Harnesses v collars

chrisc831

chrisc831

Location
South Manchester England
I use it for safety, Fergus is totally nose driven on a walk, and he will suddenly stop dead to go back to a smell he has missed exploring adequately. In those circumstances the collar would be off, and I’d be left with a dangling lead, and possibly a dead dog. (He lurched for a tennis ball lying in a busy road a couple of days ago....of course had I been more alert I’d have seen it before he did) he generally trots nicely beside me, but when something takes his fancy...he’s off so ta da he also wears a dogmatic head collar, which actually is the life saver more than the harness. Ideally he wouldn’t need any of this but he’s more to the Pongo scale, than Stanners and very strong and as I said it’s the lunging at smells/tissues/detritus of Labrador loveliness ie anything that may possibly be edible. I’d be flat on my face or he’d be under a car.
 
Oberon

Oberon

Location
Canberra, Australia
For me it’s safety. A lunge on a collar could cause neck/spinal damage. A lunge on a harness will do nothing.

My first Labrador had a serious neck injury after a dog attack (cervical spine looked a bit like a pretzel on X-ray) so that’s when I stopped attaching leads to collars.
 
Xena Dog Princess

Xena Dog Princess

Location
Wellington, NZ
I only walk Xena on a harness, I just prefer having a leash attached to her body and not her neck. And it's safer for Labrador Lunge situations. Like many of the dogs on here, she has an aversion to putting it on, but once it's on then she's relaxed. My mum only walks her on the collar (putting the harness on would be too difficult for her) and my dog walker uses both.
 
MrChew

MrChew

Chewie used to have an aversion to having his harness put on, I think partially because we initially had a stupid step in harness for him. We now have a fab Ruffwear one.

These days when he sees the harness he waits by the front door prancing around because he associates it with fun times. I still feel like we need to be careful with how we put it on, but mostly he is fine with it. I did quite a bit of desensitisation to having something out over his head to get to this point. He will still pull towards dogs and lunge for food, so that's why we use the harness.
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Shaz82

Shaz82

Location
Essex, U.K.
I used a harness when Maisy was a puppy until she stopped pulling and she hated it, even though she knew it meant going out for a walk. Once it was on she was ok and it was a godsend for protecting her neck. Also of course a harness is best in the car.
Now I only use a collar as mostly we walk off lead and she is not a lunger anyway.

I watched 'Dogs behaving very badly' a few nights ago and the trainer on that - Graeme Hall - was helping a lady with 2 pulling labs. She had harnesses on them but he changed them to leads so that she would have more control over them by tweaking and releasing the lead, the cue for not pulling. It worked, although it took a lot longer for me doing that when I was training Maisy.
 
Boogie

Boogie

Moderator
Location
Manchester UK
I find, with the pups, that training no pull from 8 weeks old really works. You feed in the right position almost every step, their lead walks are only about six minutes long. By five months or so they are doing really well. I also find that me not wanting to ‘go’ anywhere helps a lot, so the walk is all about the training. We are not allowed a harness as they will have very specific harness training at Big School.

I think that having no choice but a flat collar also concentrates my mind on no pull lead walking!

:)
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
Boogie said:
I find, with the pups, that training no pull from 8 weeks old really works. You feed in the right position almost every step, their lead walks are only about six minutes long. By five months or so they are doing really well. I also find that me not wanting to ‘go’ anywhere helps a lot, so the walk is all about the training. We are not allowed a harness as they will have very specific harness training at Big School.

I think that having no choice but a flat collar also concentrates my mind on no pull lead walking!
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How I wish I'd been more clued up on this 3 years ago! I knew that I wasn't getting it right with her, but definitely didn't want to go down the "lead jerk" route, so I sort of trod water and pay the price now! Of course, not only had I never had an over friendly people and dog loving Labrador before, but I'd never done the socialisation thing with other dogs, and I've never had issues with lead walking that I do with Cassie :(
 
Cupcase

Cupcase

Selina27 said:
How I wish I'd been more clued up on this 3 years ago! I knew that I wasn't getting it right with her, but definitely didn't want to go down the "lead jerk" route, so I sort of trod water and pay the price now! Of course, not only had I never had an over friendly people and dog loving Labrador before, but I'd never done the socialisation thing with other dogs, and I've never had issues with lead walking that I do with Cassie :(
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I'm the same. The most important thing to me at that time was recall, I had to get that right and I didn't focus enough on walking nicely on just a collar. I regret it big time now.

Cupar stiffens when the harness goes on, so it only gets used when we're doing all lead walking and when I'm doing reactive training.
I also use a dogmatic.
My dogs safety comes first. I don't like wearing seat belts in a car but I do so, not just because it's law but because it's for my and others safety.
I have a 30kg dog who yanks unexpectedly, I've fell on numerous occasions because of this but at least he is safe and not running onto a road or attacking another dog.
In my opinion safety comes first above whether the tools I use are aversive or not.

If I ever get another puppy, I am much more experienced and will not make the same mistake again but at the moment I work with the dog I have.
 
P

Peartree

It’s really interesting reading everyone’s experiences with collars and harnesses and teaching heel. I have to say that I feel that I haven’t got it right either.

Bingley has super heel walking having been taught on a harness but Diesel who was taught the same way, still pulls if he thinks he can get away with it. I think that this is more due to the personality of the dog rather than any training technique.

One traditional trainer hates harnesses because she says that they allow the dog to pull without any discomfort and the owner then tolerates that behaviour. I’m not sure that I agree with her but I do understand what she is saying. If you dog is choking and hurting themselves when you are walking it, there is more incentive to do some extra heel work training!

This is all on my mind at the moment as I work out what I’m going to do about walking with my little pup. Presently I have a mesh harness on her with a little light house line when we take her out.
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
Peartree said:
I think that this is more due to the personality of the dog rather than any training technique.
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Interesting. In all likelihood this is so.

But I do think, knowing what I know now about force free training and the dog that I have, that teaching them to walk by your side is a great place to be, with or without lead and so that they never learn that they can pull the lead to full tension is the key.

If I ever have another puppy I will put it to the test!

It will be great to follow your progress with Pickle, I hope you share it with us!
 
Beanwood

Beanwood

Administrator
I have a dog staying with us, and has been for the last 2 weeks. I have never really had a dog that pulled properly to the extent it would be difficult to walk him...until I met this one. It was actually upsetting to hear him choking on the lead, to the extent I wondered if the noise was coming from a damaged trachea. I walk him (if I have too..) on Bensons old Ruffwear harness and he is much happier! But oh my God! The desperate rasping is horrible!!!
 
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