin strap apart (easily replaced with cotton twill tape). I switched to the Martingale after training at CARE to handle their reactive dogs. I trust them since they handle thousands of dogs a year. They fit all their dogs with Martingales. I feel more comfortable delivering a quick correction with the Martingale than with any other kind of collar. 

In the photo I’m using the padded Halti double ended training lead. It’s designed so you can clip one end to a collar and the other end to a harness, giving you excellent control. It has rings in it so you can clip one end to make a traditional leash handle, or you can wrap it around your waist to walk hands-free. I love that it’s padded all along the length. It makes it much more comfortable to grip it at any point, necessary when you need to gain control of a lunging dog. 

I’m wearing the dog walk belt I created when I started volunteering at CARE. The belt has a roomy Cincinnati Library fanny pack on the left, where I keep a spare roll of poop bags, an ultra-sonic corrector, a can of compressed air pet corrector, and a mini air horn—which CARE dog walkers carry to call for help if they run into trouble (in my year volunteering I’ve never heard one go off). CARE also recommends shaker cans, small containers with an assorment of nuts, bolts, washers, or coins, anything that will make an obnoxious rattle.

In the center you can see a poop bag dispenser. What you can’t see is the Dalzom poop bag holder, which is a plastic device designed to hold your filled bags until you find a trash can. The red pouch on the right is for treats. For those of us who remember the original Batgirl, This setup reminds me of Barbara Gordon’s utility belt. 

I’m carrying a water pistol in my pocket, which grabs Padfoot’s attention better than all the other aversives in my arsenal. The trick with aversives is recognizing trigger situations early enough to have them in hand when you need them. Happily, I need them less and less.

If you’re wondering, my clothes are so baggy because I bought them before I lost 100 pounds on the Keto diet (another story for another time). I enjoy loose clothes so I still wear them.