The No Choke Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was the demo dog for a K9 Kindness event. Today Ambrose and I acted acted as guinea pigs at a K9 Kindness training session. K9 Kindness supports reward based training and encourages the use of training equipment such as front clip harnesses. They will have a booth at the Dog Olympics at the NC State Vet School on September 8 and will be doing the "No Choke Challenge". If a person turns in their dog's choke chain, prong collar or shock collar, the K9 Kindness trainers will give them a FREE front clip harness from Walk Your Dog with Love, a treat bag, treats, a bandana and a training session to teach their dog to walk nicely on leash!!! Good deal. Anyway the trainers wanted to practice fitting these harnesses (it is important that front clip harnesses fit correctly to work effectively) so Jenn Merritt offered a special class at our training center.

She brought stuffed dogs for the trainers to practice on. You can bet that Ambrose barked at the big stuffed lab. I did not. You can see that the way the harness fits on this little stuffed dog.

Then it was our turn. I sat very nicely while people fitted me and gave me treats.

It is a bit hard to see the harness since it is black and so am I. They left the card on it but the harness is quite comfortable and I walked very nicely in it.

Ambrose was very wiggly when the tried to fit him but then I expected that. But he walked in it very nicely and was quite pleased with himself.

He was so excited that he did a few bows, which is his favorite trick.

We were very happy to participate in this training as we know it will help lots of dogs. Plus all the trainers made a fuss over us and gave us lots of pets and treats. There are lots of dogs who could benefit from a front clip harness and we hope to spread the word about them and the joys of reward based training.