Biscuit is a little 10 pound terrier mix. I need to get some pictures of her on here. What kind of dog do you have?

Every vet I have had preferred the use of a harness especially on the very small breeds. I know I will never put a leash on my little toy Fox terriers collar, I put her harness on and attach the leash to it. She always has a collar on with her tags and identification but that's it. My current vet was very adamant about the danger of damaging the throat of a toy or small breed by using a leash on a collar. I cringe when I see a small dog with a leash and collar on especially if there is tugging going on and I have gone to people and suggested they look into the use of a harness rather than the collar. Most had no idea there could be a danger to their pet and were appreciative. Large dogs have a much stronger neck with much more muscle mass so it's not as easy to damage but my vet in Dallas would get really angry if I had my Great Danes in with a collar and leash. I rarely did that but going there I knew they were not going to be walking very far, from the seat to the exam room and they were extremely well behaved. I did appreciate his concern.

Dangers of neck injury

Some information about it.

Harness. For my cat. She will go out on a leash. Doofy cat won't.

My little girl at the beach!

The best way to keep a dog safe is through training. I cringe when I see a dog pulling its human down the sidewalk or park area with the leash at full extension.

`Dogs learn through their training how to walk at heel and what behavior is expected in public and at home. Dogs should be taught to walk alongside (or slightly behind) the person holding their
leash, and they should know that lunging or jumping at people or other dogs when on a leash is
not permitted. Some dogs are slower students than others but all can learn.

By the conclusion of training, the collar or harness serves as the signal to the dog that it's time for "walking behavior". They shouldn't be needed to provide a physical restraint, and so what type is used really doesn't matter. That's how products like the Gentle Leader work. I understand it's a different story for cats.

The ASPCA mostly suggests neck collars and views regular body harnesses as unsuitable because they encourage pulling. There are a few special designs they suggest can work.

ASPCA article on collars, harnesses and leash training

I like a harness for walking the dog, a terrier. He's a serious "sniffer" and occasionally needs a gentle tug to get moving on. It's best not to tug the neck. I don't know about all harnesses, but he could definitely slip out of the one he wears, but not as easily as a collar.

Well I will have my husband read all the good info here. Biscuit is the first small dog we have ever had. And Socks she is a very serious "sniffer" in fact we call he Sniffy at times. This is about the best picture I have of her that I can get on the computer.

Ravencajun-I really like our harness.

Yep, my cat is trained. She knows, the moment the leash goes taut, she's gone as far as she can go and will sit down immediately. "C'mon" and a gentle shake lets her know it's time to move. I do let her pick the direction, but it's still at my pace and distance. If I can teach an old cat to do it, surely anyone can teach their dogs. Took about two/three days of teaching and she had it down.

We were trained to walk our 80 pound dog with the leash on his collar. It made sense to me when the trainers said that pulling dogs (sled dogs and the like) wear harnesses, so that the weight of their cargo is distributed across their chest and shoulders. We do put him in a harness when he goes in the car, so we can secure him to the seat belt. He pulls more on a harness and is difficult to walk. Baxter needs a lot more work on heeling :-)

None of that really applies to the smaller breeds though, they probably don't pull too much.

I use a gentle leader, which looks more like a horse halter that an actual collar.

My little girl is 6 lbs and she is extremely sensitive to even touching her neck. If we try to hook a leash to it she balks. I have several harnesses all the vest type with padding. She loves to see them because she knows something special is about to happen. She travels in a padded dog crate that gets seatbelted in. She loves to travel.

I own every style of walking device they make I think. She was absolutely horrible on the leash when we first got her, grown and set in her ways. She is controlled by her nose. The only thing that allowed us to have nice walks was the Gentle Leader and the Holt brand of a Gentle Leader type collar. We preferred the Holt brand better, it fit her face better. So we walked with that for over a year. Now finally we can use a plain collar. She still pulls occasionally to smell something and I really do not think it's possible to completely break her of that. I try to just give her sniff breaks because we want her walk to be enjoyable for her too. I'm really excited that we can now walk with a regular old collar. She didn't much care for having the gentle leader (nose collar is what we called it) put on her. This is the collar that taught her how to walk and the dog looks just like her too! http://petca.imageg.net/PETNA_36/pimg/pPETNA-2216072_main_t300x300.jpg

Harness only - while working as a vet tech. many years ago, I saw many horrible neck maladies caused by collars.

Harness

Janey, is your pup part (or all) Westie? I love that tousled terrier look. Here's mine, after a very short haircut. I hope you are enjoying a small dog, and it's great your DH is willing to walk Biscuit.

PS Standing while a dog sniffs something endlessly drives me crazy, but I tolerate some of it because he enjoys it. If I don't, it could be like someone taking me on a walk but saying I have to keep my eyes shut the whole time.

Gentle Leader!!!!!! My vet was quite pleased to see it on Sparky and said he wished more clients would use one.

Gentle leader and halti are great products, gentle leader also makes very good harnesses, I used one for the Danes. They don't apply any pressure to the front of the neck.

I use a harness on Schultz. I take him out about every two hours.

Gentle leader for our golden retriever on advice of a dog trainer.

Snidely and PK Ponder and I are in agreement on this one.

We like large breeds. I train them to walk properly on leash and a flat collar. High driven/high prey dogs are trained on a properly fitted prong collar. Not one has ever been traumatized nor objected to the prong collar. On the contrary , they "settle" and are almost immediately at ease. Most only needed them for a very short time. We had one that we used it on his whole life. He had an extremely high prey drive and wasn't all that social with strange dogs although he would become great friends with familiar dogs. He would become overjoyed when he heard the jingle of that prong collar. Walk time.

When I come across a dog (that doesn't actually have physical characteristics requiring it) walking on a harness I pretty much assume it's not trained. I instruct my dogs to stay back. Add a retractable leash (darn things should be banned) and I will show you a dog that is the pack leader of its people.

When we had Cody, 20 lb. schnauzer-poo, he would get sooo excited when I went through trying to get his harness on, like the one Mojomom and Socks use, that i finally just left it on. He was fine with it and there was very little carrying on when it was time to go for a walk or to the vet. When we drove cross-country, he had the padded chest harness attached to a leash to the headrest in the back seat so he could roam a little and look out the window. Most of the time he slept!

Well my goodness, I showed this thread to my husband & he replied well of course a harness. But when he takes her with him he always puts her collar on-go figure!

Socks, I don't think that there is any Westie in her. We have no clue what she is mixed with. And our vet says that she is just a nice little terrier mix. Your dog is very cute!

Cute story about Leo & Biscuit. I dropped them both off at the car place so he could pick up the car out of the shop & he took Biscuit in with him. Well he called me when he got back home & informed me that Biscuit is a chick magnet!! He said all the women there came up & asked about her & petted her.

Of course, everyone loves to see a friendly pup.

I only saw this when I went back to see what snidely had written that the above poster agrees with...

Cats are highly trainable. I'm not sure what you meant by "I understand it's a different story for cats.", but let me dispel that completley now. It's the myth that is perpetuated by misunderstanding. My cats will come when called. One cat I have trained to walk on a leash and the other is trained (just for fun) to sit and beg. Unless you mean something else by a "different story"?

This is a hilarous video of a cat wearing a harness. He just won't walk or even stand-up. It's needlessly long, so fast-forward a couple of times. The end breaks me up.

That is so funny, Jasdip.

Cats and women, we do as we please!

Hilarious.

I've seen that with cats "in sweaters". And dogs too. But it's just as funny!

We tried to train one of our cats with a harness and that is exactly what he did. It was so funny. They just go limp.

I totally agree with Rob. My cats have always been trained to a harness and leash. They also come when I call them (by individual name) and aren't the stereotypical cat. I think that whomever started that stereotype never had a cat.

I think that my (non-existent) dog would like to answer you ...

... were s/he not muzzled.

Actually ... a couple of dogs, both female, that I was looking after sequentially for a friend disappeared while in my care ... the second was while he was spending a time in jail.

He's out, living temporarily in his RV here on the farm ... and found what we're pretty sure is the skull of his little dog, and he washed and buried it, the other day.

There was the body of a skunk nearby, so wonder whether that was the reason ... but we have coons near here, who can put up a serious fight when crossed ...

... also coyotes, but I doubt that they'd have been in the barn.

ole joyful

Our Chole wears a collar when she is walking with a leash We would like harness for her but haven't found one that will fit her. she is so wide in the chest area. She is a big dog about 50 or more pounds.

Caesar, the big (20 lb.) peke wears a harness that was shown on TV a few years ago, I got it at Bed Bath & Beyond, he needed a med. size instead of small because he has a big chest.

Grandmamary I had several Great Danes that were 100lbs range and had harnesses for them so they can be found. I found several at petsmart and petco but I also ordered custom made ones and then copied from those to make them myself. So if you do some Google searches for large dog harness you should find plenty. Just take good measurements and compare with the given sizes and there's lots of places online that make to size custom harnesses for reasonable prices.

What kind of dog is your Chole?

These are the type I liked best for my Danes, they were extremely well behaved professionally trained dogs, but with dogs that size the people around you want to see that they are controlled, so they were more for that reason. Very well made and could be passed down.

http://www.schutzhund-training-store.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=662

To each his/her own, but I'd say that dogs are controlled with training and verbal commands not with physical equipment. I'm male, >6 feet and >200 pounds . If my 75 pound dog decided to lunge or take off, I wouldn't have any hope of holding her back. But nothing like that would ever happen.

She wears a prong collar in public, it tells her to have public behavior. I could connect a single strand of kite string to it, she NEVER puts any pull on her leash .