That seems to be about the right price for the gentle leader. I used one on one of the pits that I worked with, she was always so scared that someone would sneak up hehind her and attack her, but with that leader and one small tug/touch, she would straighten up and watch where she was walking. I love those thing.... for WALKS! I don't ride bikes, so I can't help with that part.
I never used a clicker because when I did, it only made my dogs hyper and that defeated the perpose of the training. I only used voice comands with my dogs and hand signals. I do know that a lot of people on here would recomend a clicker though. I think that it is up to you and your dog. When I want them to 'down' I say the word and point to the floor in front of me, when they followed through, I quickly give a treat and say 'wait'. That way, the 'wait' becomes the 'good' and it also works as the 'stay'. They don't know human/english anyway, so it doesn't matter. All they know is that you have certain tones that you use and when they learn the tones, they will figure out pretty quickly what it is that you want, especially if you add a hand command to it, it makes it easier to figure it out. The first step for you might be to (in your house and with your fiance) teach the command 'watch' or 'look' or 'attention'. When I tought my dogs this word (And you can find some other tips on other posts) I would say the word and point at my nose/face area. When they looked at me, they were rewarded. No other words at first, just a reward for looking when I said 'watch'. Now I will walk up to Owen (My EBT) and simply say 'watch', He turns around from whatever he is doing and looks at my face. I will give him a second and then give him a command. I usually am getting ready to tell him to find his ball, and I will say 'where's your ball? Find it!' He will get up, take off running to where he last had his ball and he WILL find it!
Even if he has to sit in front of his crate because it is sitting on top, he will come and get me and sit in front of the crate and show me that the ball is there! He then gets his ball as a reward!
Now if he found it on the floor and brings it to me, then he can have a treat (if he even wants it) and then we play ball.
With Titus (who is still learning this better) he will look at me and then try to find the treat with out another command, but that is also about how long his attention span is. With him I will tell him to 'watch' and he will look at my face just long enought to get the 'sit' word out!
Then he will sit and look around for more treats, while sitting!
The last walk we went on, I was half way around the block when I remembered that I didn't pick up the treat pouch. We got almost all of the way back to the house when we were 'attacked' by a rat terrier that didn't have a collar or leash on and wanted to try to take on my 55# Owen and 90# Titus!! That was tricky for me to get that dog to stay away and to keep Titus and Owen walking. Titus wanted to be sure that the other dog wasn't following us, so he ended up getting me tangled in the leash and Owen wanted to see if he could chase the other dog! Wow, I was really wishing that I had some treats to re-direct their attention from the dog, I think that we would have made it out of there faster if they weren't worried about that dog and they were more interested in the treat. But, Thats what I get for forgetting!
They did do really well in comparison to when I first started taking them for walks though! I was very happy with how they handeled distractions and 'out of the ordinary' situations that were going on around us.
We have all been so cooped up in the house for the last week or more because of the rain here in Atl Ga, so when we went out, all I could think was, 'I am going to get hurt today cause they are going to want to run and chase everything!' But they didn't! They stayed on their favorite sides of me and they listened well. Until the rat terrier!
Funny story, we walked around the backside of the block and someone was bringing a large branch from the back of their house to put it by the curb for the yard services to pick up and Titus didn't see any of this that was happening practically in front of him. Suddenly the guy tossed the large branch on top of the pile that way there and Titus nearly wet himself!
I simply said 'leave it, he's ok.' and kept walking (while trying my best to now crack up laughing out loud) and as we passed Titus watched the guy till he couldn't see him anymore! I think he was more upset that he got scared then he was that the guy was even there!
