I’ve been using the Mekuti harness (back, and front/side points of attachment and 2-ended leash) and it has been brilliant. Walking my previously hard-pulling 7 yr old scent hound is now a pleasure and my hands don’t get sore. My dog likes the harness too and puts his head through it by himself when I hold the harness in front of him.

I have never used a leather harness before, nor have I looked into them, so I don’t have much to say.

In general with harnesses, I look for ones that are lightweight, will be comfortable for my dog, and will provide my dog with enough support. With leather, the first two concerns that come to mind are weight and possible chafing.

I mostly use the red-light-green-light technique and the 180 turn around technique to leash train my dogs.
http://shibashake.com/dog/leash-training-your-dog

I always start small and only very slowly build up the environmental challenge. In this way, I set my dog up for success. More on how I leash trained my puppy.

For dog-to-dog reactivity issues, I do desensitization exercises. When I was having issues with my Shiba Inu, we also visited with several professional trainers. It can be a challenge to find a good trainer, but the good ones can be very helpful.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/

Yeah, dog training is very situational. It depends a lot on the dog, the surrounding environment, routine, and also on us. With Sephy, I have found that it is useful to get information from many different sources (books, online, scientific studies, trainers) and then I choose what is appropriate to apply based on Sephy’s temperament, situation, body language and more.

For example, my Husky Lara was afraid of loud noises when she was young. Some things that helped her with loud noises-
1. Noise desensitization exercises.
2. I first walked her in the house and in our enclosed backyard, where it is quiet and there are few distractions. In this way she is less fearful. If necessary we would drive her to quiet, enclosed, spaces so that the walks will be successful. I only walked Lara outside *after* she was fully vaccinated.
3. The more successful walks Lara had, the more confidence she gained. As she gained confidence, I was able to *very slowly* increase the environmental challenge.

Screaming that arises out of stress, anxiety, and fear, is very different from screaming out of frustration, is very different from screaming out of anger, etc.

Here is a bit more on dog anxiety.

As for neighbors, I also got a lot of looks from them with Sephy. Here is a bit more on being embarrassed by my dog.

I want nothing more than her to behave on the leash while we’re outside doing business or “trying” to go on a nice short walk to the mailboxes. But she’s terrified of everything, pulls, screams, everything you can imagine a displeased Shiba does. She can’t stand the noises the neighborhood children make, a passing stranger makes her scream and pull, you get the picture. And what’s worse, there are NO obedience trainers or doggy classes in this whole area. I don’t know what to do!

LOL! Yeah the Shiba scream can be pretty terrible.

Sephy only did this when he wanted something or is objecting to something. He is very clever, so if he notices that his screams cause people to give-in to him, he will just keep doing it.

For example, we had a dog walker who took Sephy on nice outings to the park with a group of other dogs. Sephy quickly learned that if he did his Shiba scream, the walker would get embarrassed (understandably so), would lose her cool, and would lose control over him. From then on, he just kept using the Shiba scream on her.

What works with Sephy is to always stay calm (even during the scream), and to have a decisive response plan. If he does this during our walks, I march him home right away and the walk ends. I do not try to make him stop, or engage him physically, which usually just makes his behavior worse. Instead, I just ignore him and we walk very quickly home. He learned pretty quickly that

Screaming = Get ignored and walk ends.

Since screaming did not bring him good results, he stopped doing it with me.

If he screams while at home, go goes directly to timeout. He gets to come out when he stops screaming and calms down. I am always very consistent with Sephy, and I set up a very consistent set of rules that he always has to follow. He is stubborn and very mischievous, much more so than my Sibes, so he has more rules around the house.

How can I stop Lady Loki from releasing that ear shattering scream? Just last night she wanted out of her pen for something, and she released a scream that was so loud, so blood curdling, that I thought the neighbors would call the landlord or cops to complain! It was a scream to wake the dead! How can I stop her from doing that at night when we are supposed to sleep through the night?

Thank you! :3