5 Reasons Why You Need To Use A Dog Harness

Paw-parents know that walking your dog is a crucial past-time and the easiest way to exercise your pooch. It allows your furry companions to explore the world - or at least part of your neighbourhood - along with the benefit of providing a boost to you pooches’ physical and mental health. 

Seeing as walking your dog is part of your daily routine, choosing the right harness that keeps your pet’s safety and comfortability in mind is a must for all dog owners.  

Relying on collars alone can often create tension on overzealous dogs, which can create an uncomfortable tension around their neck. Fortunately, there are plenty of options on the market - from back-clip to front-clip harnesses. Read on to discover the five reasons a harness is a must have accessory for every dog owner.

1. A Harness Offers More Control

If you have a furry friend who easily gets excited in the great outdoors due to an abundance of stimuli and scents, then you’ll know how difficult it can be to control a dog. A correctly fitted harness, with one or multiple anchor points, can provide you with a high degree of control over your dog that just isn't possible with a collar and lead. As the anchor points are typically around your dog's centre of gravity (their chest), a harness allows you influence and restrict their movement quite easily.

2. Harnesses Don't Choke Your Dog

Any frequent dog walker is all to aware that collars can cause your dog to choke when they start to pull too hard. This especially true for thin dog collars and cut deep into your dogs neck. A harness on the other hand will distribute the pressure around the dogs entire upper body, meaning you can keep your fur baby safely by your side without the risk of causing any injuries to the neck. This particularly important from small breeds of dogs, and also fragile older dogs that may have underlying medical conditions such as arthritis or osteoporosis.

3. A Harness Provides Better Safety and Security 

Paw-parents tend to compensate for the risk of chocking their dogs by ensuring the collars fit in a way that allows two fingers to slide in between the collar and the dog’s neck. While this can be good for their comfort level, an overly excited dog can easily slip from the collar and shoot towards passing stimuli - be it squirrels, birds, cats, or even other dogs.

A dog that escapes from your leash can be nerve-wracking, especially since running after a fast pet is nearly impossible. It’s especially risky if your dog gets loose on a sidewalk alongside jam-packed traffic. Consequently, investing in a harness can improve the security of your dog and ensure mid-walk escapes are a thing of the past. A correctly fitted harness is next to impossible to escape from.

4. Learning To Walk

Teaching your puppy or dog to correctly walk on a lead can be a challenge at the best of times. With their strong sense of smell and powerful hearing, the external environment can be overwhelming to many dogs. By using a harness as a training aid, you can encourage them to concentrate on the task at hand, and learn to correctly walk on a lead. Whether you want them to walk in front of you, by your side, or behind you, the right type of harness will help you train them in no time.

5. Avoid Tangles and Tripping

If you have ever walked a dog on a lead, you will know that they can frequently get tangled and trip up on their lead. This is because leads typically only over one attachment point, which is around their neck. This attachment point also has the tendency to rotate around as the dog walks. A harness on the other hand, offers a fixed attachment point either between their shoulder blades or their chest. When used correctly, this makes it more difficult for your pooch to get tangled up in their lead, providing a more comfortable and safe walking experience.

Wrapping Up

If you’re looking for an accessory that makes walking better for you and your pooch, a harness is an ideal choice. A good-quality harness will make your pup’s daily outing safer and more fun for the both of you. You should forget about using just a collar and lead, and invest in a harness, you won't regret it!

There you have it, 5 Reasons Why You Need To Use A Dog Harness. If you have some further suggestions or ideas, let us know in the comments below!

Barket is Australia's favourite online provider of dog harnesses, shop now!