do you walk your dog in a harness?

[ladyearl]

Tonight someone said walking dogs in a harness makes them pull. I have a dog I walk and he was impossible to walk off his collar so asked the owners to get a harness and he's now able to be walked.

What are your thought people?

thank you

 

[blackcob]

Harnesses are for facilitating pulling, IMHO. Most dogs (and especially certain breeds) find pulling really rewarding anyway, they pull and they get to wherever they want to go, a harness just makes it comfier and easier to haul the human around.

I walk mine on harnesses every day attached to a waist belt with bungee lines, designed for them to be pulling full force, we compete in the same get-up with the expectation that the dog is pulling you along, they wear harnesses to pull the scooter/bike/rig and race.

When I don't want them to pull they wear a collar.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Depends on the dog, the dog's fitness, body type, centre of gravity and the harness itself.
As a RULE yes, it's not that they MAKE dogs pull but a flat bog standard normal harness makes it a lot easier for the dog to pull as it is attached to the strongest part of the dog (see huskies racing, bull breeds weight pulling, tracking dogs tracking - it gives the dog much, much more freedom to move the head and neck wherever they want and to brace themselves against you, I don't even use one for tracking for that reason).
They are sold under the guise that they are 'kind' and 'stop pulling' but I had a terrible experience with the Lupi brand, my dog had an X carved into his chest from all the hair rubbing off and no hair under his elbows where he threw himself and braced into it.
I see lots of people being dragged all over the country by mahoosive beasts because they are being told that collars are cruel and hurt the dog.

No tool alone will stop a dog pulling, it just helps a little, you have to train that, you can't just throw on a harness or a slip/choke or a head collar and expect instant results.

 

[Steeleye Span]

I've always used a Halti harness which is one of the original front fastening harnesses. They are very effective at stopping dogs from pulling.

 

[Jake10]

Why use gadgets to control an unwanted behaviour when, with a bit of time/effort, you can potentially eliminate it with training

 

[2Greys]

I think it depends what the harness is designed for some are made to make pulling more comfortable and others to discourage pulling. Some dogs just seem to walk better in a harness with no real reason for it.

I got a non-pull harness for my old dog as he'd lean into his collar and tug along. It did make him more manageable and along with the training he could soon walk on a nice loose lead and so we went back to using a collar. I'm currently using the same harness with my new girl with a double lead to a head collar as while she walks nicely most of the time she has a high prey drive and was very hard to control on a collar as she's so strong. Its working well and were now able to get past cats/squirrels much easier, so in time with the training i expect we could drop the head collar, but i'll probably stick with the harness for her.

Our trainer also said that it can help the dog differentiate using collar for training time and harness for when you need to walk dog and don't have time to stick to training method.

 

[ladyearl]

Why use gadgets to control an unwanted behaviour when, with a bit of time/effort, you can potentially eliminate it with training

It's not my dog and to be fair the owner's have signed up to come to the training club so I'm hoping that in time things will be ok. But in the meantime the dog was going to cause injury to itself or handler by pulling from the collar. The harness has made it walkable.

Other "sled dog" owners I have spoken to say their dog will only pull when on the pulling harness but is happily walked on the trad type.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Some dogs cannot take pressure from the neck or head and run to escape it...and feel more pressure, and try to evade it some more....vicious cycle. Some as BC says pull to get where they are going, collar or harness!

 

[ladyearl]

Some dogs cannot take pressure from the neck or head and run to escape it...and feel more pressure, and try to evade it some more....vicious cycle. Some as BC says pull to get where they are going, collar or harness!

So you are kind of saying (and this is my take on things as I've been thinking about it) this dog can't take pressure from the collar but will take it from the harness. He is like a different dog on the harness. On the collar he will strangle himself to pull but on the harness he will walk calmly.

This is a re homed at 11months dog so don't have a full history on what may have happened to him at a younger age. This is a boxer/lab btw

 

[stargirl88]

I do walk mine in a harness and clip him onto it when he's allowed to roam away from heel position. Same with young dogs I'll shove them in a harness when i dont have time to train and need to get somewhere... and then they do distinguish between clipped onto collar = heel, and harness = roam. I also use harnesses normally if I'm keeping a dog on a long-line.
I love harnesses I have trained loose lead walking in harnesses with much success. Each to their is though, if their dog figures out how to pull in his harness you're a bit buggered

 

[Jake10]

I know, but I constantly hear people I know saying put that dog in x gadget that'll solve the problem. When all the dog really needs is a bit of time spent on training. Obviously there are times when a harness/other gadget is needed but the only people I know who use them do it as they don't have time to train their dog. Then they moan when said dogs start pulling so a new gadget is added...

 

[lexiedhb]

Yes in certain situations as his personality dictates he would literally strangle himself on anything else.

 

[AmyMay]

Yes, we have a harness for our little dog. Doesn't make her pull.

 

[Molasses]

I love my girls ruff-wear harness. Very well-made strong harness based on search and rescue harnesses.
I use it for lots of reasons, it clips her into the car safely and not by her neck. If I need to tie her to anything its connected to her back and not her neck so no strangling or tangling. It’s high-viz so I can walk her in the dark knowing I can see her little reflective lines, I can pick her up in it, for in and out of car or over fences etc it's brill I’ve also lifted her in and out of boats in it so that’s very handy too. Also when I come across another dog its very quick and easy to clip into the big clip on the back without fumbling around her neck to clip into a little clip that my fumbly fingers can’t find. I don’t use it for any pulling issue, but find it mega useful for all the lifting, grabbing, high-viz reasons. I always get comments on it too, other dog walkers seem to love it.

 

[misterjinglejay]

I train mine to pull on a harness, and in theory, walk to heel on a collar. Apparently I haven't explained it very well to the dogs, though

 

[Ranyhyn]

Lil has a harness, Roly doesn't.

She has it purely because she has always freaked out over anything around her neck! I have collar trained a fair few dogs but this one, she flops like a fish on a line!! So we just went with what made her comfortable and she's happy.

She's a JRT, she can't really pull a mouse, however I do think maybe she's trying to pull

 

[whisp&willow]

betty has a harness for when we are going hill climbing- makes it easier for her to be hoisted if need be.

i would never use it for walking on- harness the strongest part of a bulldog... no ta!

she is not good with other dogs, and once she sees one all her self controll falls out of her pea brain. with a harness her head and neck are free to roam, and she could pull a train. for us harness is a big no no unless up a mountain!

 

[WeedySeaDragon]

We usually teach ours to walk nicely whilst using the collar and then swap them into harnesses. I'm not sure why really, I think it just seems 'nicer'. Harnesses are easier to grab as well if the dogs are being idiots and need manually wrangling.

We've just started clipping the lead to the whippet's collar instead of his harness though as the little sod has worked out how to back out of it. I still leave it on as it's a high vis one and means he doesn't just blend away in woods or long grass.

 

[Honey08]

We have two labs. One walks fine on a lead from her collar, the second one pulls and pulls - even after months of training. Last year when we were going to Badminton we decided to put a harness on him as if anything was going to slip it's collar it would be him. It was like a miracle - no pulling whatsoever! So he always gets walked in it. If we have to clip onto his collar for some reason it is straight back to the pulling and wheezing...

 

[Spudlet]

The harness is used for hill walking, for hoicking him up steep bits and also so that if he's attached to me when we're scrambling and he takes a different route to me and comes to the end of the lead, he doesn't get popped in the neck. I can't have him close at heel in these circumstances, after all. I'd end up falling over him!

Headcollar for road walks in town, and flat collar for other, country walks. He tends not to pull off-road, but walking in town he can be a git for diving at litter, chips etc and frankly it bores me. The headcollar is for power-steering through these circumstances.

Slip-lead for working.

So as you can see all these bits of kit have their place for us.

 

[ladyearl]

I know, but I constantly hear people I know saying put that dog in x gadget that'll solve the problem. When all the dog really needs is a bit of time spent on training. Obviously there are times when a harness/other gadget is needed but the only people I know who use them do it as they don't have time to train their dog. Then they moan when said dogs start pulling so a new gadget is added...

I know I agree but this is not really the case here. Remember I am only walking the dog and I need that to be safe for both of us. The training is not my responsibility but in time I'm sure it will get sorted. Simply wanted to know what people, who walk their dog in a harness, felt about the theory of it encouraging pulling.

 

[Spudlet]

People say it's down to training, and certainly no gadget can substitute for time and training. However, we know that not every horse goes happily in a snaffle bit, and some need alternative bits no matter how much schooling is done. So why do we expect one bit of kit - a flat collar - to suit each and every dog?