Road testing the Easy Walk harness

The Easy Walk Harness

When we went to see Sasha to see if she would be the right dog for us, her owners told us that they had very rarely put her on the lead and that she was a puller.  "That's no problem," I said brightly, thinking that such a lightly built border collie would hardly be felt on the end of a lead.  I was wrong.  Bernie tried holding her at first and he said she was really strong.  He has a bad back so a pulling dog wasn't ideal.   We swapped dogs and Sasha stopped pulling  a bit but a little way down the road Bernie complained that Jamie was starting to pull.   We swapped back again...and again...and again, but each time Bernie held a dog it started to pull.  This pantomime was repeated every morning until I bought the Easy Walk harness from petplanet.  I was tempted to get an Easy Walk harness for Bernie as well, or at least send him to training classes, but that's a different story.

The harness was despatched very quickly and it came complete with a smart red collar.  I did eventually work out how to put it on with the help of the illustrations on the back of the pack.  One day everything will come with instructions that say, "Start here if you're one of those people who can't put up a deck chair or tie their shoelaces."

Having done it once though, and worked out how it went it was easy to do it again.  The pictures below show Sasha looking attentively at me and waiting for the next instruction on how to do the most perfect heelwork.  Jamie looks on admiringly.  Oh, alright then.  Sasha's actually saying, "For heavens sake, have I got to wear this thing again, and are we going for a walk or aren't we?" while Jamie's thinking, "I'm glad it's her and not me."

After using the harness for the best part of a week I realised that Bernie hadn't grumbled once about a pulling dog.  In fact he said,  "It's like magic.  She's not pulling at all."  Praise indeed from a man who has been kicked out of bed early in the morning and has been dragged along the road to a field in order to exercise his wife's second dog. 

We have actually found that Sasha pulls slightly now that she's used to the harness, but she is still easily controlled.  We don't use the harness on her all the time.  The aim is to get her to learn to walk properly on the lead and do perfect heelwork or at least stop pulling all the time. 
 

Does it work on a really strong dog?
When we were out for a walk we met someone with a young boxer and they were using the Easy Walk training harness. (This illustration is also from Pet Planet)  I asked them if it helped and they were brimming over with praise.  They told me that their dog had been a real puller and they were struggling to hold him on an ordinary lead, but the harness had calmed him right down.  I must say I didn't see the boxer pulling although of course he had to come over and say hello to Jamie and they were having a good old sniff.
 

The Doggie Shop has a selection of haltis, harnesses and gentle leaders and you may also find the Easy Walk on ebay.  Some of the live auctions are shown below.

There are also some similar harnesses available that work on the same principle as the Easy Walk and one of these is the Company of Animals non-pull harness.  I haven't road tested the product but Company of Animals is a very reputable manufacturer. 

Road Testing the Halti harness 
The Halti harness is based on the same principles as the double lead method above.   I bought one for Jamie and I've reviewed it here.

Pulling on the lead
A no fuss method of dog training that shows a dog that it's possible to walk on the lead without pulling.