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Old August 16th, 2008, 10:55 AM
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Chaser Chaser is offline
Now I'm Mrs. Chaser!
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Hamilton, ON
Posts: 2,407
Review of the Illusion Collar (for chronic pulling)

I recently had the opportunity to try the Illusion Collar on Chase, since Sylvie lent us one to try with Kailey. For anyone who doesn't know, Chase has been a severe chronic puller who began pulling so hard before he was even four months old that he hurt my arm! We have made a lot of progress with a Halti and a tonne of hard work, but I thought i'd give the Illusion a shot and see if it is worth investing in one for him.

It did NOT go well! As soon as we walked out the door, he started his pulling, trying to get to Daddy and Kailey who were ahead of us. The collar tightened, and then he panicked, trying to get away from what was hurting him. All four feet were running in place (I'm lucky he didn't scrape up his paw pads), he was choking, and then starting gagging/near vomiting. I got him calmed down, tried one more time, and within a quarter block it happened again. Fortunately I had the foresight to put his Halti in my pocket, so I immediately put that on instead. Isolated periods of mild pulling are far better than seeing my dog gag! :sad:

So, I don't intend this review to trash the Illusion Collar, BUT I would not recommend it for dogs that are chronic pullers. If your dog sounds like a similar personality to Chase, I would avoid it. He has a chronic "I am SO excited I just HAVE to get there first!" mentality, a very low pain tolerance, and is pretty jumpy and can spook easily. NOT a good combination. I'm going to stick with the Halti, and pursue clicker training for loose-leash walking as allymack shared some great information on that a little while ago on here.

We'll be trying the Illusion with Kailey tonight and I'm expecting much better results. She is a reactive puller (mainly with other dogs), and responds very well to leash corrections, seeming to be mildly irritated by them at worst. For her a correction works well to bring her focus back and remind her what is expected when she freaks at another dog and forgets herself. For Chase, a correction seems to be the equivalent of the end of the world and I will definitely continue to stay away from corrections-based training with him. I'm glad I tried it once, but it turned out to be a pretty upsetting experiment which I won't be repeating.

I'll post later re: how it goes with Kailey.
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X
Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1
Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics )

Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl
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