Customer Reviews

Premier Easy Walk Dog Harness

5 star:		(257)
4 star:		(72)
3 star:		(39)
2 star:		(37)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

My dog is reasonably well behaved but the instant he sees another dog when we're out walking he pulls so hard I'm afraid he's going to damage my shoulders. I tried several different anti-pulling harnesses and collars and this one worked perfectly! At one point I tried the Gentle Leader head collar, but my dog hated having something on his face so this harness version was much better for him. Since the leash attaches at the dog's chest and contracts if the dog pulls, there are two benefits: (1) When the dog pulls, the harness contracts around the front legs making walking awkward so it breaks their attention on whatever they were pulling towards, and (2) since the leash attaches at the chest, when the dog pulls it snaps him around to face you which gives you a chance to correct him and redirect his attention. Ultimately, the dog's weight works against him versus the owner having to pull back. Now when my dog sees another dog and goes to pull, he immediately stops and rethinks that move since he's instantly pulled around to face me, without me having to do anything at all. A wonderful tool!

This harness is phenomenal. I was a skeptic but I wish I bought it two years ago. My dog is a large, strong and athletic 3.5 year old and I struggled over the past two years we've had him to teach him leash manners. We have made a lot of progress but walking him was still a chore and he pulled excessively when he saw other dogs. I have had to use a choke chain even though I was uncomfortable doing so, and was constantly having to readjust it so it was on the right place of his neck. With this harness, he does NOT try to walk in front, he does NOT try to stop and investigate every single mailbox and telephone poll, and we can approach other dogs at MY pace, not his. The harness works because it tightens across his front shoulders. If he tries to go to the side (to sniff something) or out in front (to get somewhere faster) a *gentle* tug clinches his front legs and he responds immediately. It sets the tone for the entire walk and makes the walk relaxing and enjoyable for the human, too. I was thrilled with it from the first time I used it.

If you need to correct the dog, a gentle tug (very little force) will do it. But I have also found that I correct the dog much less often than before because the harness does it automatically as soon as he puts tension on the lead (before there is any actual pulling). For example if he starts to veer towards a fire hydrant he feels a slight tightening which stops the sideways movement and then instantly releases, rewarding him for returning to the path. This is why people say it is like walking a whole new dog- because the dog is on his very best behavior without any extra effort from the walker.

If you're skeptical because you've heard people say, "With a harness, the dog can leverage his whole weight against it and pull harder," know that this is not that type of harness. I mean, it isn't a sled dog harness, people! Because it tightens across the front legs, the dog cannot leverage his weight against it. In fact he can pull harder with a choke chain because he is able to use the strength of all four legs.

My dog and I do a lot of walking (did I mention he's large and athletic?) and I can't tell you how much I appreciate this harness. Of course I still let him pee on the occasional fire hydrant and pause to sniff a few mailboxes, but he gets more consistent exercise without the risk of neck injury. Best of all his "momma" is totally happy with his behavior. Walking him is now stress relieving instead of stress building, and I have a better relationship with my pet because of it.

This harness may not work for every dog or every human, but you must give it a try. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

One final note: the harness is designed to prevent pulling forward, and works less well when trying to get the dog to continue walking if he stops to smell something. However it still exceeds a collar or choke chain in this regard, and, as described above, there is less stopping throughout the walk because of the instant corrections. Plus (in my experience anyway) teaching the dog "let's go" is much easier than teaching to walk at heel.

I heard about this product on the Cool Tools blog and was pretty interested. I had tried the Gentle Leader that wraps around a dogs head, but my dog hated it (I didn't like it much either) and would refuse to wear it.

I tried this one after my dog was slightly injured my a neighbors dog and the vet suggested we avoid any pressure on her neck for a while. This worked immediately and my dog loves it!!

It works very well for limiting her from pulling during a normal walk. The only thing I don't like is that it's not quite as good as a standard collar as far as keeping her inline when we are just standing around talking to people as it doesn't really control her head at all. At the same time I'm not restraining her neck and "pulling" on her which I've always hated.

I would highly recommend it for anyone that has a dog that tries to pull a little too much.

I ordered a large for my 9 month old doberman/lab since his girth is 29" & he has a little more growing to do. I should have ordered a medium/large since another reviewer remarked that the harnesses run large. The chest strap was the problem - I shortened it as much as possible and it still hangs down. I took my pup to the local pet store and tried a medium harness, it fit him perfectly with all the straps as long as possible, so he has no growing room. Big box pet stores do not carry the tweener sizes so I couldn't try a medium/large. I called Premier to ask about the chest strap size for the medium/large harness before I ordered a new one, and customer service gave me the chest strap sizes (measure across the chest from shoulder to shoulder).
Chest strap size:
M - 10"-13"
M/L - 12 1/2"-16 3/4"
L - 14"-19"
I used the large harness on 2 walks and in the pet store. I was amazed at how well he walked, and wearing it did not bother him. I'm looking forward to using the correct sized one.

UPDATE: 1/21/2012: We are still using these daily and they still work superbly. Also, with a lot of wear and tear, they have held up wonderfully.

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We've had two or more dogs in our lives for over 45 years (Golden Retrievers).We've worked aggressively with all of our dogs to get them to become leash trained (walking at your side with no extensive tugging or aggressive pulling when distracted or wanting to chase something), we never had complete success even with chokers of nylon or chain or for temporary training use; prong collars.

We currently have 3 Goldens now; two males ages 3 and 6 and one new female puppy who's just turned 6 months old and graduated from puppy kindergarden recently. While we're very experienced overall and have had great success raising our dogs with lots of love, patience, training using positive reinforcement, the walking part of their training has always been quite a challenge. My wife had seen this harness used at our puppies classes with favorable results and we've seen people using one when we walk our gang and she suggested I look into using one for our dogs.

Amazon had this one which seemed perfect to try based on the great reviews and favorable description of the product and although I was really skeptical that the physics of design and such a gentle harness to wear would work any better then a choker or training prong for us, I ordered from Amazon one to try. Our 3 year old golden is a strong puller on his leash. If he sees a squirrel he is apt to pull hard to try to get it. He was the prime candidate to test this new harness since if it worked for him, it certainly would for our puppy as well.

Our older 6 year old golden has blessed us with a very casual and slow paced walking style so fortunately he's very easy to walk. First to say the quality of this harness is excellent. very strong and high quality of nylon strapping and metal hardware on it. Easy and fast to adjust for sizing and the nylon snap buckles are beefy and will last a very long time as well. Fitting it took less then 5 minutes. The length of each strap component is adjustable. Once fitted, you can leave the over shoulder strap buckled and just unbuckle the under chest strap, allowing this to slip right on over the head with only one buckle snap of the lower strap required.

I expected a bit of a chore each time we put it on and in reality, it's done in seconds. We took our boy on a walk and immediately he stopped as soon as he felt the tension of the harness forcing him to begin to pull around 180 degrees towards us if he pulled on it. Basically, this harness uses the dogs force to work against itself by pivoting the dog around quite effortlessly, but, unlike a choker or prong which tightens around the dog's neck to maintain control, this gentle and comfortable harness makes the dog quickly realize it'll begin to swing itself around towards you if it pulls much at all and the harder (faster) it tries to pull, the faster it'll swing around.

It worked like magic because he is puzzled and stumped why when he wants to pull forward and tries, he begins to pivot around 180 degrees and not where he intended to go! Not to exaggerate, but, I actually tried walking him just holding his dog leash gently with only two fingers and low and behold, it works, he refuses to pull at all now as he's learned quickly what the reaction will be if he applies any force to the harness.

This harness works and has for over 20 walks now and I'm feeling it will continue to do what it is supposed to since the dog has learned now that it is useless to pull hard anymore. Sold!..In fact, we ordered and received one for our girl and she tried it with the very same positive results. Being a young and "foolish" puppy still, she's chasing every blowing leave she can relentlessly while being walked during our Vermont Fall here, but, as soon as this harness went on. that stopped! She's a smart puppy and learned the first time she wore it that it's useless to try to pull now. We were not believers at all in this harness because of it's simple design until we put them to use and the chokers and prong are now stored in a box and will be donated.

As said, the beauty of this harness is that it defies the natural characteristic of most dogs to pull forward and away from you using that collar around their strong neck; with you in tow of course. Both of our dogs reacted with body english indicating "what the heck is going on here?" and were totally puzzled as soon as they used this harness the very first time. It keeps them on their toes (um, paws!) and to put quite simply, it just plain works and quite well indeed! If you're pulling your hair (and your dog your arm) because your dog is in complete charge of the leash, give this a try. you will be very pleasantly surprised you've found a permanent and satisfying solution to a sometimes frustrating activity that we all share with our dogs so very often.

I had to return 2 of these harnesses (and got dinged a 20% restocking fee from this seller - on top of the cost of shipping both ways). This harness does not work with all dogs. Both my dogs fit the "girth measurement" but the loop where the leash attaches drags on the ground. My two dogs were able to walk out of the thing and kept getting their front legs tangled up. Also there is one dimension where the harness can't be adjusted so you might find, as I did, that the girth measurement is correct, but it still is too big for your dog. The description should have warned the owners of "short" dogs that this would not be a good choice.

If you want to try this out on your dog, buy it from a dealer who will refund ALL the purchase price without a 20% restocking fee. It's too risky otherwise.

I loved the idea of this harness because I had tried the muzzle type of gentle leader and my dog (lab) still pulled. But I noticed after using this harness for 2 weeks that my dog developed a raised and bleeding welt under his front leg (where the harness loops under his chest). As a result, I am back to a regular collar.

I can not express what a good deal this thing is. I have wasted so much money trying different collars and harnesses for my 2 year old Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix, Cooper. He would pull so hard he would stand up on two feet and choke himself relentlessly until his eyes turned bright red and he couldn't breathe. Other than walking he behaved perfectly. I used as much behavior training as I did collars and still couldn't get him to walk. I was skeptical about this harness at first just because nothing has worked. But I figured I would give it a try based on all the good reviews I had read, not expecting much. First time I put it on him he walked perfectly like he had been doing it forever. I am still amazed. I would recommend this for anyone with the same problem. It takes a little bit to get it to fit just right, but once you do you will never have problems again!

We have a Siberian Husky who never stopped pulling after 4 years of walking. Believe me, we tried everything. She never stopped to smell anything, sometimes she would hop on two feet, other times she would pull so hard she would physically hurt herself. The first time she walked with this harness she fell right on her face. That sounds terrible, but we have been enjoying walks now for 3 more years and finally the kids can hold the leash and our dog enjoys the walks more and is finally stopping to smell the roses and taking time to look at the things around her.

Updated August 2, 2009:

1. Like other reviewers, my dog was able to escape occassionally from the harness. My trainer suggested to also leave the choke collar on, just in case the harness comes loose. Clip the lead into both the loop of the harness and of the choke or regular collar.

2. I ran my dog with the harness, and she developed welts under her front legs. This is similar to another reviewer. I was going to wrap that area of the harness with soft material (ie, felt, velvet, etc), but my trainer recommended a different harness for running (back lead). I will still use this for walking.


Original review:

I have a 13 pound Min Pin mix. When she came from the shelter, she had a very bad habit of pulling. I tried training, but training only helped about 20%. For example, if she pulled her choke chain, I would stop walking for a few seconds and wait until she stopped pulling.

She also constantly became out of control when bikes, runners, or skate boarders passed. If I saw a bike approach, I would divert her attention and praise her for staying calm. Even when training worked for a bike or two during the walk, when a few bikes passed, she reverted to a crazed beast.

Then I found "the harness". It was recommended to me by a trainer at the dog run, after the trainer saw me riding my bike with a choke chain on my dog. I put it on and she stopped pulling so much. Walking is a pleasure. Riding my bike with her is great. The harness works, because if the dog pulls too much, they will lose balance. They don't like that.

Make sure you measure the dog's chest before buying the harness. Premier has a website that shows you where to measure, and which size to buy. Also, if you put the harness on too loose, your dog may try to chew it off. When it's snug, my dog loves it.

I'm not saying every dog will respond the same, but if your dog does, it'll help a lot.

Sizing information:

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