What equipment is best to use for walking your dog?

Well, the short answer is, it depends!

In part, it depends on your preferences. But mostly it depends on your dog and what will work best and make the most sense for them.

Some people prefer collars of some sort. And there are several different types.

Some people prefer harnesses.

Some prefer other options such as head collars.

For our own dogs, we use harnesses. I rarely ever use a collar on my own dogs. But there are times when it makes sense to do so.

I never use choke chains, prong collars or shock collars on my dogs or my client dogs. But I have plenty of clients who come to me currently using those products.

My goal, ultimately, is to help my clients train their dogs well enough that it does not and should not matter what we use. If your dog has great leash manners and is under good control (with verbal cues and hand signals) then the product you have on your dog is far less relevant.

I generally prefer harnesses so that we are not putting pressure on our dogs necks/throats. I have had clients whose prior dogs have had serious damage done to their throats from the use of certain collars.

On our property, our dogs are typically off leash and we have lots of scrub oak that they run through when looking for bunnies, exploring smells, etc. And I normally do not want a collar on my dog in the case it gets snagged on a branch.

If a harness gets snagged, I have far less concern about a dog getting strangled. They might get stuck, but I can crawl in there and get them loose. If a collar snags and starts to strangle them, I have a far more concerning and urgent situation on my hands.

For those clients whose dogs are big pullers and find it difficult to walk their dogs before we are able to develop better leash manners, I sometimes recommend a front-clip harness.

For my own dogs, I use a back clip harness.

For  the dogs really difficult to control, sometimes a head halter makes sense. Not always, but sometimes.

Generally speaking, I like the harnesses that have both a front clip and a back clip option so that we have some flexibility in how we use it.

When it comes to harnesses, I also want to make sure they fit properly and do not impede the natural shoulder movement of the dogs. Not all harnesses take that into careful consideration.

A few of the harness options for front and back clip options that I recommend include:

• Ruffwear – they have several styles, only some of them have front and back clip options. Take a look at their website or check Amazon from link below.
• Embark – they have a few styles, again you have to look to find which one has the front clip option. (I currently use an Embark for Blitzen). Take a look at their website or check Amazon from link below.
• Freedom No Pull Harness – Take a look at their website

There are others out there, but these are the ones my clients and I have generally used and liked.