Things to think about when choosing what harness your dog should wear.

Shape

Take note of what shape the chest piece of the harness is.

Is it “y” shaped or is it a straight chest piece? Harnesses with a straight piece across the chest can restrict the dog’s ability to extend it’s front legs fully. A ‘y’ shaped strap will sit in the centre of the chest and won’t inhibit movement.

Weigh vs Size of Dog

How many clips are there on the harness? Do they affect the weight of it? What other features does it have? Some harnesses have handles or multiple clips and fastenings, this can affect the weight on the dog’s body, particularly with a smaller dog. Also take note of how big the chest and back pieces are, these can often be oversized and unnecessarily heavy.

Material

Is the material rigid or does it move with the dog? Would you want to wear it? Sometimes, particularly the chest piece, harnesses can have very rigid panels that don’t have much flexibility making it uncomfortable for the dog to lie down while wearing them.

Fastenings

Does the dog have a preference on how the harness is put on them? A lot of harnesses either go over the dog’s head or require a leg to be picked up and placed into it. Not many have enough fastenings to be placed on the dog and fastened around it, although a lot of dogs would prefer this.

Adjustments

Are there many adjustment points on the harness? Sometimes it is beneficial to have a harness that is adjustable in several places to properly fit the size and shape of each dog individually. This can be particularly important for longer haired dogs. Is there room to tighten the harness when the dog has had it’s summer haircut or can it be loosened over the winter when you may want to keep the dog’s hair longer?

My recommendation

We tried so many different harnesses with Skeeter as a young dog, he was a master at wriggling out of them when he wanted to go in a different direction to us on a walk. He doesn’t like things that go over his head and has very tickly feet! He is a cross breed and although is a small dog, the depth of his chest is not proportionate to the size of his body, finding something that fitted him was really tricky.