Collar or Harness?

[Zach]

So, Presley is 8 weeks old and I am using a harness on him. He doesnt seem to mind it. Is it good to use that or should I be using a collar? I have heard mixed reviews on both.

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

We use both. He wears his collar 90% of the time, but we use the harness anytime we go on a walk and during puppy training sessions. We've had two trainers and both highly recommend the Easy Walk harness (the leash connects at their chest rather than where the back of their head meets their neck.

We've been using the Easy Walk on our 13-week Goldendoodle for about 3 weeks and walking him is much more manageable than with the collar. It makes him much easier to control and doesn't choke him when he pulls. Our 5-year-old Doodle still wears his Easy Walk when taking leashed walks.

[Pat Altobell]

My Sunny is now 6 months old, what works for us is The Gentle Leader. I followed the direction taking several days and lots of treats but is amazoning, they just can't pull with this one and my wild and crazy puppy walks at my side.

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

We do the exact same thing and the easy walk harness is great! Loki is a big guy and for the most part doesn't pull with his collar but when he sees people or dogs there's not much holding him back! He has a martingale collar that we always keep on him and use when he's just going to do his business- we don't have a fenced in yard, but we use the easy walk harness for walks or whenever we are in public areas.

[SoSa]

I'm looking forward to the replies. We tried a harness for the first time this weekend, and Ace (10 weeks tomorrow) hated it. He kept biting at it and getting his teeth caught in the mesh part. It would seem that a harness would be easier on his neck as he tends to pull a lot while on leash.

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

Have you tried the Easy Walk harness? The difference is where the leash connects to it. Our guys didn't like theirs at first either but after a few walks they got used to them quickly and I'm pretty sure much prefer them to choking themselves on their collars.

Also, make sure the harness is snug enough (without being too tight) that they shouldn't really be able to latch onto it with their teeth.

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

Sosa, I got Gracie an easy walk because she pulls so hard on her collar.

I measured her quite a few times and went with the biggest that I could get away with (within the girth limits) and it doesn't fir along her shoulders. It's just a little bit big across the front. But, she is growing so fast, it will be no time before it fits just right.
I like it because she is not choking herself.

I did use a mesh harness that we have for my other dog and she would bite at it too. The easy walk, she bit at a little, but did not continue to do so.
I only use her harness for walking though and leave her collar on for the other times.

[SoSa]

Awesome, thanks. I'm going to try the easy walk. :-)

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

You know what. I had the chest part adjusted wrong. I had it on the largest setting, not the smallest. So, my bad. I guess it works perfectly. I just tried it on her with it adjusted correctly and it worked great. I was pulling it closer to the d ring, not farther away when I was adjusting the straps.

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Loki hated it when he was little so we took a break and brought it back about two months later after trying a head collar and now he's fine with it, maybe you're little guy will learn to love it too? I think part of it is that when we pull out the harness he knows he's going somewhere fun and exciting since we never go on a walk or out to public areas without it.

[Laura and Angus]

I agree with what Matt said - the Easy Walk harness comes very highly recommended by other DK users and our trainers. Our trainer also explained that a harness that clips on the back actually trains the dog to pull. You definitely want the one that clips in the front. However, we are currently using a Star Mark Pro-Training collar with our 7 month old pup - solely for training on walks and likely you wouldn't want that one on a little puppy until you're ready to work on leash training. We are using that collar in a way that is supervised by a trainer, which is very important from what I understand.  

[Kelly & Zoe]

We use a collar only for identification and the Easy Walk harness when we put a leash on.  Zoe's almost 2 now and I don't think I'll ever leash her directly to her collar - I just like the safety of the Easy Walk, so I'd recommend harness.

[Tracey & Spike]

We use the collar. However when we were learning we used the harness for walking only. We took it on and off as needed. Personally I would always have a collar on a dog at least for identification. And I wouldn't leave a harness on 24-7. Our neighbours did that with her yorkie and it rubbed his skin raw under his legs.