95% is great but you want him to be 100% (this way we take that off the table).. we want to drill the dog over and over.. when you come to a stop the dog should stop, left.. right.. same thing. It doesn't matter so much that he's beside you as he's no further than the end of the leash and there's no tension on it. The dog will naturally heel because he will develop a patter to be one step ahead of wondering where your next step will be.
You want it instinct for him (I need to take a video of Tuck doing this so you can see) , I think you know what I'm talking about though. If I'm walking him and I stop or even attempt to change directions he is to the front of my feet without me having to do anything. If I walk forward then stop and go back he circles me and sits by my side, I never told him "hey do this" its a natural progression.
I agree with you needing leverage with the gentle leader, however that has proven it's not full proof.
Try this : use his flat collar, a choker or your leader.. hook it up like normal, take the leash go down the top of his back then loop it around his abdomen (closer to the back legs than my pic below) making a "hitch" type knot. Your not tying a knot in the leash but when you bring it around like the pic below it makes a knot of sort around the dogs abdomen simliar to a choker on the dogs neck.
This gives you two points of contact with the leash if needed 1. the handle as normal 2. you can use the leash portion from the neck to the abdomen as a handle . I try and stay away from this unless the dog is just seriously acting out but for a woman it creates the most leverage so she's not jerked on her face. Do NOT jerk on the leash when using it this way, all you have to do is simply lean back the dog will comply.
Jasper my lab/pound puppy woke up just to take this pic for you so he said you owe him a treat.
What your saying makes sense. I'm just having trouble correlating it to this situation. Outside of this issue I can walk him on a flat collar and 95% of the time he is naturally close to my side. The other 5% when his attention is caught by something he can pull and due to the ice on the sidewalks and roads right now that can be very dangerous. I think the need for the gentle leader comes for my peace of mind more than anything thing else.
The one concept I am having trouble with us how ignoring him (taking my attention away) can be worse then his choosing to ignore his training. I tried calling and coaxing with the leash and all I was accomplishing was teaching him that he could chose to ignore the commands. He knows them and outside of today I have never seen him so blatantly ignore them. Yes he made the choice to obey me after I started to ignore him but even had he listen in the first place it would have still been his choice. The only way to make any living creature do something is by physical force and that just is not possible for me to do with Kryten even if that was how I chose to train.
I do think that I have come up with a possible main trigger for this behavior. After thinking back and comparing what was different between the times where his behavior was worse like today and the times where there was very little or no problem. I think that Jiggers excitement at going for a run was too high for Kryten to be able to focus on anything else. Waiting even a couple of minutes for Kryten to settle down after Jiggers has left seems to make a world of difference in Kryten's ability to focus on anything besides trying to get back to where he last saw him.
