Collar Vs Harness

Don't Make Your Pup Scream Help!!!

For the longest time I was not very fond of using a harness for dogs, for the simple fact that I believed the handler had more control if he/she is using a collar. However, I do not claim to know everything there is to know about dog owning/handing/training and therefore I too am learning knew things everyday. I recently switched my American Bulldog, Jane, from a collar to a harness and she is actually responding quite well to it. So in this entry I am going to give a quick run down of collars and harnesses, as well as an acknowledgment of a few specialized collars/harnesses that I think are innovative and helpful.

Make Them Say Thank You

I believe that the number 1 downside of using a collar of any type is that you are leading your dog around by their neck, and depending on how much your pup pulls you could end up choking them on a regular basis. This choking can be even more exacerbated by the use of slip collars and choke chains, which I really don’t suggest unless you have trained your dog to be at a point where he or she will walk without pulling what so ever. However getting your dog to walk perfectly without pulling takes some time and unless your Cesar Millan (who we all know can train any dog in 30 minutes) the best option for all us normal people is the harness. Harnesses come in all different styles, colors, and specialty makes however at their base they are all pretty much the same, two straps go over your dogs shoulders like suspenders and one goes around their waist like a belt and then everything connects at the top of their back and that is where you hook the leash on. With dogs that pull they are a Godsend and can really help to not only walk your dog, but also walk him or her without the guilt of constantly choking your pet. Just like with collars there are a couple specialty harnesses that do different things, such as a harness which gets tighter around the chest the more the dog pulls so that it acts almost as a choke collar would but instead of the tension being around your dogs neck it is instead around their chest, which is a bit less sensitive.