Hi.

We have a 7 month old Golden Retriever who has become very strong on the lead, we use treats and stop start methods which for the majority of the time works well and also she walks much better once she has let of some steam ,however there has been the odd occasion when she has pulled so hard in a different direction that she has almost pulled me over. I was debating wether to use either a harness or halti and was just after peoples views on them both?

Thanks.

I've always found headcollars preferable to harnesses but not necessarily the halti headcollar.

If harnesses are to work they need to be anti-pull and these are very restrictive around the dog's chest which use negative reinforcement to get the dog to walk without pulling.  Haltis tend to ride up into the dog's eyes on a lot of breeds and I have known two dogs who had to have their lower eye lashes surgically removed because they had been 'turned in' by the riding up halti and constantly irritated the dogs eyes.

If I've needed to use a short term aid while training to walk on a lose lead I've found the Dogmatic, Gentle leader or canny collar (whichever suits your dog best) the way to go.

Whichever you use, most dogs don't like the feel of them at first and try to rub them off. With careful introduction, slowly building up the length of time the dog wears it in the house before taking it out for a walk, most dogs accept them quite well.

I agree with suzieque. have tried a harness on my pully gsd when he was young and just about every headcollar on the market to get one that fitted him properly.
Finally I use either a dogmatic (1st choice) or canny collar.