Boris the Dog-faced Boy has the ingenuity of the modern-day inventor to thank for the deferral of his almost-certain sudden murder. Boris is a dog that likes to pull on the leash. In fact, he leans into it like an ox to the yoke. When we first got him we tried out the muzzle-based leash restraint systems, both the Gentle Leader and Halti brands. Neither did the trick; Boris hated wearing them and was forever flopping to the ground on walks to try and wipe the thing off. He also learned to ignore the pressure of the straps on his muzzle and just plowed on.

After that we switched to using a regular harness (clipping the leash to his collar resulted in dreadful wheezing, choking sounds) and my attempts to teach him to heel. Very slowly those efforts seemed to be paying off, until we got Vinnie. Boris being the dog he is, there was no way he could go for a walk and let Vinnie be the lead dog. So Boris started up pulling again with a vengeance, and my patience began to wear thin. I tried another tack of teaching him not to pull, by just stopping when he did so and wait until he turned to release the tension on the leash. Progress was slow, very slow, and while I'm sure it would have paid off eventually. I didn't want to try using a choker or roller collar, but might have.

Might have, had not I discovered the Sporn Training Harness. This item has two padded straps that run over the dog's chest, under its front legs (what are a dog's armpits called?) and hooks onto a collar over his back. And it works. The difference is amazing; Boris does his usual surge ahead, and as soon as the leash is taut, he slacks off. Something about that pressure on his chest induces him to ease off. So if he doesn't learn how to ignore this, things will be very well indeed. Walks with the dogs are a pleasure now, although Vinnie will eventually get his own Sporn harness, since he tugs a bit too, though with nowhere near the determination of Boris. Sporn -- almost as good as porn.

Yesterday evening we went to watch young Canadians and Eastern Europeans play a rough sport for the amusement of Yankee imperialists. I speak of junior hockey here, specifically the Portland Winter Hawks against the Seattle Thunder Birds. Something of a rivalry here, played out with two fights, one quite a melee that produced at least three game misconducts. Portlandl lost, alas, on a sudden-death overtime breakaway goal, but they'd fought back from a 0-2 defiicit, so they showed effort. And quite a bit of skill, as well.