Hey guys,

just wanting to know the pros and cons with using harnesses or collars. My dad often walks my husky (5 months) in more rural areas and he is desperate to get her a harness that he can clip to a hands free dog walking waist belt as he wants to eventually start jogging with her when shes older. At the moment she just has a collar and retractable lead and she does pull , almost to the point where she chokes herself at times (we are working on this)

Just wondering, since all the power must come from the shoulders, are strong dogs like this not actually a lot stronger in a harness?

We started Anna off with a harness but as she has gotten bigger of course she has gotten stronger. So we bought her a Lupine martingale collar, works like a charm for us. She rarely pulls. If you don't know it is a collar that tightens when they pull without choking them.

I also have an EzyDog harness but that's more for when she gets a little bigger and we can take her for runs. She is still too young for that and the harness only makes her want to pull more. So for right now I keep the collar on her by itself. Eventually I might try walking her around in her harness but for right now I love the martingale collar.

hey ellen

So would you say for me to keep on using a collar for my daily walks but for my dad to get the harness for when he wants to run her (he actually wants her to pull)?

I love both, I use the collar just for going potty or short distanced walks, anything more than a 10 min walk I use the harness, but thats just me because Axel has a habbit of getting scared of loud noises and slipping out of his collar :/

I use harness for walking or any time leaving the yard. the ones i use are puppia brands http://www.puppiaus.com/puppiaus/Product.asp?PK=174C1B03506E&CK=17481901F8 and then I use the collars for their tags only. My collars are nice ones from Deb's Place, a member on the forum.

I don't trust collars and my dogs for walking purposes, and I do not like restraining a dog by a collar due to it pulling on the neck. I can walk all 4 of mine with harnesses pretty easily.

do some research and you will find the product your wallet, dog, and you will enjoy.

I use a Gentle Leader for walking http://www.wag.com/dog/p/premier-pet-gentle-leader-headcollar-127353. Before I got that, I used the EZYDog Chest Plate Harness. She pulled like a mother! My hands were always beet red and I droaned about going on walks with her (I'm 112 pounds, she could easily pull me around lol). I would always try to correct her and make her "heel" at my side but I guess I didn't start early enough, or she's highly stubborn. This thing is a dream and well worth the $12 I spent. I got the medium - she's 18" tall and ~38 pounds (6 months). I probably will stop using it once she stops pulling so much.

The pulling point is basically at the back of her jaw/top of her neck. It is 100% comfortable when she wears it and can even eat/drink/pant with it on. I wanted to try this before I resorted to using a choke collar. PLEASE read the directions on how to size it properly. It will take about 10 minutes to get used to it. It reminds me of a horse harness, without the bit lol.

Now I use the EZYDog Harness for the car. It has a seatbelt attachment and I just clip her in. It gives you the piece of mind that she isn't roaming about in the car.

I hope I helped! Good luck!

Well for me personally I love Anna's harness and I didn't really like the thought of a collar either because I know how she pulls. But she pulls so hard sometimes she chokes herself with her harness. (They were crappy harnesses but she is also still a puppy, didn't want to buy anything too expensive with her growing so fast.) As soon as i put on her martingale collar she rarely pulls at all. But I'd also like to add that I am trying to train Anna to not act like a complete nut when she sees people or other dogs and being a small person the collar really helps. Hahah. So for training purposes I love it. Now on long walks with Anna I put both her collar and harness on her and at first i leave it hooked to her collar if there are a lot of people, if not I just hook it to her harness and she won't pull too much. If she starts out pulling when hooked to her harness I hook it to her collar and walk that way. I like having both on her. It's just a personal preference I guess.

Just like Kevin said do a little research. It's hard to say what works for me will work for you as well. Plus some people have a preference. You can try a martingale collar and if you like it and it works great! But if she continues to pull you might have to break her a different way. But as I said as soon as I hooked her leash to her collar she didn't pull at all and all I tell her is no when we walk past people and she is fine.

Hope that helped!

Jackie I have the same problem! I am the same size and Anna can just drag me around!
And she is about 35 lbs and 7 months. That's why I love the martingale collar because it doesnt choke Plus Lupine has the lifetime warranty even if chewed.

As for leashes the best ones that I have had were made by another member of this forum, the hand grip has this super soft stuff on it that just is perfect <3 The collars that I do use though were made by the same person

anastasiya'smom wrote:

Jackie I have the same problem! I am the same size and Anna can just drag me around!
And she is about 35 lbs and 7 months. That's why I love the martingale collar because it doesnt choke Plus Lupine has the lifetime warranty even if chewed.

Yeah! I love different collars. I think my next one will be Lupine (because of their awesome warranty) and the martingale. My mom uses them and she loves them. They have neat patterns too.

Of course! I just bought Anna's off Amazon. Her leash and collar are both the Sunny Days pattern. It's cute. Their patterns are very different, in a good way of course!

Yuki doesn't take long walks yet, I'd say we got 10-15 minutes at the most, but I've been using a harness with her from day one while still teaching her to heel. It just offers me security knowing the harness keeps her back rather than the collar whipping her neck around when she lunges at something. So, harness for me

For the yard, we use a collar cause they know to walk nice and calm in the yard. But outside, all hell breaks loose and they pull and run like crazy. So for that we have a harness. They still pull like mad, but I have the comfort of knowing it won't hurt their necks as much as using their collar would. We're about to try to halti harness in a couple weeks so we'll see if that helps with the pulling. But if you can get your pup to heel and walk nicely with a collar, then by all means! I wish I had dogs like that haha

I started using a harness with my one dog Roxy years ago. She was a nut, and would choke herself with just a collar one. So I've used one since. It saves them from choking themselves pulling. That and with Lucian I was afraid the collar might slip off, and I know he will run! I'm going to start doing some walk training in the back yard with him, hopefully curb the pulling, and get him to listen to commands.

Thought I'd post here in case anyone wanders in with the same question.

I've had Callie in a harness since I got her at 8 weeks. I was terrified of her choking herself on a collar like my mom's lab did. She just recently started pulling, probably once she hit 5 months. My ultimate goal is to train it out of her. I don't want to rely on an Easy Walk or a Gentle Leader because a lot of people say that it only stops the pulling if you always use that method. Over all, I want Callie not to pull no matter what her leash is attached to. But while I'm working on training it out of her, I needed some temporary relief.

I bought a Kong leash. The handle is really soft so it doesn't hurt me as much as her nylon leash did. It also has a bungee part so that if she does take off suddenly, it's not so much of a jerk as it stretches a little with her. The other thing I did was take away the harness. Right now, she's being walked by her collar. She still tries to pull but then decides she doesn't like the feel of it and gives the leash some slack. My next step was going to be a martingale collar but as I have mixed feelings towards those and prong collars, I decided to see if this works first. I would like to transition back onto the harness eventually since I feel more secure knowing she won't slip out of it as easily, but first I want to make sure she understands that we are NOT pulling for any reason.

I do think a harness encourages pulling but it also provides some security. She won't choke herself with a harness but it's also going to be tougher to train her not to pull.

This is sort of what I am doing but I switch her harness and collar periodically and she still pulls sometimes. I just plant my feet and not move so she isn't able to completely pull me and I tell her a firm stop pulling and she is fine. I just correct her and tell her to stop pulling. She pulls so hard sometimes and she can choke herself on the harness. But with the martingale collar I was nervouse too. I didn't know how she was going to act and I figured she was going to pull harder. She didn't pull once at first. Periodically she will pull only if she sees someone or something she wants to get too. And also she does not pull as hard as if she is on a harness.

I use both with Milla, if we're out and about with other people and walking I find it more beneficial for her and me to use the harness, but just in the yard I use a lead and she does okay with that. I'd be too worried about her choking herself or slipping her colar in public, we're still working on her "meeting new people behaviour".

I use both for Kao. When its just short walks i use the collar, but for longer ones ive got a no pull harness for her that i love. Its just like a regular harness expect it tightens up around her legs/chest. She responds really well to it.

I use harness's for all my dogs. I have my elder husky slip out of her collar when she was younger and have not trusted them since. Kodiak pulls hard at first and always tries to run but towards the end of the street, which is only 2/10's of a mile, he calms down a bit. I would love to find one in which he will not pull so my wife could walk him but at 50lbs and only 5 months old, she is scared to walk him.

Ok well for my pup i eventually want to train him to pull sled for winter so my neice and nephew can play around with him on snow days.. But i dont want him to pull on walks... So is there any ideas on what i should do, not to confuse him when he should or shouldnt pull? I was planning on using a regular colar for walks and harness for when i want him to pull.. But it worries me now that u guys said alot of you use harnesses on walks for extra security.. Im not real worried about him pulling me around on walks.. Im 200lbs but im more worred about him wiggling out of his collar..

Quote :

Ok well for my pup i eventually want to train him to pull sled for winter so my neice and nephew can play around with him on snow days.. But i dont want him to pull on walks... So is there any ideas on what i should do, not to confuse him when he should or shouldnt pull? I was planning on using a regular colar for walks and harness for when i want him to pull.. But it worries me now that u guys said alot of you use harnesses on walks for extra security.. Im not real worried about him pulling me around on walks.. Im 200lbs but im more worred about him wiggling out of his collar..

That is pretty much exactly what Kelly and I do.

Flat collars for walks, and a harness when pulling.

They learn pretty fast where the lead is connected and if they can pull or not. We also used weighted backpacks on 90% of our walks so that helps reinforce their behavior as when their packs are on they should be walking politely.


Most collars if sized and positioned correctly shouldn't slip or allow a slip. It does happen, and has to us, but that was our mistake and our lack of realization that Ripley was toning up and losing fat.

You can always double collar on walks if you really want to be sure.

~Chris~

My two have a command that gives them the okay to run. They don't get confused on if they should be walking or running/pulling with me doing that.

Heather what do you use for a command and how did you train them to do that?

Every time I started running I used the word? My command isn't generic and has to do with my favorite American cartoon so.. Doesn't matter what you say really.


Both my dogs know mushing commands and really all it is is using a word every time you do the action (speeding up, slowing down, left, right, stopping, going, passing by) so they associate the word with the action like any other command you train.

I personally do not trust collars. My moms dog escaped hers going after a cat.

I was wondering what are the best harnesses and collars from petco/pet supplies plus.

I get good discounts there (short on cash right now)

Thanks