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• #3077
Sighthounds need harnesses for two reasons...they can back out of pretty much any neck collar if they get panicked (heads are pretty much same circumference as their necks) and their prey drive be is so strong they can injure themselves lunging for an unexpected cat while on a neck lead. Not every sighthound owner agrees, but it definitely makes sense to us. The alternative is martingale collars.
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• #3078
Yeah. There’s an assumption that all dogs respond to training the same way. Teaching a dog to walk to heel can take a long time and sometimes never works.
The thing that mystifies me about harnesses for walking is that the point of attachment for the lead is the enabling the dog to exert maximum force. It’s where sled dogs are hooked up.
If the dog needs to be discouraged from pulling a head collar is best, as the dog gets pulled of line as soon as it starts pulling. They’re especially good if the dog is prone to suddenly lunging at another dog or a cat.
I only uses harnesses when in the car to attach the dog to a seatbelt. -
• #3079
We never really use harnesses for our sighthounds, only when the pup was younger as there was no way a collar would have been enough.
You can use a double ended lead to attach to both the harness and a collar so they can't just give it full beans through the harness.
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• #3080
That looks decent! The medium is definitely too small for Crumpet (she's about 30kg) but thanks a lot for the offer.
@christianSpaceman, I didn't realise you could get an extra strap for the K9, might be worth looking in to.
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• #3081
We tried neck collars for a while when Otto was younger but all it took was one incident of him backing out of his collar near a main road for us to go back to harnesses. Obvs everybody has different experiences.
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• #3082
As I said, Crumpet's generally pretty good on the lead but I'd rather have the control a harness gives, just to be on the safe side. We have to walk her down a busy main road to get to the park so I'd rather be 100% sure that I've got a good hold of her in case she does try and bolt after a fox or whatever.
Thanks everyone else for the harness suggestions, I'll have a look through them when I have a little bit more time!
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• #3083
good points.
it actually goes on a martingale collar too when being walked to heal, but it just can never be let off the lead fully in certain places, so always needs some attachment and thus using a harness is better than said collar when just running on the lead. It's eaten a coop of chickens and a cat when it slipped.
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• #3084
I have a spare K9 with y strap that you could try?
I don't tend to walk Akira in his (perfect fit) harness at the moment, his shedding means it's causing a bit of discomfort.
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• #3085
OK, that's some of the mystery solved, I sort of get the point with sighthounds and something that is guaranteed to munch passing fauna. I still doubt the sense of an attachment point giving the dog the best possible angle to drag their pet human. I think it's the use of a harness as a substitute for any training whatsoever that gets to me most, I see plenty of examples. A high proportion of harnesses I see appear to be fashion statements rather than practical dog stoppers.
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• #3086
We use a harness because although ours walks generally well sometimes she wants to jump off after something and I'd rather not risk her coming out of the collar and into the path of a car.
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• #3087
A simple rope slip lead with the leather tab adjusted so that it just goes over the dogs head (as just modelled by Murphy at his most gormless) has always worked for me. I have never had a dog get off the lead.
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• #3088
We have a neck collar but for proper walks we use a harness. Poodles tend to have a strong prey drive and if he sees a fox or a squirrel he would be off and probably choke himself. We've tried lots but he seems most comfortable in a cheapo harness from PetsAtHome. He has quite a high chest to neck ratio which makes finding a secure one a bit of a pain.
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• #3089
Get a dog with a head smaller than its neck and your experience might be different ;)
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• #3090
I've found best compromise for controlling benny in his harness is a lead with a second hand loop about a foot from the harness end of the lead. if i'm holding the shorter loop he'll walk to heel and mostly behave himself, on a longer lead he can run around and sniff ALL the things as is his passion in life but also get up to mischief so if anyone comes close i just shorten his lead again. usually only an issue when some dickhead gets all up in my personal space while i'm distracted picking up a dog egg.
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• #3091
Which is why I said I got the idea of harnesses for sighthounds! Oddly, most of them around here are on slip leads, but tend not to be particularly young.
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• #3092
I recently moved rooms in the house to work in. Cattle dog brought his bed and moved with me.
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• #3093
You don't have a different bed in every room? Just me?
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• #3094
I think it's the use of a harness as a substitute for any training whatsoever that gets to me most, I see plenty of examples. A high proportion of harnesses I see appear to be fashion statements rather than practical dog stoppers.
Nori can do a pretty good Geoff Capes pulling a truck impression when wearing a harness so if she's wearing it i have to rely on recall to keep her away from people/dogs/food. I see a fair few dog owners yanking on neck collars as a lazy redirect.
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• #3095
This is the dogs thread, not the in the dog house thread.
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• #3096
Almost more than we have rooms.
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• #3097
When one of mine is on a neck collar she’ll happily choke herself if she gets excited about something. Hence harness on longer walks.
You’re welcome to have a go at training her.
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• #3098
controlling benny
Better you than me, sounds terrifying.
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• #3099
he's a stone cold killmurderdeathmaker.
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• #3100
Thanks for the offer but we've actually just ordered a Y strap to fit the K9 we're using at the moment. It was only a few quid and should give us an idea if it improves the K9 for our needs!
Jealous. We are getting there. From never going in, to going in himself.
He sleeps at the foot of the bed very peacefully which works. My only issues is his mad 3 hours in the morning and 30mins at night. He is a little piranha and redirecting can be hard. Just trying to find what works in terms of calming him, be it training sessions, game, toy etc. Sometimes its just that he needs the loo but takes a bit to go.