Mind or Matter?

I had always wondered if the Gentle Leader worked because the design makes it more difficult to pull physically, or if it restrains Cody enough (or reminds him of his muzzle) to decide to obey and heel. (See my previous blog post about his experience with these different collars)

During our walk, I tested this out. After he was pulling with his regular nylon collar, I decided to put on his Gentle Leader. This time, however, I did not switch the leash to the Gentle Leader, but left it on his regular collar. Amazingly, he immediately started obeying. He obeyed the same amount that he obeyed as the times when I had his leash attached to the Gentle Leader. This would indicate to me that it is 100% psychological. He did pull about 1% of the time, so he did know that the leash was attached from his neck rather than his muzzle area. I originally had thought that the actual design of the Gentle Leader to make it difficult to pull at least contributed to part of his obedience, but I guess for Cody, this is not the case. I imagine other dogs may not see the same results since Cody had experience with muzzles and becomes pretty submissive when I put it on him.