Recommended harness?

ShaShaBear

Well we found Shadow's spare harness, and for ships and giggles I tried to put it on Opie. He was surprisingly good, I was expecting to meet serious resistance. I know it doesn't fit him, Shadow was very overweight when we bought it - but boy, oh boy! He was not long getting out of it as soon as he felt the pull of the lead! I had treats in my hand and was trying to get him to walk along side me in the garden, and as soon as he felt the tug when he got ahead, he THREW himself backwards and ran back into the house

This might take a bit of work.

tk123

My order is still processing!!


No patience - cancelled and ordered from Amazon instead!

tk123

Well SSB I hope your happy - 2 of us buy new harnesses and you recycle for Opie!

Our harnesses came last week. I contacted muddypaws (the shop not the poster ) asking to cancel the order because it was processing for days and was planning to order on Amazon instead. The got back to me apologising saying they'd just gotten delivery (the harnesses weren't marked as out of stock online) and offered to upgrade to next day delivery at no extra cost

I can't get over how light they are - especially compared to our 40mm perfect fits. The belly straps have elastic where they're attached to the harness so a bit of give in them. The front attachment isn't a clip which I was a bit dubious about until I saw it - instead of a nylon loop with a clip attached like on the back there's just the loop with tick plastic around it - it sounds flimsy but it's not. They haven't gone for a swim in them yet but they're so light I don't think drying will be a problem. I haven't used them yet where they'll get mucky because they're so new lol but the material is like raincoat material so it should clean up ok! Sizing was spot on - they were both 30-31" so I went for medium and it's perfect. My friend's is getting one now after seeing ours lol!

bluecherry74

I was looking at those a few months ago and was put off by the front attachment. Now I think I'm going to have to buy them.

ene

thanks for that... just ordered one for Lotso!

another boards.ie purchase i didn't need!

Kattra

TK should get a referral reward..those harnesses look so good on her dogs that i ordered one for Brian as well. Guess i was never really happy with the Halti harness anyway :P

ene

Kattra wrote: »

TK should get a referral reward..those harnesses look so good on her dogs that i ordered one for Brian as well. Guess i was never really happy with the Halti harness anyway :P

i totally agree! if they didn't look so good i wouldn't have ordered one, sure what is Lotso doing in a £10 harness? He definitely needs it!

Ashbx

DBB wrote: »

It's a lead with clips at both ends and rings along them so that you can make it into a "normal" lead if you like... hard to describe, I'll see can I find a pic to illustrate. I LOVE double-ended leads, I use nothing else.
With the Perfect Fit, you attach one end of the lead to the front-attachment ring, and the other end to the back-ring. This means that you have a loop going from the chest to the back for you to hold onto. When the dog pulls, he puts a bit of pressure on that front-connection, and tends to back off it and not pull so much. Now, having said that, the Perfect Fit is not as good as other purpose-built front-connection harnesses for the pulling, but for a dog who needs comfort and isn't a strong puller, they're great.
You can also simply attach the lead to the back ring if you want to use the harness as a regular back-connection harness.
I use them because they're comfortable, but also because I feel they make the dog feel more balanced on-lead, and they're a great tracking harness too.
Does that make any sense?

DBB I got a Halti front fastening harness for my border collie and it possibly wasn't fitted properly (despite getting it fitted) but I found that as my dog pulled, the entire harness and lead was getting dragged to one side. As a result, she started chaffing all across her chest and one of her arm pits. The harness is well padded and I actually stitched more padding on top of it to try relieve it a bit. Nothing changed so I stopped using the harness.

Is this just the harness I bought (possibly being the wrong size) or should I get the perfect fit? I don't want to get a harness that is just going to chafe her and I feel like I would have the same issue with the perfect fit than I did with the halti.

DBB

Hi Ashbx,
I'm not a fan of the Halti harness because, although it works fine on some dogs, it's kinda trying to be all things to all men and as a result, its performance as a pulling-reducer is compromised.
If your dog is a strong puller, the Perfect Fit won't do the job either, it's not really *meant* for hard pullers, but is a lovely, comfy harness for young, green dogs learning to walk on a loose lead, and dogs that may occasionally pull but are not serial offenders.
I wonder might the Freedom Harness fit the bill for you? I haven't used one yet, but the design seems to minimise that pulling-around of the chest strap that you describe (and that I've seen many times with the Halti Harness). I know tk and borderlinemeath both use them, they might be able to give a heads-up on them

tk123

DBB wrote: »

I wonder might the Freedom Harness fit the bill for you? I haven't used one yet, but the design seems to minimise that pulling-around of the chest strap that you describe (and that I've seen many times with the Halti Harness). I know tk and borderlinemeath both use them, they might be able to give a heads-up on them

The freedom has the best control imo - even with just the front clip but with both together it's brilliant. I would say though that no matter what harness you're using you still need to do some training to teach the dog how you want them to walk. My friend gets every harness I get but then complains that they "don't work" because they hold the lead as tight as they can, yank the dog back, won't take 2 mins and stand still until the dog stops pulling and praise him etc etc. He's really clever too so a few mins every day would do wonders!

ene

Lotsos harness arrived yesterday and i am so thrilled with it! Its gorgeous and looks like it will last for ages! In fact i loved it so much i have just ordered the matching ruffwear lead!

Thanks for the recommendation!