Puppy harness troubles

[amomschoice]

I have a 5 month old beagle/lab mix. I'm looking for a no pull harness. I had a soy harness which I loved, but he bit half through it. It was a step in harness. His harness I have now I rubbs on his sides and front. I tried a fleece sleeve over the areas, but it's not helping much since I have to clip the harness on the front to help with the pulling. We are working on loose leash walking, which is helping, but when lunges doesn't help much if hooked on the back. He does better with it in the front. I use a chain leash since he tries to play tug with it. Changing the leash has helped a lot. I use a cane for walking and I'm hoping to use him beside my wheelchair.

I saw a sporn harness and gentle leader harness on petsmart. Does anyone have any suggestion?

[Ari_RR]

We used in the past no-pull "easy walk" harness, and it was fine. We stopped using it because our boy had a shoulder surgery and this kind of harness goes right over the scar. So we switched to a different kind, which is not "no pull" even though I put a front clip on it.
The way "no pull" harnesses work - they tighten and restrict the dog's movement when then the dog tries to pull, so rubbing is a unavoidable.

I have no comments on sporn.

And I am not a fan of gentle leader (which is a head collar, not a harness), although I've heard stories of great success from people using it, including my dearest wife who claims that she doesn't feel safe and in control of our boy when he wears harness, and gentle leader makes all the difference in the world for her.. (I don't believe a word of it )

[Erica]

I found the Easy Walk (or anything similarly shaped - Sense-ation, the Freedom harness (which is really nice!), or really anything with a front clip) to be useful up until the point where the dog I was walking outweighed me. After that, using a double-ended leash with one end on the gentle leader and the other on the easy walk has been our plan, and it works well.

Notes of caution about the GL: it should NEVER be used on its own, especially if your dog lunges. If the dog hits the end of the leash with a GL on, it can really damage their neck. A harness would be better for lunging dogs, as well as trying to avoid whatever triggers him to lunge - though I understand that this isn't always possible. (Zeus, the giant dog I walk with the GL, lunges at squirrels and deer that are stupid enough to run right in front of us on our walks - hence the harness. The GL is more for when he tries to haul me over to a smell he likes. He's allowed to sniff, but he's not allowed to charge off whenever he wants to!)

It also tends to be harder to get the dog used to, requiring a couple training sessions before they like and accept it.

[Maxy24]

I use an easy walk on my dog and it's great for lunging, in fact I use it for just those instances. For pulling I prefer just training the dog, though the harness gives you more control. But when Tucker decides to lunge or otherwise have a reaction to someone the harness helps me get him out of the situation much easier than his collar or regular harness does. The harness works by using the dog's own force to turn him around, towards you. So if the dog lunges hard, he gets turned really quickly.

[gwd]

(Zeus, the giant dog I walk with the GL, lunges at squirrels and deer that are stupid enough to run right in front of us on our walks - hence the harness.

i also have a puller (and lunger). he is a work in progress. <sigh> we've made great strides but there are days when it seems that our progress takes a few steps back.

the easy walk just caused him to pull sideways. he looks like a car with a bad front end alignment going down the sidewalk. ......but i know many people that have had rousing success withe the easy walk or the other brands of front clip harness. still, i would recommend them as one of the tools to try to help make things managable while training towards the no pulling thingy.

one thing i do like is a bungee extension. .......it in no way affects the pulling behavior, but what it does do is mitigate the risk of me being yanked off my feet (darn rabbits) .......it also provides some give so that the dog isn't hitting the end of the leash with such force. i figure it's safer for my boy regardless of what type of collar or harness i'm currently using.

there are many brands.......this is but one example

http://www.petexpertise.com/dog-leashes ... orber.html

[Erica]

Oh yes, I did mean that it's useful in ADDITION to training. It wouldn't help on its own; it just gives the human a better chance of staying on their feet.

[rachel540]

Hi we use a gentle leader with bungey extention for our 1 year old Lab. We have tried everything from a back clip harness, to front clip harness, different head collars and I don't think any of them work to stop her pulling. She is so strong everything slips round, nothing can hold her back and I am just not strong enough.

What does work is teaching her to loose leash walk when she is wearing it, we take it off when she is playing off leash so she can have freedom to go crazy. As soon as we are near roads, on a path, etc it goes back on and she knows to walk at our side. Of course this isn't always the case and will still lunge at the odd passing dog depending what mood she is in, the headcollar goes in her eyes or slips off, but the bungey takes the yank out of the lunge. I personally hate it, and just the other day "accidently" lost it in the park, but my OH swears by it and bought a Halti. I must say this is padded and does fit better than the gentle leader.