Harness horror!

[Barney's Mom]

Hello Cairn friends!

I need some suggestions for a harness incident that happened after camping. I don't usually use a harness on Barney, just a collar. But for camping we put one on him for the added security. Well, he seemed fine with it the whole time we were gone, but when I got home, I took the harness off and was doing a tick check on him. It was then that I noticed two raw, oozing spots where the harness had rubbed him in back of his front legs!! I made sure the harness was fitting properly when I originally put it on him. I do have to make it fit a bit snug, because in the past he has "backed out" of his harness whille on leash! I don't know how he does it, but that's Barney for you!!

Is there a harness somewhere out there that is padded in those spots, or something like a "comfort" harness? I like to use the harness at other times than camping, but I don't want to cause these raw spots anymore. They must be very painful for him.

Thanks, folks!

[goforette]

We just got the girls some soft harnesses a few weeks ago. They serve as a harness and seatbelt all in one - we LOVE them - they were a little pricy - $25 a piece - but it just slips over the head so you have to know if you need like a 10 inch or 12 inch - it goes under the belly and locks on both sides so you don't have to get the legs through. It's a wonderful product - it's lined with fleece and no metal or plastic to rub on the neck or belly or back. - I can't remember the maker but I'll look this evening. I know that another forum member, Darcy's Folks - has the same one I do - except I think her's are red - both of mine are blue - they don't come in a lot of colors... but they're great. I'll look at my box later tonight so I can tell you who makes it. Hopefully Barney will be as good as new with a little neosporin...

This link looks like what we have

http://houndsaroundtown.com/travel/dog-seatbelt.html

[Cairnmania]

I use a Halti harness for Rudi. There is a piece in the front of the harness that hooks onto his normal collar, so even if the harness came off he would still be attached to the lead.

Before I used the harness, Rudi used to pull so hard on his collar that he would rub a spot underneath his neck raw. (I also had a sore back most of the time as a result of his pulling!)

I do not have the harness on tight because I have no fear he could get loose accidently, there is a bit of padding where it goes underneath his legs, and there is no irritation whatsoever. (And no more pulled back and shoulder muscles for me.)

[bostoncairn]

I have a Puppia harness for my 18lb male, Charley. Soft, padded neck, nylon strap under the chest.

Here's a link - I bought my locally in boston, about $25...but the link has some good pictures of it....

Puppia harness

[Maggie15]

we've used the regular 'cheaper' harness on maggie for over a year, virtually never use a collar, and we havent had any problems... its the one that goes around both front legs and snaps on top with 2 metal rings on top to clip the leash through (on either side of the plastic clip), make sure it has that - some just clip onto a single metal hog ring and the plastic clip can fail easily...

a

[kayharley]

Check out the Sporn harness...they have fleece covering over the leg straps and are wonderful!!

[Eliz222]

We use the Sporn ones too, and they are great! They work really well with pulling!

Sporn

I bought mine at Petsmart. They were hard to find in the small size and my store had to order one for me.

[Darcy's Folks]

Yes, we use the 3 in 1 Vest Harness as goforette mentioned! I have recommended it to so many people. We had the same problem you mentioned with the rubbing and oozing. Darcy specifically would get them on her upper chest area. We moved to the Vest Harness after finding them in a store in town. We thought we were doing ourselves a huge favor by buying them for the added purpose of seat belting them in the harness. We had no idea what a truly wonderful product it is! They are worth EVERY cent!

Here is the thread about harnesses that we talked about on here a few months ago.

http://www.cairnterrier.org/forum/index.ph...c=6426&st=0