Should You Get Your Dog a Harness?

[@irinababkina422]

👍🏻Great protection acseccorie for dogs!

[@sallydingle321]

Looks like a great harness 👌... Freddy looks very happy in it anyway and looks super chilled after his walk too 😁👍🐾🥰

[@selenea7788]

I'm not too fond of choke leads for whippets, so I put her into a three-peak reflective harness when I got my whippet. She always leads the way when first out from pure excitement but soon settles. I like the grab handle on this harness, but I wondered if it becomes redundant when whippets enter their winter/spring walking coats.

[@thomashartnett]

Great tips and advice Jed! Going through your recent videos has been very helpful for whippet planning

[@garydewar8817]

My whippets are so much better on a harness. They pull on collars but not harness.

[@Kuro_Reaper]

The notion that harnesses allow dogs to pull means a dog is more likely too is very untrue. Most dogs will choke themself out pulling reguardless of being on a collar or not, most will even choke themselves out on a choke chain (dangerous, don't use). Harnesses stop the dog from damaging their airways if they are a pulling too much. Ultimatly no tool is going to make a well behaved dog; there are tools that can help (no-pull harnesses, head collars) and there are tools that will cause pain so they don't pull (choke collar sometimes, electric collar, prong collars)...BUT usually when they are taken off the dog reverts back OR is traumatised by the situation it doesn't act naturally/relaxed. The ONLY way to teach a dog to be well behaved on a lead is to train correctly, and punnishment is not needed.

[@freddiethewhippett]

It’s really not untrue my pal. And my boy Freddie will definitely not choke himself out pulling on a lead 🤣 Ive never witnessed any dog choking themselves out cold from being on a lead! What I have seen are dog in harnesses pulling. Just like huskies.

[@Kuro_Reaper]

@@freddiethewhippett Your dog maybe won't pull so much on a collar, but most infact will just keep pulling on a collar. I work in dog behaviour and work with rescue dogs; most dogs that pull on the lead will pull whether they are on a collar or a regular harness. Collar pulling is terrible on their necks and so the harness protects their throats, as I said; it doesn't stop them pulling, it just reduces injury. Most dogs that pull on the lead do so because they have never be trained to walk on a lead and then people falsly beleive harnesses stop pulling, which they don't.

[@freddiethewhippett]

@@Kuro_Reaper and that’s precisely it. It’s about training. Which most dog owners these days don’t spend time on, put the dog in a harness and live a life of hell 🤣

[@Kuro_Reaper]

@@freddiethewhippett I very much agree! Most people dont want to put in the work of training.

[@squarefrog]

Do you have any advice on training them to be better on the lead? Our 15 month old whippet will absolutely pull on her collar, sometimes pulling herself up on two legs. She has a wide martingale, but I worry she’s hurting herself from pulling. We’ve tried stop/start when she pulls, changing direction, regular treats if she’s walking to heel, but nothing lasts. If she wants to follow a scent she’ll pull away. The only time she walks nicely is if she’s absolutely knackered from 10-15 mins of solid ball chasing in an open field.