Collared

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to an ever so slightly belated blog post.

There are many reason for my tardiness, not least among which being a noble if somewhat domed attempt at tidying and cleaning the house. Then of course there was the picking up of the wife from work, the personal hell that is supermarket shopping, and taking the dog out for a Sunday afternoon constitutional.

And my, how dog walking has changed

A Moving Story

Dog walking, you may be thinking, surely this is not the most riveting topic for a blog of such standing (or perhaps sitting). Surely this has little to do with wheelchairs, disability or, well, anything much really. And to a degree you would be correct.

The pertinence of this particular post boils down not to the activity itself, but to the mechanisms that make it possible for a wheelchair user.

To fill in the gap for anyone who was not yet had the dubious honour to experience the full glory of the Seated Perspective, your humble host is a manual wheelchair user. This means that my ‘chair is not fitted with a motor. There is not little joystick to fiddle with. No turning on or the electricity and no battery to charge. Basically what there is is me, a seat, and four wheels, two of which need some good old brute force applied to them in order too, um, get things moving.

This is of course unless any volunteers are present to aid in this endeavour. As Tina, my lovely wife, seems to occasionally link the amount of help I need to the number of possible spectators present and one particularly good friend insists anything less than cliff faces are ‘downhill’ such help is not always present. Of course being the proud, independent, and quite frankly stupid individual I am it’s not always asked for either.

I digress.

Taking The Lead

The point it that my chair needs pushing and to do this the pusher generally needs two hands. You can try with one but progress is hard fought and slow and the risk of finding oneself going round in circles quite high. When walking a dog, especially a giddy pup with the pulling power of our hound, Bonnie, a lead also needs to come into play. I’m sure you can see the problem.

I have tried alternating a lead between my hands allowing a ‘push one side and then the other’ system of rather slow and erratic progress. I’ve tried tying the lead to my wrist, which seems to result in me heading sideways, sometimes without my wheelchair. I’ve also tried tying her to the chair but, although more stable, this leads to a lack of control and, potentially, to me being dragged off course, on one memorable occasion almost into oncoming traffic (see here). This all continued until we discovered Halti.

Halti are a company that make a range of canine accoutrements specifically designed for training and behaviour modification. The first thing we purchased from them was a lead.

The lead in question is beautifully designed. Made of padded material, it is both soft and strong (but of average length, and probably not ideal for wiping your bum with... You know the advert). The real beauty f it though is the number of metal rings that it has at convenient intervals along its length.

This means that the lead can be fastened around my waist with enough left over to attach to Bonnie’s collar and leave me with both hands free. This is a definite improvement and means that she is attached to my ever growing centre of gravity. What it doesn’t do is stop her pulling.

No Pain, All Gain

Bonnie is a strong, energetic, girl, an an extremely friendly one too. If she sees a person, dog, cat, bird, or lamp post she has not said hello to she will try to correct this oversight immediately. The recipient of this greeting does not get a say in the matter. Sometimes the person on the other end of the lead doesn’t either. This is the behaviour that has led both myself and Tina to become intimately acquainted with the ground on more than one occasion. As I mentioned she is a strong girl but it is the suddenness of the change in direction and velocity that can really take one’s feet or wheels from underneath you. Thus, we turned once more to Halti for a solution.

As this solution was a head collar, it wasn’t something we rushed into. The collar is padded but it does fit rather snugly over Bonnie’s snout and face, although away from the eyes and nose. She’s not it’s biggest fan but we are assured that it isn’t cruel and that it doesn’t cause any pain.

Getting A Head

What the head collar does do, however, is to shift the connection between hound and handler from neck to head. It means that Bonnie, if she wants to pull, has no longer got the full weight of her body behind the effort. The chest, where the most resistance can be generated, cannot come into play. It also means that she is eminently steerable. Just a small tug on the lead is enough to get her to face any direction, to lift her head from sniffing, or to point her away from potential hazards and distractions.

It’s only been a week, but the difference is palpable. Dog walking has turned from being a chore to an enjoyable experience. Bonnie herself is taking a little while to adjust, and is pawing at the collar a little in complaint but I’m sure she’ll get used to it in time For me, the addition of the collar to the lead means I now feel I have complete control of Bonnie whilst still being able to push myself, at my own pace, in my own direction, with no fear for the safety of myself or Bonnie. For Tina, it has meant that dog walking, something she has been pensive about ever since her stroke (see here) is something she can be fully confident about. I think for us both, having these little aids is an empowering and freeing experiencing and one that adds that tiny little bit extra to life.