Long walks with dogs that pull...

I see so many bloggers out there with endorsements and recommendations. Well, about the only things I feel comfortable recommending are home improvement items and various pet items. One of the few exercises that I love to do is walk our dogs. It's actually quite funny- I exercise so irregularly that all I have to do is pull out socks and tennis shoes and the dogs go nuts with excitement because they know we are going for a walk. We have two dogs: a beautiful, albeit crazy beagle

named Alexandra (Lexie) and a labrador/sharpei mix named Anastasia (Anna). The lab/sharpei mix (or "flabrador" as we have affectionately dubbed her) is 67 lbs of solid muscle (well, with a lot of extra skin built in.) She is STRONG and when we walk Scott is usually in charge of her because she pulls so badly. Let's just say that she usually is the one taking us for a walk. With Scott gone it's virtually impossible for me to take both of the dogs for a walk at the same time. Well, not anymore! We bought a Control Ease Head Collar and it works wonders! Basically it's a collar that fits around the dogs snout and the leash hooks to it. When they try to pull it snaps their mouth shut and their head down...it basically forces them to walk calmly and not pull on the leash. And it's a pretty instantaneous training tool. I highly recommend it! The only downside is that she looks like the is wearing a muzzle (as you see in the picture above) and some may view her as a vicious dog, which is totally not!

So today I was able to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take the dogs on an extra long walk by the river. The picture above is of Anna collapsed on our cold tile after the long walk. She was tuckered out. And so is her mommy.