Collar or harness

[cefe13]

Do you use a collar or a harness? Castor (five months old) doesn't pull, but at times he refuses to walk. To make him walk without pulling him by his neck, we've now got a harness. It seems to work better than the collar, but are there any disadvantages of using a harness that we should consider? I'm asking as I've noticed that dogs with a harness that I see around here seem to pull a lot, whereas in our case, I'm the one who is pulling the leash!

 

[Jennifer Clark]

Its better in my opinion because it forces their legs and not the neck.

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[Rural mystic]

Just for casual walking on lead I use the harness or if I am transporting Ace or just going for a ride I will always use the harness as I can secure it with a seat belt. But in training situations when using a collar I use a heavy duty Herm Sprenger prong collar. A well made prong collar is much safer than a traditional flat collar in preventing damage to a dog's throat. A prong collar fitted correctly applies even pressure around the dogs neck and not simply on the the throat area like a flat collar will do especially if the dog lunges or is pulling on leash. In fact with a prong collar there is little pressure on the throat area. They look barbaric and sometimes people are against them for that simple reason and not for how they actually work and function on a dog

 

[ZeusCsmommy]

Harness. Zeus will definitely pull.

 

[Rural mystic]

The link provided in my post above on the collar is not a link I provided it was automatically there after I posted linking to a site that sells these.
The link is not the exact type of collar I use but is similar in function. I just wanted to let folks know that I didn't link to a site selling these. I bought mine from a trainer and is a little different version but made by the same manufacturer

 

[freebeans]

Harness? I keep a collar on him with all his "bling" but for walking harness.

 

[ddnene]

I use a harness for the simple reason for protecting their trachea... I have heard horror stories of collapsed trachea's w/collars. Bella was a HUGE puller, but Winston is way more laid back. I agree [MENTION=7587]Rural mystic[/MENTION] if you use the pronged collar correctly it is a great tool to keep them from pulling.

 

[cefe13]

Thank you for your quick replies - we'll continue with the harness! We don't want to hurt his neck, but at the same time he needs to actually walk, and pulling him by the harness seems to be more gentle than by a collar. I need to keep training him to walk on command. Crossing streets are ok (he knows he gets a treat when we reach the other side), and when he knows we are on our way home, he walks very well, but for the first part of our walks, I need to pull him now and then as he tends to sit down or just stop.

Prong collars are forbidden here.

 

[Casper]

Both mine are Harnessed, even when doing car rides, more support, they have a tough enough time breathing, don't need to add any more to it is my philosophy

 

[cefe13]

Casper - we use the same harness in the car too, which is handy! He's used to being in a harness in the car so introducing it for walking has been easier than I first thought.

 

[Maife]

Ulysses was the exact same way! we looked like weirdos on the street trying to make that little, cute, teddy bear looking puppy walk, and he just didn't move. We tried for a couple of weeks to make him walk with the leash and his collar, but I was also scared about his throat so I got him a harness. It worked much better cause you can control him better, but at the same time when you wanna teach him to walk properly without him pulling, the collar worked better for us. Now he is 2 and we use them intermittently. He walks really well with the collar (and he likes it more than the harness) but when I know there is gonna be some situation where he will either not move (rainy day, too cold, too hot, lots of dogs) or pull (also lots of dogs, depends if they are boys or girls ) I use the harness, otherwise we always use the collar in case we need a quick pull just to snap him out of fixating on things. But I gotta tell you, his addiction to just sit on the street and not move anywhere except you tell him we're going home it stills there.

Thank you for your quick replies - we'll continue with the harness! We don't want to hurt his neck, but at the same time he needs to actually walk, and pulling him by the harness seems to be more gentle than by a collar. I need to keep training him to walk on command. Crossing streets are ok (he knows he gets a treat when we reach the other side), and when he knows we are on our way home, he walks very well, but for the first part of our walks, I need to pull him now and then as he tends to sit down or just stop.

Prong collars are forbidden here.

 

[cefe13]

Thanks for telling me this - it's good to know there are more bulldogs out there behaving like this!

 

[Davidh]

For just walking around we use a collar or harness, but in the car if they are not in their crate it's a harness for sure.