Hi I’ve recently acquired a 10 month old lab - I’ll be her 4th owner! She’s a chewing, excitable, crazy level hair shedder but we love her to pieces. We’re working well through some basic training, she knows sit, stay, almost got down & roll over, understands she’s not allowed upstairs and happy to be in her crate at night and post walk rest time. Very food oriented like most labs, enjoys her puzzle bowl, kongs, scatter feeding & other scent tasks. My problem is getting her comfortable with a harness. I’m going to need her to wear a harness to work on recall training as she’s very eager to greet any person and views every dog as a potential playmate. The harness I have is a basic one from petsathome - it doesn’t go over her head, both front feet step in and fastens on the back - I’m willing to buy a different harness but I don’t think the design is the issue. She will stand still and let me put the harness on but then freezes. I’ve tried to coax her to take steps with treats but only managed up to 2 steps per treat and can’t seem to progress further than this. I’ve put it on before a bowl meal, which she’s tentatively eaten but then stays stood there and whines for help. Since this, I noticed that she just hates the feeling of anything on her back (though happy to be stroked there) - if when out walking with collar & leash, there’s ever a time when a loop of the leash is over her back, she’s visibly uncomfortable and will move away from it. She was having a mad 5 minutes the other day with an old Ikea stuffed snake toy; growling, dragging it around and shaking it when she accidentally shook it over her back and became instantly subdued, wide eyed trying to see how to escape. I don’t know of anything in her past that may have caused this, but I seem to have hit a brick wall in terms of desensitisation. Any ideas on how to move forward with accepting the harness or on how to progress with recall plus distractions without a longline & harness will be much appreciated.
Hi Becks, Sounds like she has been through a tough 10 months and very lucky to have met you. When she is lying down letting you stroke her back, maybe have a nice blanket there and slowly move this onto her back while stroking it. Might help her see that she can still be cuddled and comforted even though something is there. Another thing I can think of is when sitting playing with her occasionally tap the toy on her back and she might see that it is fun and nothing to be scared of. Sorry I amen't much help, hopefully someone will be able to give you more constructive help, good luck!
Thanks Christina That makes good sense - breaking the sensation down to something tolerable and building from there. I’ll give that a go and keep at it, I think it’s going to take quite a while. Thanks.
Try following some harness desensitisation protocols, like these: The most important things to stress, is to take it slowly and enjoy the journey of training with your dog - try not to be too goal focussed about getting the harness on or the tendency will be to rush things too fast and only consolidate the dog's dislike. Secondly, try to give the dog control around the harness. You can begin by shaping the dog to target the harness head-hole - so you hold the harness static, in the air, and have some treats in the other hand when the dog moves towards the harness, click... And so on. Basically: Control breeds confidence. If the dog gets to choose to interact with the harness then they are more likely to accept it. Finally, sometimes it can be harder for older dogs to accept wearing stuff if they haven't experienced this at an earlier age. You might want to have a look online for a lightweight doggy T-shirt - the harness is going to feel hard and constrictive (in order to be safe) - and you could get her used to wearing something more lightweight first. You might then find that she accepts the harness on top of the t-shirt because that softens it some for her.
Thanks Jo I think I’ll need to get a different harness in order for her to choose to interact with it (no head hole - it’s a step in design) so I’ll have a search and try to get a very different looking one. The T shirt idea is a good idea to try .
A good harness must be at minimum: lightweight, washable, silent, anti-static/low-friction, form-fitting and center of gravity based. Anything less and you're likely going to have issues. I can recommend what I've used for years on my retrievers, a Techno Harness by YAP. IMO, nothing further beyond, especially for larger dogs. Simple to put on, adjustable, passive temp. regulation fabric. To use it you will see what I mean. Ruffwear is pretty good but not quite.
Thank you for posting this. My 15 week English Labrador is suddenly avoiding his harness. Has a loop head hole. I honestly think he has associated it with being carried down the stairs of our apartment. He doesn't like being carried. He never used to avoid the harness - I am getting a perfect fit harness in the mail soon so I can ditch this one. Any other information or advice pertaining to harness fear/stress and avoidance would be lovely. Thank you for posting this topic.
