# Dog hates putting her harness on



## tugnomad (Feb 17, 2015)

Hiya,
My 1 year old husky/GSD hates putting on her harness and I am hoping someone can help me with why this may be. Whenever I get up to take her for a walk she is super excited jumping around. As soon as the harness comes out she lies down with her ears back. She doesn't run away and I put it on her telling her what a good girl she is and petting her trying to encourage her to enjoy wearing it. 

I don't know how to figure out what is wrong. Is it that when she puts on her harness she knows she is going to have to work? and she wants to play? When she goes for a walk and is allowed off the lead she doesn't wear her harness but when she is mountain biking, running or scootering with me she wears the harness. I was trying to keep it separate so she associates her harness with work. She loves biking with me and when running, biking or scootering she does not yet take the full pull weight as she is still young and I want to build her up slowly. 

I am worried that her harness is hurting her and I don't know how to tell. She wears a ruff wear omnijore harness. I have to admit I am not overly impressed with ruff wear. We have a very active lifestyle and have already been through a ruff wear lead, water container and her omnijore lead is on its way out. It is expensive kit but doesn't seem to last very long which is what makes me worry that her harness may be uncomfortable. 

Does anyone have similar issues? Or any advice please? The last thing I want is my pup to be unhappy but I don't know how to get her to enjoy wearing her harness and 'working'.

Many many thanks in advance
x


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## Sarahliz100 (Jan 5, 2014)

tugnomad said:


> Hiya,
> My 1 year old husky/GSD hates putting on her harness and I am hoping someone can help me with why this may be. Whenever I get up to take her for a walk she is super excited jumping around. As soon as the harness comes out she lies down with her ears back. She doesn't run away and I put it on her telling her what a good girl she is and petting her trying to encourage her to enjoy wearing it.
> 
> I don't know how to figure out what is wrong. Is it that when she puts on her harness she knows she is going to have to work? and she wants to play? When she goes for a walk and is allowed off the lead she doesn't wear her harness but when she is mountain biking, running or scootering with me she wears the harness. I was trying to keep it separate so she associates her harness with work. She loves biking with me and when running, biking or scootering she does not yet take the full pull weight as she is still young and I want to build her up slowly.
> ...


My dog HATES wearing anything, including harnesses. However although his lead walking is reasonable now, he'll still pull in certain situations and dislikes having his collar grabbed so I prefer to walk him in a harness so he doesn't hurt his neck and if I need to get hold of him I can hold the back of his harness rather than his collar.

For a long time he'd run away from the harness and getting out for a walk was a nightmare. I spent ages trying to methodically desensitize him to every aspect of wearing it with limited success. What worked for us was taking him out of the house on his collar and lead, then putting his harness on when we got to where we were walking when he was distracted by the sights and smells and just keen to get on his way. After doing this for a few months we actually got to the point he'll let us put it on inside. He still doesn't like having it put on but will stand still for us to do it and then is fine as soon as we're on our way.


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## mysti (Nov 24, 2014)

I've got the same issue with my puppy. Once the harness is on he's fine but he runs away when I try to put it on him.


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## Muttly (Oct 1, 2014)

My dog hated his harness, he let me put it on of course but is very sad and unhappy when it's on. So I never used it again. It wasn't vital to us.

Can you try what Sarah did with not putting it on until you are where you want to start your activities?


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## tugnomad (Feb 17, 2015)

Thank you all for your replies. Makes me feel a lot more comfortable putting the little terror in her harness. She's very independent and I think the harness reluctance is most likely down to knowing that she is going to be stopped sniffing and snuffling and chasing small furry creatures through the woods when it is on.


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## ellenlouisepascoe (Jul 12, 2013)

My three sibes do exactly the same. They all look like I'm coming at them with a knife rather than their harness!! 

I think it's fairly normal, while I am putting it on them they're fine it's just the initial approach they look sad


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