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What age for a harness??

pamela

Active member
hi there,

after reading about puppia harnesses on this site i decided to buy coco one as she is 15 weeks old today and after a bout of illness is starting to get out of the house for walks. However when i went to the pet store they told me they were not recommended for pups under six months. is this true? how old were your pups when you used a harness? i really liked the idea of the harness supporting more of her body as she pulls quite hard on the lead and i'm afraid it will hurt her neck....
 
I think the harnesses are safer than the neck collars!! They make it so much easier to sweep the baby away from harm and it gets them used to the leash without flipping around and panicking because of something around their neck. I put a harness on Cody and Wesley when they were wee little things (less then 8 weeks) and it worked great. I didn't start on the collar until puppy training class because I too was worried about Cody's pulling. He was doing it so hard it looked like he could really hurt himself. During training class it taught me the proper way to use the collar and also taught him the proper way to respond. Now finding a harness small enough to fit properly that he/she won't grow out of in a week is a whole different story!!!
 
Hi,
We started walking our little guy on a Puppia harness from the beginning. He was 10 weeks old and we started just in our yard. He is a puller though, so i ended up switching to the Easy Walker and the Sensation harnesses for dogs that pull. Those harnesses work well and definitely are better for pullers than just a collar. I prefer a harness to walk Riley in because I agree that pullers will put too much force on their necks in a regular collar and that could cause damage.
I think that if you find a harness that fits your little dog properly you can use it whenever you are ready to begin walks. I don't think there is an age at which a dog would be too young, but there are many more experienced people on this forum who can give more info. about that.
Hope that helps a bit. :)
 
I would recommend a harness from day 1. When Kosmo was a baby he came to me not knowing how to walk on a leash. I wasn't aware of the benefits of harnesses or else I would have gotten one from the start. At the beginning he would often pull on the collar which would result in a choking sound. ( :yikes ) This scared the crap out of me and the second day that it happened I immediately bought him a harness. I asked the vet at our next visit and she told me that smaller dogs are very prone to tracheal collapse which is something you do not want!! Not only can it be fatal, but it can cause problems for the rest of your pup's life!

Also, a personal experience.. a few weeks ago I was at class with my little guy and a big dog came up and tried to squish him. I was not able to get him the first time because we were at a stage where we were training off leash, but after the first time I kept the leash in my hand. It's a good thing because the big dog came again and I was able to pick him up with no worries by his harness and remove him from harm's way.
 
thank you so much for the advice!! i'm going to get one today straight after work now! the only other question now is what size to get.... any recommendations?
 
I was going to commment on that earlier - how much does Coco weigh?

Lucky is about 11 lbs, now and has been on a growth spurt (at 4 months) and was just bursting out of his small. We had to get him a medium to replace the small.

I think generally, if your baby is under 10 lbs (ish), then a small, but know you will probably need to replace it with a medium at some point.
 
The medium puppia was far too big on Rio at age 12 weeks (she was only 2kg). The same medium was too small for Tandie when we got her (she's fully grown... almost clocking in at 7kg). We've gotten her the large one which is fine. The velcro on the back goes across about halfway.
 
Hi all,

coco is about 10lb now - i think i might go for the medium now - and hope she doesnt slip out of it!!!
 
Pamela,

I think you'll be fine with a medium. Cupcake is 10 lbs and really slender and it fits her perfectly. There is an adjustable strap too so you can move it around to fit your baby better. :) Our harness arrived last night and it is wonderful! I wish I had known about it before (poor little thing was wearing a cat harness because nothing else fit her - how embarrassing!). :p
 
thanks Kendra!!

i cant wait to get it now and bring her for a walk without worrying that her neck is gonna get broken! cupcake is gorgeous by the way!!!
 
I have Chloe in the small and it fits her nicely with a little room to grow. Holly at 3 and a half wears the medium and it actually fits her with room to spare- I can get Chloe's on pretty easily, but Holly's medium slips on and off with no problems, and fits nicely when on. I guess that proves what I've been saying about how petite Holly is! They both look adorable in them- Holly in pink orion, and Chloe in blue.. :lol:
 
We've used a harness since the day we got Pixie at 10 weeks old. We do put a neck collar on her (with her tags on it) along with the harness when we go places. A couple times we've gone to walk her with just the collar...and she hates it.
 
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