Sense-ation Harness: my observations (poodle, barking, attention, control) - - Page 11 - City-Data Forum

latetotheparty · 03-28-2010, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomSD

No I just hook on to both rings (the harness and the collar).

The biggest issue I was having is he is pretty bull headed and bounces around like a pup... even with the sensation harness on. What would happen, even with the harness fitted properly, is he would pull it down onto his legs when he bolted for something or started bouncing around. This keeps it up and in place on his chest so that when he does do that he is properly redirected to the side stopping the behavior in its tracks.

what a great idea ...... there is a lot of real estate between dave's collar and where i suspect this harness will go across his chest..... so i'm thinking that we may need some sort of extension too.....

btw.... good to see ya' around tom......

World Citizen · 03-28-2010, 08:29 AM

LatetotheParty,

We're all waiting to hear how your first time out goes!

Looks like you've got a pretty day, too.

btw - I've never needed to hook my leash to my dogs collar with the harness on and I've never had a problem with the harness slipping down.

latetotheparty · 03-28-2010, 08:44 AM

it'll be this afternoon, my time (central) ..... gotta get laundry going in a bit.... we'll go to the park and then to petsmart when i get to the load that can be left in the dryer for a while after it is dry.......

i am looking forward to it.... all of y'all's testimonials have me REALLY excited......

just an aside, dave's front half is across my lap as i type this.... back half on the floor..... in his mind, he is a lap dog..... too bad nobody told his body.....

World Citizen · 03-28-2010, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by latetotheparty

it'll be this afternoon, my time (central) ..... gotta get laundry going in a bit.... we'll go to the park and then to petsmart when i get to the load that can be left in the dryer for a while after it is dry.......

i am looking forward to it.... all of y'all's testimonials have me REALLY excited......

just an aside, dave's front half is across my lap as i type this.... back half on the floor..... in his mind, he is a lap dog..... too bad nobody told his body.....

I have a full grown labrador who's still a lap dog. Spoiled brat!

latetotheparty · 03-28-2010, 01:56 PM

well, we've got it fitted to him.... when i measured him around his rib cage, i got 27 inches, so got the size where 27 inches is the smallest..... i suspect he's got some filling out to do yet..... didn't need any additional rings or anything to get the leash onto the harness and the collar......

he has it on right now and while he is not thrilled with it..... he doesn't seem QUITE as unhappy as he is when i put his regular harness on him..... one of his quirks, he HATES wearing his harness, HATED the t-shirt i got for him..... acts like i have just beaten him with a stick when i put ANYthing on him....

we walked a little in the house and out in the front yard and street and it seemed to go well...... we will head out to the park in about an hour or so.... will report back after that......

World Citizen · 03-28-2010, 06:13 PM

Since everyone keeps talking about fastening their leashes to the collar and to the harness I went to the Sensation site to look at their instructions.
I haven't been doing that with Shadow.

They actually say that you should do that in the beginning... I guess I'd forgotten. It's been a while since I bought mine.

Quote:

Introduction & Safety

Our harnesses are designed to be used with and without a regular flatcollar. At first, clip your leash to the TOP of the ring on the harness and to the ring on a collar simultaneously. This offers the following benefits:

Prevents the leash from pulling the back and girth straps against
your dog’s front legs.
Offers safety for unexpected behaviors.
Prevents too much load on the chest strap.
Prevents chewing the chest strap while walking.
Keeps the chest strap up.

Unclip from the collar for short periods to slowly phase out the collar.

We recommend clipping to the collar for high stimulus environments.

The other thing I noticed was the pictures they have and of people using the harness with a leash attached. It shows the handler holding the leash up and not allowing it to dangle in front of the dog...

DandJ, you may want to look at those pictures. It even tells you about slack in the leash in the instructions for training. That may solve your issue with the leash thing...

Instructions For Use (http://www.softouchconcepts.com/howto/instructions-for-use.php - broken link)

LTTP, I hope you and Dave had a good day. I just checked in to see if you'd posted!

latetotheparty · 03-28-2010, 08:35 PM

sorry ..... got busy around here and it was more like 5:15 or so before we headed out.....

he still pulls some.... not as hard as with his regular harness though..... BUT the big thing for us is when we passed a couple of dogs .... he is still very fear aggressive.... we are working on that, but have a long way to go..... he was MUCH easier to control with this harness on....

typically, when we pass dogs that APPROACH us face on, or if a dog comes from behind and passes us (not unusual as slow as i am with this gimpy leg again), dave goes absolutely ballistic.....staring, lunging, growling..... i half-way expect for his head to spin and pea-soup to come spewing out of his mouth..... the sensation harness kept him much more grounded and actually, seemed to prevent him from dialing up so high, if that makes sense..... he also seems to pay a little more attention to me when i try to break his stare and focus him on me......

so ..... thumbs up from davey-long-legs-land.......

i have to be out in the field early in the am, so we will have to skip the early am walk in the park..... as much as i HATE walking them in my neighborhood, will try to get them out to go down the street to the pond and back and see how that goes..... and will try to get them out to the park again tomorrow evening..... dave's a pretty smart dog most of the time.... i hope that he starts catching on that the other dogs on leashes mean him no harm.....

i think most of his issues arise from a lack of confidence in himself yet.... he is not quite 18 months old.... bailey was at least 2 or maybe even 2-1/2 before i started seeing her "grownup dog confidence." He lived his entire life in the shelter before he joined our family, so i also suspect his socialization was not great..... although he is just FINE loose in the dog park with the other dogs..... as long as there aren't more than a handful in his vicinity at a time...... (yesterday was BLAST.... really wish i had had a camera to video him)

**sigh**

eta ... and i did have the leash clipped to the sensation harness and his collar......

DawnMTL · 03-29-2010, 05:13 AM

World Citizen: I saw those pictures and was absolutely holding the leash high up but because Artie's so, um, compact, the leash was then slapping him in the face. Davey has a lot a lot of real estate on his body but Artie has NONE -- all his parts are stacked one on top of the other, close.

I tightened the chest strap a bit so it's up higher on his chest, I'm attaching the leash to the top part of the chest strap ring (not the bottom), and those things seems to be helping quite a bit. I did order another leash, one with a different kind of hook that appeared to be smaller. If nothing else, I want it because it has a padded wrist strap.

All in all: we're doing great -- two thumbs up from me, and four thumbs up from Artie. Well, Artie's not LOVING it, but he's definitely adapting well.

LTTP: I'm soooo happy that it's working for you. I wish it was perfect but (a) nothing is perfect and (b) maybe with more time, it will get close to perfect.

About clipping the leash to the harness AND collar: I did that the first few times we went out, just because I didn't know how the harness would hold up if Artie went nutty-cuckoo upon seeing something that he, um, wanted, but it was just so cumbersome on him. I've only put the harness on him in recent days (no collar) and it works great that way -- more comfy for Artie and I'm not losing any control by not having the collar on.

World Citizen · 03-29-2010, 05:47 PM

DandJ,

Just thought you might be holding the leash too loose... trying to problem solve.
Glad it's working out for you mostly!

I honestly can't believe the difference it's made with my easily distractable occasional bionic puller. Shadow and my walks are like a whole new experience for me. I wish I'd gotten it out of my box of dog stuff sooner...

TomSD · 03-29-2010, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by World Citizen

I honestly can't believe the difference it's made with my easily distractable occasional bionic puller. Shadow and my walks are like a whole new experience for me. I wish I'd gotten it out of my box of dog stuff sooner...

Sounds kind of like Harper. He is generally a good walker but something gets his attention and he can go off after it like a tank. With a normal harness it was a workout when he got something on his mind... and I'm a big guy, lol. Now it feels like he isn't putting in the effort but you can tell from body language that it is actually the harness short circuiting him.