Walking my dogs often as I generally do, I run into lots of millennials in the parks with their “furbabies” that they are using as a substitute for children. Often times non-descript pound mutts.

Almost every one of them are getting pulled all over because they all have their dogs in a harness, not using the collar. Of course dogs love to pull with a harness so it’s not like they’re gonna ever stop.

I can only assume walking em on a collar is considered cruel nowadays, same thing with asserting your dominance over the dog.

Taken notice of the same.

Dogs need discipline just like children.

A properly trained dog needs neither collar, nor leash in public. Just a snap of the fingers and a point. Sometimes we used a collar early (cheating) to get to that point.

On the other hand, there is no better, more effective, or faster cheat than a tiny buzz from a shock collar to teach a new puppy to kennel. Nor anything better than kennel training to achieve a house broke puppy.

Many of the designer breeds out there aren't particularly trainable. They've bred the brains out of them. Our daughter has 2 Goldendoodles, the small ones bred from toy poodles. They have to be the dumbest dogs I've ever seen. The larger ones bred from standard poodles are supposed to be smarter but I've never dealt with those.

It's not the harness that's the trouble, it's the attitude to refer to an animal as a "fur baby" that is the problem.

we could never keep a collar on our beagle. tighten that thing down until as tight as i dared and he would still get out of it. he got out of the harness too. i think the little fugger had some houdini in him. plus he seem to have an inordinate amount of neck rolls. looked like he was wearing a turtle neck sweater.

My young Lab is the opposite of what you describe: pulls hard on a collar, great on a harness. The trick to a harness is to have the leash hookup on the chest, not on top of the shoulders.

Buy a harness with the leash loop on the front of the dogs chest. When the dog tries to pull it just walks him in a circle.

You beat me to it.

Nailed it!

We are using a harness with our pup without issue. The leash connects on top.

And you both beat me.

My wife got one with a yoke type attachment, two ends on the lead. One goes in front of the chest, the other to the shoulders. If the puppy walks correctly there's no pressure on the front one. Let him start trying to be the boss, and it spins him around.

Little fugger will just choke himself on the regular collar some days, then back in the harness for a few. He's a lot better now than he was.

And for those who say just train them off leash. It works well with certain breeds, not so well with a sighthound. Even ones with obedience titles. Little furry critters flip a switch, no more hearing input to the brain. And they only see the "bunny" moving.

This^^^^^^

Our obedience training was very successful with our stock dogs.

Admittedly a Jack Russel Terrier is a different matter.

What I did with my heelers is bring em everywhere and have them off the leash as much as possible where I could. That way being off-leash wasn’t a novelty and, being heelers, once they understood I wanted them to stick close, that’s what they did.

+1 (actually, it’s a ‘roading harness’) all I’ve ever used on the beagle.

I only walk my German Shepherds with a Herm Sprenger Ultra-Plus Training Dog Prong Collar.

I absolutely cannot stand people at the park who let their dogs off-leash. Particularly the ones who think it's cute their "fur baby" runs up to and barks in the face of my 92lb German Shepherd.

Yeah, your dog listens, right 'til they don't. They don't realize their "fur babies" are within seconds of becoming scooby snacks.


https://www.chewy.com/herm-sprenger...LfgQ4maTMdnmPQ2CGLcr-4spveEaArAFEALw_wcB

Guess I’ve been wrong about harnesses, tho I usually see’em attached to the leash from the top.

Doesn't matter if they ware a harness or a leash. All dogs need at least basic training.

Walking my goofball isn't going to do anything for her. During the summer she runs along side me on bike rides, when the weather gets cold we change our routine. I take her out with a 50' long lead attached to her harness and a 18" short lead hooked to her collar. The short lead is wrapped around a belt grip on the harness so it doesn't hang off of her side. People laugh at our routine. I walk, goofball starts in the heel position and takes off running in front of me. When she gets to the end of the rope she'll circle back, run past me on my right side and keep going until she's at the end of the rope again. She'll circle back from behind me, run up to me on my left side and repeat the cycle while I continue walking down the street. She's been trained to stay in the road and off of people's lawns. She's also been trained to sit, lay down or stop/stand in motion. If I see a car coming or a person walking/jogging towards us I'll have her sit on command, walk up to her and grab the short lead and wait with her until the road is clear. Once in a while she'll get distracted and hit the end of the rope running. With the harness she'll come to an abrupt stop and look around like WTF, if the rope were attached to her collar the sudden stop would damage her throat. GSPs are nuts...

One of the biggest issue I see with most folks now days is that their dogs are smarter than they are.

The beta male wears a collar at home, not the furbaby

I used to run these two through the city in the mornings next to my bike, generally five or ten miles at time. At Convenience Stores I'd leave 'em in "sit stay" mode out front with the bike. They had been run hard just prior to this photo, the smaller one in back is the dog in my avatar, best dog I ever had.

I still recall we all knew the last 100 yards back to the house was a flat out sprint between all of us, and that little mutt would be yipping with excitement. Good times.

I have never understood the purpose of a harness. What are they supposed to do that a collar won't? Talking walking a dog here, not rigging one to pull a sled.

Good lookin dogs!!!
We did a obedience class where the instructor introduced me to bikejoring. It looked interesting but I explained to her that I need the cardio as much as the dog needed the exercise. Goofball and I head out at sunrise, get 35 ~ 40 minutes of exercise in. I've got her tethered to the bike. Her first mile and a half will be aprox 14mph, we'll finish the next four and a half miles at an average of 10mph. Goofy mutt just has to show off if she sees another dog. She'll break out in a sprint until I pull her back a little.

My daughter has an English bulldog and an old English bulldog. Their necks are so thick and muscled that a collar just slips over their heads. And either one of them will easily slip the collar in a second. That is one actual use for a harness.

My daughter uses a zip up cordura vest with a ring on the back for the leash, when she wants to safely contain her "bully boys".

My Rottweiler could slip a tight collar at will. His neck was as big as his head. His chest was so big we had to get him a pony harness. The biggest dog harness was too small.

Yep,

I had a Lab/Rot/Border Collie/Golden cross that amazed the cops a couple of times being obedient while not on a leash. Once in a park when they rousted us drinking beer and tossing horseshoes. I had him do a down stay, walked 150' or so around a chain link fence, then back the 150' to where the cop was on the other side. He asked if it was my dog, and if so he needed a leash. Me being a 20 something smart ass told him the dog was on a leash, and invisible one. If I point here, he goes here, if I point there, he goes there. Down is down, heel is heel. Cop said "well,not everyone trains them as well as you do, so put him on a leash we can see".

Our whippets are another matter, like I said a switch gets flipped. My mutt had a switch that got flipped too.................for a bitch in heat. He was off and running then.

Collars and leashes aren't necessary for properly trained dogs.

My daughter has six dogs in her house. Everyone of them are spoiled schittless furbabies, and you best not get caught smacking one of them, nor even hollering too loud in their general direction.

Her daughters are a bit less spoiled. Papa was allowed to smack the girls' butts while baby sitting.

Indispensable, even a Pit can't slip it.

The Perfect Collar.

How about an eleven week old pup?

Im my dog's best friend crowd. Zero obedience training

I use a leash on my dogs to go to Vets office or at busy hiway rest stops. Otherwise they have their collars on and that is it. They go for two runs a day about 1 - 2 hours each. When they need to go outside I open the door for them. One of the better parts of living in Wyoming.

This thing works..

https://www.petsmart.com/dog/collar...leader-training-dog-headcollar-8851.html

Our dog would walk pretty well, but liked to pull just enough to wear you out. This stopped it. Pulls on their nose/snout just enough that they stop pulling. Worked for several neighbors, as well...

Same here Mike. Just working 11 months. Brilliant pup for sure.

I use a collar on one and a harness on the other. He's big, strong, and stubborn as hell. The harness is nice and comfortable until he starts pulling. If he starts eyeballing something, I can give it a couple light tugs and he'll snap back in line. It helped allot

He's obviously not properly trained yet.

If you are able to spend eight to twelve hours a day, seven days a week in the field with him/her, and if you know a bit about training animals you will have that pup at heel, and trained to sit/stay within a couple weeks. And he will wag his tail and be pleased to do so just for a pat on the head and a "good dog".

I love working with heelers. Ours was a pheasant pointing fool.

Have you considered using a Herm Sprenger prong collar? I had no exposure to them until I took my shorthair to obedience classes. The instructor told me to skip the choke collar and a martingale, went right to the Sprenger. Properly adjusted they work. She actually wears two collars during training, the prong collar up high on her neck and a buckle collar below. I grab the buckle collar when she needs some serious correction. You can't yank hard on a prong collar.

None of that is necessary because the dogs all have neutered character.