Kona is afraid of her harness. We've tried different models, but it is allways the same. When I say "walk" she gets excited but when she sees a harness in my hands she hides under the table. When we finally go outside she forgets about it, and I can tell she is enjoying her walks.
Some dogs, my own included, don't really like harnesses. I try to do as much positive association as possible, and they don't run away (Willow used to) but they certainly look dejected when they know it's a harness walk. They will perk up during the walk, but I've noticed that if I use them during training, they are more subdued. Still, they are sometimes necessary for safety, so I have to use them on occasion, and I just ensure that they get a good handful of something tasty for each clip that I do up. They're never going to love their harnesses, but I'm hoping that one day they will be a little happier with them if I continue with lots of roast chicken
My dog is the same. I spent months and months trying to get him over it, I even went as far as chopping a harness up into bits to try to get him used to it gradually. I thought I'd got him much better, although not great, and used my harness when I took him to a training course. I realised that he was completely miserable in it, I was kidding myself he was ok about it, and resolved never to use it again. I probably will use it again if I really have to - if keeping him safe overrides him being miserable, but it really would have to be a case of him being at some kind of risk for me to put a harness on him again. Luckily, he walks ok on a flat collar, and I have a good, wide flat one, and he is no longer a puppy. So I use a collar and think that's the best I can do for him, on balance.
Is it one that you have to put over Kona's head? My dog hated the one that went on and off over his head.
I had this with Maisie for a while,she would run off into the other room and look really worried. She would flinch when I put the harness on too. But when the harness was on she would have a shake and be absolutely fine! I just ignored her behavior, made no fuss and put the harness on and when it was on told her she was a good girl and off we went. After several months she became less wary of having the harness put on and now will wait by the door and put up with it the fitting of the harness (she still flinches), has a shake and off we go!
this was my guideline, due to her fear of cars. We train couple of times a day, with treats, to make positive association, but I do not see any progress.
Some dogs don't mind harnesses at all, some mind them a bit, and some hate them. My dog absolutely hates his harness. It is very punishing, and he would rather not go for a walk than have his harness put on. In the end, although I have made some progress such that he will tolerate the harness, I think it makes him miserable, so have given up on it unless I absolutely need to use it for his safety. You need to judge whether you think that it is something that is getting better, or getting worse. Even after months of effort, and tons of roast meat, my dog would run and hide when he saw his harness, and although I managed to stop him doing this he still acted as though I was wrapping barbed wire round him. Some dogs just hate harnesses.
As you use the harness for her safety and she's fine once out walking and looked happy in your video with the lemon on your other post, I'd just keep giving her treats for having the harness on and make as little fuss as possible.
Would one say then that harnesses are 'aversives'? I have never known a dog run away or be scared by a collar or slip lead (well in my personal experience).
I think they can be, absolutely. I think collars often are too, certainly to start off with - puppies don't generally react well to them, but they get desensitised to them over time. Remember it's the dog that decides whether something is punishing, not the handler. So, if a dog dislikes a collar, a slip lead, a harness, then it is aversive to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the dog. It's not the equipment that is aversive in itself, it is how it makes the dog feel. I think some dogs don't like the feeling of compression that a harness can give. Others don't care. I also think we have to be careful when we put these things on our dogs. When I started requiring a sit from my two to have their collars put on, they would break as soon as I bent over the top of them. I very quickly realised how I was looming over them, a rather aggressive posture, however unintentional. When putting a harness on, this takes even longer, and I can easily imagine how a dog will associate the harness with feeling intimidated simply from how you stand as you put it on them.
Many puppies are used to wearing collars from day 1 though as many breeders use the soft puppy whelping collars from very early days. My breeder uses coloured wool in the first days to identify and monitor each puppy and then switches to the collars at around a week old.
No, not in themselves like, say, a slap is an aversive (because it's difficult to see how any dog wouldn't view a slap as a punishment so some degree at least). Although I think the head collar type harnesses have a greater potential to be aversive than other types. My dog dislikes his harness intensely, having it put on him makes him want to avoid having it put on him again. So it is definitely something he works to avoid and I haven't been able to overcome this. So he finds the harness punishing, yes. Now I know this is a possible outcome I could have done things differently when the harness was introduced to avoid it, but I didn't, and seem very much stuck with the problem. My dog also disliked his collar, but not to the same extent and I have got him over that.
She likes her collar better, we were using it from the first day she came home (8 weeks old) but then she got the pneumonia, and it iritated her and make her cough more often so we introduced a harness. She didn't mind at first. As I am the only person taking her to walks, i am quite sure nothing bad happened while putting the harness on. Now, when we are using the collar she tends to pull more often when she gets excited, sees a dog, or a bird... I hope we can overcome the fear.
When we introduce our pups to new equipment this is what we do - Firstly we put it on them only to feed them and take it off straight after eating for a week. Then we put it on for feeding and leave it on for a few minutes for a week. After that we take the pup for very familiar walks in it - any new experiences it's not put on for. The reason for this (my supervisor tells me) is that they can 'blame' the jacket/harness for any worrying experiences and gain a dislike of it. So we work on the jacket (and the trainers work on the harness) becoming second nature for a long time before anything new/different happens in it. Of course, some dogs are body sensitive - but that's a different story.
Yes - another one with the same problem - I've always used a harness with my puppy and she seemed OK to begin with but gradually dislikes it more - I've gone with the perfect fit which you can clip round the neck rather than slipping over the head, but she doesn't seem to like the sensation of it hugging round her body. She willingly puts her head into a slip lead and not bothered by a collar. Once the harness is on, she seems OK, but I think she is more lively without it when we are training, but that's a bit subjective. At the moment she is 10 months and there are many situations where she needs to be in a harness for her own good/safety/health etc. I usually just pop it on her before coming out the crate, which avoids the situation where she can duck away (lots of treats given but ..) So just managing it at the moment.
