Scared of the harness

I wondered if any of you more experience dog owners could help with this one. We got Mia a harness early on to stop her choking herself when out and about and she soon got used to it and would happily lift a paw so you could put it on.

As she got older I stopped bothering with it for walks and only put it on to hook it up to the seatbelt in the car, but my Mum walks her every day in the week and she continued to use the harness.

In the last couple of months however, Mia seems to have developed a fear of the harness and a few weeks ago started to flinch at the noise of the clip clicking into place.

We bought her a new, more comfortable harness as the previous one was leaving her chest red but it's made no difference. It's got to the point now where she walks off and hides when I get the harness out, and she starts shaking seemingly with fear.

Once it's on, she's fine.

There's nothing we can think of that happened to her while in the harness or when putting it on so we're baffled.

I know the simple solution is to not use it at all but it is really useful at times and I'm curious to get to the bottom of it in case we've done something wrong along the way.

Any ideas?

Has she had a bad experience while either having the harness put on or while its on etc. Can't think of any other reason for the fear

Not as far as we know. She hasn't really had many bad experiences at all really, but she is quite a nervous dog by nature (we've no idea why - she's spoilt rotten ).

She does shake quite regularly I suppose so I may be misinterpreting that part, but she certainly makes herself scarce when she spots the harness and I basically have to corner her to put it on.

The only similar reaction is when confronted with going down the spiral staircase at work, but I can kind of understand that one as she can't see where it goes.

Zeus absolutely hates his harness. Whenever I clip his lead to his collar, he's fine, but once the harness comes out, he tries everything to get away it, he bites it, doesn't let me put his head into it, etc.

I figured this is because I have way more control over him with the harness and he doesn't like it?

But as you said, once the harness is on, he's fine and doesn't give it a second thought.

Ledger does similar but he disliked the car and got so bad plain refusing to get in the boot that I have made the back seat his space but he needs to be on the harness else he would be in the front with me he now happily gets into the car but shakes when he sees the harness

jshrew wrote:Ledger does similar but he disliked the car and got so bad plain refusing to get in the boot that I have made the back seat his space but he needs to be on the harness else he would be in the front with me he now happily gets into the car but shakes when he sees the harness

Zeus doesn't like getting into my car either, hes always had the back seats, but he just doesn't like the idea of not having control in the car, especially when I'm going round a bend or roundabouts etc.

Have you had Mia ears checked by the vet, this could be the cause of the fear of the harness, the noise the clips make. It is a rather strange noise anyway that alone if you have a problem with your ear. This is just a guess as to the cause of the problem.

Caley is also scared of her harness, she runs behind the settee, luckily she doesn't shake just lays down and sulks. However, once the harness is on she runs to the door and is happy as larry

Benson runs away from his harness and collar when he hears or see's it but once its on his fine.

He was good at first use to give paw to put it on, once i changed to next size up it started. I have tried 4 diffent makes of harness since.

He still runs but i think Xtra dog is best for him as its fleece and soft so doesnt rub.

His getting better as time goes by

If you cant think of an isolated incident .. I have no idea, other than

Ive actualy had this issue with Taz (collar&harness) and the only difference was the vibes she was picking up in the house from my bad mood through being in physical pain... few calm days and praise reward when getting it out or near her and all Is fine again!!

If she is flinching at the sound of the clip she maybe had her skin caught in it by mistake, i know i have done this on lexi when im not paying attention (and shes been a little fatter than the last time shes had it on!) and im sure it hurts like hell!

Just take it slow with her, put the harness on, but don't clip it, then treat and take it off again and repeat until shes 100%

debtom wrote:Caley is also scared of her harness, she runs behind the settee, luckily she doesn't shake just lays down and sulks. However, once the harness is on she runs to the door and is happy as larry

Sounds exactly the same as Gabbi, except she runs to the top of the stairs and lies sulking

Once it's on, she's fine... they're not scared at all, just messing us about!

I would just practice putting it on and off until she is comfortable. You could also try leaving it in view so that she sees it more often.

Just a quick update on this in case it helps others. We did what some of you suggested and over the last few weeks have eased her back into the harness and it's no longer a problem.



We started by simply taking it out of the box and letting her sniff it, then moved on to putting it on her back but not fastening it before finally she was happy enough to come over to have it attached.

She still flinches a little at the noise but that seems to be fading too so there's no real dramas any more.

Thanks for the good advice

Logan runs as soon as he hears me getting his lead/collar or harness. Mainly because he isn't a big fan of walking in general, even though he gets walked everyday, he could happily go without!

I just sit down with the harness and wait for him to come to me. Even though it takes a while sometimes. If I was to walk over to put it on he would run and it would become a game.