Collar vs. Harness

[Nancy Sunderland]

I would love to hear some lively debate and insight on collar and harness use, pros and cons of each, and certain situations that require a specific product. Every dog is different as well as their communities and owners. Give us new-bies some wisdom!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I'm thinking it depends on the dog. Guiness took to walking on the leash very quickly. He did pull the first few times, but after that he got into walking right by by side. Most of the time he will walk at my right side with a loose leash. He will only get excited if he sees another dog, and then I just put him in a sit/stay and give him lots of praise until the other dog has passed. Then we resume our walk. I use the command "walk with me" when we are doing our serious training walks. I release him with "okay" and then I give him more leash room and let him smell and explore. Even then he really never pulls. So, I have been able to just use a flat collar. Also, he's a small medium (only weighs 12.5 lbs now), so even when he did pull those first few times, it was very easy to control him. For the larger more powerful dogs, I'm not sure the flat collar would work as well.

[Adina P]

Do you mean collar vs harness? You always have to have a leash attached to one of those :)

[Nancy Sunderland]

Thank you Adina! I made the correction! =)

[Kathy Wilson]

I'm thinking harnesses might be more humane? I'm solidly against choke collars unless there is a very good reason, but I can't think of what that might be at the moment. When we had our rescue Border Collie, we used a choke collar, being ignorant of the uniqueness of that breed. I want to cry every time I think about it. It never helped! Thankfully we stopped way before she died. When we walked our (at that time) four dogs, she was tons better and didn't pull so much. With Jessy, my collie/shepherd, I learned how to properly teach a dog to walk on a leash and my stupid behavior stopped. I am so thankful to the man now referred to as "Uncle Matty".

[Adina P]

I don't think either a harness or collar (choke included) is inherently humane or inhumane. It is in the application. ALL 3 of my dogs learned to heel and more via the use of a choke chain. Done correctly there is nothing inhumane about it. Training is about correct application and use of a tool...not the tool itself. But it is perfectly ok to prefer to avoid certain tools. Ya gotta do what seems right to you.

[Adina P]

Oh by the way our border collie was trained using a choke chain...but not in the yank every 2 feet way. So it's not a breed specific issue...it just depends on the application of a good method to make the tool useful and good.

[Nancy Sunderland]

I just took my 90 & 60 pound labs for a walk WITH my double stroller and neither of them pulled! I was so proud of them; I usually walk them unleashed! They were such good boys! Hope my puppy can learn from them!

On another note; I've noticed that people with very small dogs tend to favor a harness, i wonder why this is...

[Adina P]

I think it depends on your goals and what you are comfortable with. I would never walk a big strong untrained dog on a harness...not a regular harness anyway. It just gives them more power with which to pull. But I also wouldn't walk such a dog PERIOD. LOL. I'd train it to heel first before any casual walking occurred :)

I've tried a no pull harness a couple times but found it was useless for my needs because for it to work on its own the dog had to be in FRONT of me. I don't require perfect heel position once the dog is solid in heeling and develops the self control to walk without pulling/lunging at things when not in 'heel'...BUT I am not a fan of a dog out in front either on sidewalks or around town. So I just never became a fan of either. I like a completely slack leash with a dog within a few inches of heel position. I don't recall what type of no-pull harness these were that I tried (all tried on dogs that were not mine and not trained). Other swear by these.

I prefer collars I guess...I use choke chains in training (but it is the method not the tool I prefer) but ultimately I prefer training toward solid obedience so that it doesn't matter what restraint device is used (if any). Clicker training, for those not comfortable with corrections, can be used regardless of whether you choose a harness or collar.

However with a small dog I would mind using a harness...if they are gonna pull I'd rather they not pull using their neck since either way a tiny dog won't be that hard to hold onto either way.

[20xlhzzaoccks]

Like I have said before I have used pretty much every collar/harness you can think of while training Steve. I think that it depends on the dog and the personality of the owner. What seemed to work for me was a gentle leader head collar for one walk a day and a martingale (half nylon, half chain) for the other walk. That way I was still training him to walk on a regular collar but giving us at least one pleasant walk a day. Now that he is almost 4 I mainly walk him on a regular collar or a martingale with no metal links. When he is going to be in a crowded place I use the gentle leader easy walk harness. I didn't know about this product when he was younger but he likes it better because it does not go on his face.

[Katie and Murphy]

When it comes to walking:

Neither product is going to be useful if the dog isn't trained. Any breed of dog needs proper manners, especially on a walk, where there are so many things that can happen to you, the dog, or anyone around you.

I have experience with both on a walk. At this point in time, Murphy is reasonably well trained. When I first started working with him, neither collar or harness worked. I got him when he was almost a year; he learned all of his bad habits at the breeders' farm, where he was allowed to roam free, without any form of training. Training was rough. Walking him was a nightmare. Murphy learned to snap his collar in half if he bolted, and he repeatedly slipped himself out of the harness. I spent countless hours and a lot of money trying all of the flashy things offered at Petsmart and PetCo.

Eventually, I learned that the only thing that worked was very, very intense training. Basic training, advanced training, back to basic training. Once he finally realized that he had to listen to Mom to get what he wanted, things improved. He sat when I asked, and I taught him how to leave the kitchen on command. But walking was difficult. We practiced heel for hours a day, every day of the week. He learned to behave next to me on the leash, but he forgot his commands whenever something passed that excited or scared him. It was problematic. Murphy's more than half my weight. When he gets excited, he forgets his training and his manners, and he pulls. When he gets nervous or scared, he tries to bolt in every and any direction. Collars and harnesses, for me and Murphy, were never going to work on a walk. My arm was almost dislocated a number of times, and I was so scared he'd slip out/break the collar or harness and get hit by traffic. So, back to the drawing board. Back to more training.

The thing that seems to work is the Gentle Leader. It works with you and emphasizes the training you've done. Murphy didn't like it at first, but he realized if he listened when I said "heel", then he couldn't even feel the thing on his muzzle. Now, after hundreds of hours of training, I can drop the leash and he'll follow me. If I stop, he'll sit. I love it. More, I love the fact that the reason he's listening/behaving isn't because of the GL; it's because of all the blood and sweat (literally) that went into the training. The GL is, in essence, just two scraps of nylon. It'd be ridiculously easy to snap in half. The only reason why the GL works because Murphy and I are finally learning to work as a team. You can hook your dog up to any device, but it's never going to work if the dog and the owner/walker aren't on the same page.

Murphy's still young and he's still really immature, and even though we've worked and worked and worked on training, he needs constant reminding of the basics. Would he continue to be as well behaved if I switched back to a collar or the harness? Maybe. Maybe not. I haven't tested it out, yet. He'd probably do well, but since I live in a city, I'm not going to test out the level of my dog's training until I'm very secure in the partnership. I have to be completely confident that he's 100% responsive to my voice and I'm not at that point yet.

When it comes to the collar and harness outside of walking:

Both have their own purposes outdoors. It's easy to pull them back the collar/harness, especially if another dog is involved. You need one or the other to hook a dog up to a run, leash, or tether it in the car.

In general:

I think a collar is only good for identification. It's a nice, flashy thing the dog wears. It tells the world "this dog is taken" or "PET!"

Same with the harness. A harness should be used if the dog has had a neck injury, and a collar hurts or makes the dog feel unsettled. Murphy has a bright orange harness (from when I tried the harness route of training) but the only thing I use it for is when he runs into the woods. He's a black dog, and I don't want any hunters mistaking him for a big, furry black bear. :) I don't think a harness should be worn all the time, just until the dog responds to your voice, or only use it when you're outside for ID/safety purposes. When you go back inside, it can come off. Why would you need it inside? What's it going to do for the dog?

Hope that was helpful/enough of a debate and opinion! I can't type anymore...my eyes are crossing.