Gencon

This Valentine’s day show your love to your dogs by building your partnership using positive training. We’ve teamed up with Gencon to test out some of their products that help us in our everyday training.

Owning dogs means that obedience training is always on going. No matter how perfect you may think a dog is, there’s always some training you can do to improve [Although we all know our dogs are perfect!]. Having two dogs I find it even more important to keep on top of their training, especially as when they’re together as they always seem to get up to no good! Gencon have some great training accessories to help with a positive methods to keep your dogs under control.

I first heard about Gencon within the agility community whilst training and visiting shows. In agility your dogs aren’t allowed to wear tags dangling from their collars, so in most cases its easier to remove the collar altogether when possible. Woody has always pulled on the lead, completely my fault for not teaching him from the start, and unfortunately now he’s walked by so many different people it’s hard to make sure they all use the same heel training technique. So Gencon’s lead is perfect for walking him without the struggle and pull of him infront of you.

Because of this I started walking to heel with Wilma as soon as she ventured into the outside world. Walking alone she is an absolute angel! However as 90% of the time I take the dogs out together, she seems to be overwhelmed with excitement from being out with her brother and forgets all our hard work on the lead. The Gencon All-In-One is one piece; a lead with a head collar at the end. The figure of 8 loop goes around the dogs head just like a slip lead and then the second smaller loop goes over their nose. This doesn’t restrict them from opening their mouth, eating, licking or holding a ball for example. But it does an amazing job at keeping the dog walking by your side. You can do the same with a normal slip lead just twisting it into a figure of 8, but I think the Gencon All-In-One is better as there’s no thick ridge over their nose obstructing the dogs view or making it easy to slide off with their paws [Trust me Woody has tried his hardest!].

Whilst looking after a friends even crazier spaniel , [He’s just hit his ruthless teenager stage] they were feeling hopeless with his pulling meaning their children were unable to walk him as he was too strong, I demonstrated the All-In-One lead. They were just blown away with the transformation thinking it was magical! A few people that I’ve met think that head collars are cruel and painful for the dog but after showing them they can clearly see that all it does is apply a slight pressure to the dogs head, then releasing and allowing you both to walk peacefully together and enjoy your walk. The All-in-one lead comes in two options – to walk the dog on the left or the right handed of you. Most owners have a preference even though they might not necessarily realise. I asked for one of each, so I can have one dog in each hand.

Wilma received the same lead in pink, but with a clip at the end instead of a handle – Gencon All-In-One with clip to collar. As she’s only young this is great to attach to her collar for extra control or instead of the headcollar all together for recall training. I’m so lucky that for most walks my dogs can remain off the lead and run through the beautiful Cotswold countryside to release their energy. But for those times they do need to be on the lead – such as around livestock [This is so important, no matter how obedient the dog is], walking along a busy road or visiting a show, I can comfortably be in control of them both.

If I only wanted to take one lead or just to walk the dogs using one hand with my camera in the other, the Brace lead comes in very handy. This is one lead with a slip lead at either end enabling you to walk multiple dogs, with a handle in the centre of the lead. For me this meant double the strength pulling me as both dogs were attached to one arm. So I twisted each slip lead into a figure of 8 to put over the dog’s noses preventing them from pulling.

Gencon don’t just produce dog leads, they have a small range of training accessories too. Something Woody was delighted to test out was The Retrieving roll. Woody was from amazing working parents, yet we have never actually trained him the gundog area. This roll is great when starting out training and attempting a basic retrieve [Woody has never been good at bringing something back]. All you do is add a tasty treat to the pocket inside [The smellier the better, as the dog will really want it – try cheese or sausage]. Then roll up the fabric and fasten it with the velcro. Once the dog has retrieved it, they must bring it back for you to unwrap the roll before they receive the treat [although Woody was determined to unwrap it himself]. This is great for younger dogs to practise their retrieve before they move onto the bigger dummies.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our test of the Gencon products. Positive training with dogs is so important to us, so make sure next time you’re out with your dogs to positively reinforce any good behaviour with lots of praise and treats! Have a lovely valentines day and spoil your pooches with hugs and kisses.

Megan, Woody & Wilma

The prices for the leads directly from Gencon are:

Gencon All-In-One – £17.95

Gencon All-In-One with clip to collar – £18.95

Brace Lead – £15.95

Retrieving roll – £12.50

You can read more about these products or purchase them online here www.gencon-allin1.co.uk

 

This post is sponsored by Gencon, all thoughts, opinions and photos are my own.