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Recommendation for Puppy Front Clip Harness
Hi Everyone,
I am working with a King Charles Cavalier puppy. The client is a first-time dog parent. I recommended that she get a front clip harness that allows for movement in the shoulder. I used to recommend the Easy-Walk but found since it lies just under the shoulder it hinders the dog’s front leg forward movement. This can cause issues down the road it can cause the dog to alter his gait, even when not wearing the harness.
I usually recommend the Balance Harness but I think this is too complicated for her to put on to run him out quickly for a walk . I recommended the Ruffwear Front Range Harness. The problem is we both had a lot of difficulty adjusting the straps for the initial fitting we tightened them as much as possible but it does not fit properly. It’s XXSmall and the pup’s measurement is 15″ girth. I find some harnesses can be difficult to fit certain size dogs especially puppies. I thought of recommending the Kurgo Tru-fit Smart Walking Harness but I once had an issue fitting it for a small German Shepherd and found the chest plate was too big while the neck fit.
Anyone have any suggestions that are easy to put on and do not restrict shoulder movement?
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25 Replies
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Petsafe 3-in-1? Julius K9?
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Thank you. The Pet Safe 3-in-1 is very similar to the Balance Harness. I think it will be too complicated for the client as she is not used to harnesses yet. I’ll take a look at the Julius K9. Appreciate your response.
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I just checked out the Julius K9. Unfortunately, the sizing seems to be for larger dogs. I’m working with a puppy who’s girth is a little over 15″.
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I thought Julius had harness for small dogs.
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This is such a good topic – and how lucky your client is, @doggonespecial , that you are trying to find the best product that works for her and her pup!
I remember @minid21 did some harness searching awhile back… any recommendations to share?
Meanwhile, I agree that the multitude of fitting points on a Balance can be difficult at first, but I wonder if, once it’s all set up, can the owner just unbuckle one side of the belly to put it on the dog? The Y fits over the dog’s head, on front leg can be guided in then buckled on the one side? Depending on the person’s hand strength and memory… it might work? If memory is an issue, you could paint the one buckle that is going to be the on/off buckle with a little nail polish as a reminder that’s the only one to unbuckle. Just a thought!
For the smaller breeds, the step in harnesses often fit better – and I have found a few that also have a front D ring…
Maybe one of those will work?
Keep us posted on what you find!
Good luck, and kudos again on searching so diligently for your client.
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I like blue 9. I am guessing that may be the balance harness you are referring to. The true love harness is good. I can’t remember of those are front clip. I’ll have to check more into those.
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Thanks so much for the two recommendations @catherine . They look like great options. Have you had any clients that have used them? I agree with you about the Blue 9 Balance Harness. I have shown other clients the simplest way to put it on and they have gotten used to it. This client however, is extremely overwhelmed. She’s only had the puppy for 10 days and has cried on 4 different occasions because she didn’t realize what she was getting herself into. I think if I even showed her the balance harness she would have a nervous breakdown.
We’ve been having issues with him using the wee wee pads for elimination and accidents in the home. We’d like this option so she doesn’t have to take so many outdoor potty breaks since she is in an apartment in Manhattan. He is married to the floor and concrete as that is what he eliminated on at the breeder. I won’t even get into every thing we tried on this thread. I was going to start a conversation on that topic but since my last two visits things are getting better although he still won’t eliminate on the wee wee pad and tears them up.
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Wow, Amy – that poor woman! She’s so lucky to have your help and expertise!
I’m currently not teaching clients directly, so no, I haven’t actually used either of those harnesses. I like the Amazon Prime has a great return policy, which may help if the harnesses aren’t a fit.
Re: Housetraining – argh! The whole apartment thing is so hard. Maybe instead of wee pads, you could go with a potty spot made with a tray underneath some artificial grass? The wee pad can go underneath/between and provide some pre-scented incentive as well as help with cleanup? I had a client once use a commercial wee station similar to this one with great success. She kept it on her apartment balcony.
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Thank you for your kind words @catherine and all your help.
I had suggested grass early on but the pup wasn’t going on grass outside so she didn’t want to try it. I agreed it would probably be a futile effort. I had also suggested lining the entire confinement area with wee wee pads as what he was doing was just sitting on the one wee wee pad and staring then he would go on the floor inside the confinement area just outside the pad. I figured if entire area was filled with pads he would end up going on that surface and then we could start removing them one by one until we were down to one or two in the area. My client resisted this idea for a week since he would on occasion rip up his pad. But then when she had her third meltdown, I asked if she would let me try it and I taped down the wee wee pads so there wasn’t a lot of give. He tore right through them so I removed them. I just felt she was losing her mind so it was worth a try. I then moved the gates of the confinement area to a very small box around the wee wee pad. This was because the client was so worried that he hadn’t gone and was holding it in. I stood in there with him so he had no where to move except on the pad (no floor space). I tried this for a few minutes but he was getting very aroused and frustrated. So I felt it wasn’t a good option as it was making him stressed. In the beginning he wasn’t urinating outside but as time progressed he occasionally would go on the sidewalk (there was no issues with poops he has been good about doing that outside all along). He seemed to be getting better in terms of urinating more frequently outside but then after my visit last Thursday she had her final meltdown after the weekend. She said he was having accidents indoors on the floor. When I asked where it was happening she said in his confinement area. I explained that I didn’t consider that an accident because he hasn’t learned yet where we want him to go inside. As far as he is concerned the floor is his toilet within his confinement area (even though she was very good about cleaning up accidents including checking for urine with a black light). The big issue was she was exhausted because she was constantly trying to get him to go.
Prior to her bringing the puppy home, we had an initial Zoom puppy orientation where I explained about preparing for the puppy including house training and the importance of routine and placing him on a schedule. I gave her a number of handouts including one with a template for creating a daily schedule. I also gave her an example schedule. She’s has very conscientious and has been great about creating schedules and keeping logs. . Without going into all the detail about how often we talked about and tweaked her schedule what I realized after her final meltdown after was that when she she e-mailed me her logs and schedules for those days between our sessions her schedules were not consistent Wake up times were different, feeding times were different, etc. In the end, she seemed so overwhelmed when I told her this during our session on Tuesday, that I offered to write a schedule up for her and would send it to her . All i asked was that she agree on a time the puppy should wake up every morning . I created a schedule winging it a bit since the logs she sent me were all over the place and explained she can tweak it to fit her and her son’s schedule but once she does then that schedule should remain consistent and become the puppy’s daily routine.. On the schedule I provided her, I had her taking the pup outside often but told her that this was just so we could put a stake in the ground and assess when he truly needs to go based on sleep and wake up times, previous eliminations, and other activities. I also suggested if she wanted to have the option of indoor elimination she could try to use concrete indoors since the pup goes on sidewalk outdoors. I sent her some links of concrete blocks from Home Depot’s website. I told her I realize it’s a bit of a stretch but it’s something we could look into if things don’t work out. When we met again after two days of me sending the scheduel, she was in a much better place. The puppy was eliminating most of the time outdoors. While we haven’t been able to figure out how to get the pup to eliminate on an acceptable surface indoors, at least things are getting better. If anyone has any ideas on that front that would be great.
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So good to hear that the pup can eliminate outdoors! I like your idea of bringing in concrete – maybe some of those concrete pavers in a tray on the patio/balcony if she has one? She could get some grass/sod to put in the tray too, then gradually increase the grass/sod and decrease the pavers in the tray. Or astroturf instead of the real grass, if she wants to move toward using that instead of pavers which will hold more scent and start to stink over time.
Teaching a puppy to be clean is 90% of the battle with housetraining. We have several discussions on this topic here in DD – here’s a search for you to explore.
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Thanks Catherine. I like your hybrid suggestion. She doesn’t have a patio or yard but I will see today where things are at.
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Happy to help – good luck, and keep us posted! 🙂
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I love the Comfort Gooby X harness for my 10 pound, Miniature Dachshund. It is extremely lightweight and fairly easy to get on the dog. It is easy to adjust the size when changing from bare skin to wearing over a sweater and a coat.
I love that its pressure point is on her chest when she pulls into a scentwork search trial.
For our needs with participating in full day trials in the fall in Minnesota, where it can be below freezing and frost on the ground in the morning to 75 and sunny in the afternoon, we have gone to purchasing two harnesses for $22.
Now that we are getting into fall, I will just leave one harness adjusted for the correct size over a sweater and jacket and the other one adjusted for bare skin so that I don’t have to hassle with adjusting the size quickly between trials.
I have not found any front clip harnesses that work for my dog. All of them resulted in chafing behind the front leg when we tried to use the front clip harness.
At first, all we could find were the ruff-wear harnesses, and they are a little easier to get on than the Gooby X, but very thick and bulky for our 10 pound dogs needs and is hot in the summer.
I have also found a lightweight jacket with a harness built-in that I prefer now when my dog needs a light jacket and harness, such as traveling in the car and being harnessed in. I will try to attach an additional picture later.
I hope that helps. I wish I could tell you I have found a front clip harness that works, but I have yet to find one.
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Hi Theresa,
is the Gooby a front-clip harness? That’s one thing i would like and has been difficult to find for such small dogs.
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<div>The Gooby X harness is not a front clip harness.</div><div>
</div><div>The only front clip harness that I found that fit my miniature dachshund correctly, put the pressure on the chest instead of the trachea was the Ruffwear harness.</div><div>
</div><div>However, when I was actually trying to get my dog to not pull while she’s walking and use the front clip D ring-resulted in the harness rotating towards the side I was walking on, and then transferring the pressure to the back of the harness (right behind the dogs front leg ) on the side that I was walking on.</div>This was slightly better when I utilized 2 leashes and had one on the regular D ring on the spine , and one on the front D ring.
Unfortunately, I’ve tried at least six different brands of front pull harnesses for my little dog and none of the harnesses would stay still on her body when she pulled.
The only brand I have not ordered and tried was the Perfect Fit brand. That was simply because of the cost.
I suspect that your new owner would not want to put that kind of money into a harness for a dog that is going to grow a lot in the next two years.
I hope to hear someone else jump into this conversation, and indicate they’ve had success, finding a front pull harness for a tiny dog, and that it worked as advertised. And that it worked as advertised
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Thanks for the recommendation Theresa. I’ll let my client know. Looks like a good option.
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<div>The $27 vest with harness is very easy to apply and then the harness is already there to be able to harness her into the car. It is quite short on my mini long dog, but works well for car rides.</div><div>
</div><div>I have found that with most clothing for my skinny, long dog, (miniature dachshund) I have to custom order them to get them to fit correctly. The $81 one fits beautifully and has the harness built-in as well. However, it’s not quite as easy to put on. But my dog looks beautiful in it and seems to like that the material helps to keep her dry in the snow. </div><div>
</div><div>Both of these harnesses were purchased on Etsy. I’m fairly certain the $27 harness can be ordered on Amazon as well.</div><div>
</div><div>An additional note on my previous post: I think the reason I have not been able to find a front clip harness for the small dogs is that when you attach the leash to the front clip, the harnesses don’t stay still, and the harness rotate towards the side of the person holding the leash and then extra pressure is placed on the back part of the harness-which is usually under the dogs arm-and that results in the chafing. And yes, I have tried tightening each of the harnesses that have a front clip and that did not help the problem.</div><div>
</div><div>Good luck</div>-
Awesome. Thanks so much @minid21
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Dear All – You could also have a look at the 2Hounds Freedom Harness. 🙂
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I have learned so much from this post and so many different options that are available for different dogs. I really appreciate the learning opportunity to help me in the future!
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Me, too! @pawsup I agree with your sentiments exactly. Up-up with knowledge!!!
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Yes, @sandy ! Also, if you are a member of APDT, 2Hounds will send you a free Freedom Harness and two-way leash, as a trainer. Pretty cool. I got mine, (ordered a M) but have not found a dog to use it on yet…
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The Freedom used to be one of my favorites along with the EZ Walk @sandy . I later changed my view when I found out where the straps are positioned, right behind the dogs front legs, restrict the movement of the front limb, often by sitting over the shoulder joint restricting shoulder movement. The dog, not having full movement compensates by altering his gait both when the harness is on and even when it is off. Also, these types of harnesses often cause chafing under the armpit.
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I hope the owner will have some success in moving the Pee station inside for the winter.
When I reviewed the commercial pee station that Catherine recommended, the overall poor reviews stem from stink of the artificial turf and the extremely poor drainage of it.
Those two things tell me it’s cheap, rubber turf, and not nylon K9 grass.
My dog is fortunate enough to have K9 grass from Forever Lawn. It does not have any odor to it and drains very rapidly.
Forever Lawn, sells remnants of their K9 grass for $2 a square foot. At the end of a busy summer, they have tons of remnants.
From what I’ve researched and seeing, there’s a huge difference in artificial turf and so if your customer decides to go that direction, I would suggest they look at K9 grass.
Here is a copy of the shortened video of the drainage test. If you are interested, they have multiple drainage videos comparing themselves to other turfs on YouTube.
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@minid21 Ithe clients don’t have an outdoor pee station. We are here in NYC and the issue is the pup will only eliminate on concrete outside (he won’t go on grass outside) or the floor within his containment area of the apartment. We’ve had a hard time because my client has to keep running him outside as he won’t go on wee wee pads inside when we put it int he containment area. We haven’t tried grass or sod indoors because that would probably be a futile effort since he won’t go on grass outside. I was trying to find an indoor solution other than wee wee pads and grass. I thought of concrete blocks. For indoors, in his little containment area in a small apartment we would need very flat blocks which I can’t seem to come across. Most of them are at least 2 inches in height I don’t believe he would go on blocks if he had to step up on them.
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