Designed by Roger Mugford, it lead the way towards kind, effective training.  I prefer the Halti for Rotts, with longer nosed breeds I will use a Gentle Leader which we will illustrate on here too.

I have used Keeper, my handsome assistant, to help me here.  Keeper models the Halti so you can see how it fits.  I normally recommend black head collars but we have used a red one to illustrate it better. 

Get used to Keeper as you will be seeing a lot of him and Doris to demonstrate methods!  He's a lovely boy really and will save you pounds on toys!

Here the Halti is seen from the front.

The circular ring under the jaw gives control under the head, relieving the weight of the dog.

Keeper is completely comfortable with wearing the head collar as he has been taught by positive association - i.e. cheese!

Seen from the side.

You should be able to insert two fingers under the strap at the back of the head.  Personally I prefer to go by three fingers and keep a lead attached to the collar.  We will be loading this technique later this week!

Note! -  the calm eye contact - most important!

And again from the front.  The nose strap should be a comfortable fit without riding up onto the eyes.

In order for the dog to make a positive association with the head collar, we need to do some preparatory work.

I always use the clicker but you can just use treats.  If you are not using a clicker, substitute the click and treat for just a treat.

To begin with, just place the head collar on the floor.  When your dog goes near it, click and treat.  He should soon get the hang of this and be constantly approaching the head collar.  When you have got this success rate, stop clicking and treating.  Your dog should then think "hmm - well I was doing it right before!".  He should then go one step further by either going closer to the head collar or sniffing or mouthing it - brilliant, click and treat again.

He will soon get the hang of this so when you have a success rate, stop.  Place the head collar so it is just resting on his nose, if he has no objection, click and treat.  Work this association up until you get to the stage where you can fasten it very loosely on him then click and treat if he leaves it alone.

Once you have got to this stage, you have cracked it!  You can then gradually tighten the fit.

I never walk a dog on a head collar alone.  I always attach a lead to his collar and a lead to his head collar.  Hold the lead attached to his collar in your left hand and the one attached to his head collar in your right hand.  This gives you wonderful control.