Tito!

Tito has put us through his paces in the four years that we have had him, we have nearly lost him through eating a stone. He has wrecked the bottom of the house, he has ripped up carpets. He is a nightmare at loud noises, fireworks, or thunder and if no one is home, you will come home to carnage. We have lost shoes, socks, dirty pants, (I know disgusting) T-shirts, trousers and tops all to the dreaded teeth of Tito.

He just loves to chew!

However most of the things, although incredibly annoying at first we have dealt with or cope with. His chewing is related to when he is scared now, so I can forgive him, in a sense. But one thing that drives me to distraction is the fact that he pulls when walking.

He has always been a nightmare to walk. He walks with his head down, and just sniffs and pulls. He is not a dog that can be overly let of the lead, you can get away with it occasionally but more often than not he gets a scent and then doesn’t listen to a word you say. We are then left with Mr L chasing him down the beach trying to catch him as Tito is off on a mission. This has happened on more than one occasion, so he is always on the lead with me. I used to be more adventurous, but since adding a pushchair to the equation and then a two-year old child who doesn’t walk that fast, I just can’t be taking the risk that I will have to chase Tito.

But this is why the problem has got worse and worse, having to try to walk Tito, with said pushchair or child, while he is pulling and literally yanking me along has been a nightmare. Mr L hasn’t always believed me that it is really that stressful, mainly because Tito is much better on the lead for him, and behaves. So I had been moaning to my self for a long time.

Then the other day I just decided enough was enough. Baba actually loves walking Tito but there is no way he can do it with me on my own the way Tito currently walks. So I made an investment, in the form of a new lead and a halti harness, to try to stop Tito pulling.

To be honest I was quite apprehensive we tried a head collar and a harness when he was a puppy and it did nothing, so I was thinking that I may have spent money on just another piece of rubbish that was never going to work. It wasn’t met with much enthusiasm from Mr L or Tito either, especially as Mr L put it on the wrong way at first so he got very annoyed with it.

But we carried on regardless and went off for our walk with his new harness and new lead, and it was incredibly different. Tito did pull I am not going to say that he stopped pulling over night, because I don’t think he ever will. But instead of being yanked along, I actually felt like I was in control, and a slight move of the lead got him straight back on track. It was so easy to get him back under control. I think for the majority of the walk Tito actually knew where he was going, as his head was off the floor and he was looking.

I am hoping that after a few more walks on this lead, Tito will be even better at walking, and then we can hopefully start to go for long walks with Baba and I don’t have to be stressed about being pulled this way and that!

I have not been sponsored for this post, I just generally am really impressed with this product and the difference it has made for us walking!