If there’s anything that ruins your experience and prevents you from having a good time while outside the house with your dog, it’s having to deal with a dog that pulls. Not only does having to deal with a dog that pulls take its toll on your body after a while and starts causing you all sorts of physical pain, it’s also one of the most common training difficulties that many dog owners come across at one point or another.
For some people, investing time, money and energy seems to be the better option for them, where they prefer to extra mile to just train their dog to stop pulling altogether.
On the other hand, and this is true for the larger portion of dog owners out there, investing money on a trainer or time and energy on training the dog to stop pulling just isn’t a feasible option.
Whichever boat you’re in, and especially if you’re in the latter group of people, then investing in the best harness for dogs that pull may just be the perfect solution for your problems.
This way, and even though you’re not solving the root of the problem right on the spot, you’ll be instantly overcoming its most notable repercussions by hindering your dog from pulling as much as they used to.
Best Harnesses For Dogs That Pull – (Our 5 Top Picks For 2023)
Top Pick: Ruffwear – Front Range No-Pull Dog Harness with Front Clip
Pick #2: Rabbitgoo Front Range No-Pull Dog Harness
Pick #3: Chai’s Choice Front Range No Pull Dog Harness
Pick #4: EXPAWLORER Front Range No-Pull Dog Harness
Pick #5: Copatchy No Pull Reflective Adjustable Dog Harness With Handle
*Note: The links in the table above, as well as several links in the remainder of the article below, will take you to over to Amazon.com where you can find out more information about the products, such as current prices and customer reviews.
Best Harnesses For Dogs That Pull – A Closer Look Into Our Top 2 Options
Pick #1 – Ruffwear Front Range No-Pull Dog Harness with Front Clip
Several Attachment Points: What’s nice about this harness is that it’s not just designed specifically for dog owners with dogs that pull, but is perfectly designed to meet their needs along with the needs of other people that have dogs that don’t pull.
How exactly? That’s because of several attachment points. If you’ve got a trouble maker that’s pulling all day long then you can easily attach their leash to the front side of the harness towards their chest area, which (as you’ll realize when you try it) will severely suppress their urge to pull on it anymore.
When you try using the front hook on a puller, they’ll jump around all over the place in a funny manner trying to figure out what just happened and why they can’t pull on their leash anymore.
After a little while, they’ll just give up and your mission will be accomplished!
Meanwhile, if you’ve successfully trained your dog to stop pulling while on their leash, and/or want to make use of the same harness you’ve already bought for another dog of similar size that happens to not have a pulling tendency while on their leash, you can simply detach the leash from the front side and attach it towards the back side, and then use the harness that way.
Proper Padding In The Right Areas: If you’re going to want to give your dog the best experience possible while having them wear a harness meant to reduce their pulling, there’s two requirements you should really be focusing on – a chest led harness (which this one meets), and proper padding in just the right areas (which this one also meets with flying colors).
Dog owners that get this harness to specifically deal with their dog’s excessive pulling once and for all always have good things to say about its padding that exist on both the chest area and the back area, something that goes a very long way in ensuring optimal comfort for your dog when outside the house.
High Quality Material: This is great news for dogs that have sensitive skin conditions, as it’s been noted many times by different customers that dogs with sensitive skin actually enjoyed their time wearing this harness and didn’t try everything within their might to get out of it, because the high quality material it’s made of caused them no itchiness whatsoever.
Pick #2 – Rabbitgoo Front Range No-Pull Dog Harness
Easy To Put On: One of the things that sets this no pull harness aside from many other harnesses out there is how easy and comfortable it is for dogs to put it on.
It’s also incredibly easy to adjust to achieve a proper fit when your dog puts it on. You’d think that all manufacturers of harnesses take these two basic requirements into consideration, but you’d be surprised that reality is the exact opposite of that.
Sturdy & Durable: If you’re looking for a sturdy and durable harness that will withstand the test of time, Rabbitgoo have done a brilliant job in this department, even when it comes to dogs that have to pull on it for a longer-than-average period of time before they decide to just give up on their attempts.
Anti Pulling Mechanism: Just like our #1 pick above from Ruffwear, this harness also has a great front hook you can attach your leash to in order to prevent your dog from pulling.
Whenever they decide to pull, they’ll find that they have to twist and turn around to be able to do so, which defeats the purpose since they’ll be going the opposite direction from where they wanted to pull towards in the first place.
Eventually, they’ll give up and stop trying to pull because they see no use to doing so.
How Does A No Pull Dog Harness Work?
So, how exactly do these harnesses do their job? What makes them so special and different from other harnesses on the market so that they’re specifically recommended for dogs that tend to pull? Here’s a quick rundown on how the most popular harnesses under this category work.
These harnesses were designed to apply a certain amount of pressure to your dog’s chest area and shoulders whenever they decide to pull, an amount of pressure not too excessive to cause injury, but one just enough to make them feel uncomfortable enough so they stop pulling.
Why Should I Look For A No Pull Dog Harness?
Before we get into the details of what criteria determines the best harnesses for dogs that pull and sets them apart from the rest of the harnesses available on the market today, let’s first go over a list of some of the most important reasons why you should be looking for a no pull dog harness in the first place, as this will greatly help you determine whether this type of harness is right for you or not.
Stubborn/Independent: The fact is, some breeds out there are much more stubborn and independent in their personality than other breeds.
One of the ways this stubbornness and independence is shown by a dog is by pulling on their lead when outside the house and attempting to force their way towards one direction while you want to go towards another direction.
Physical Pain: Having to deal with all this constant pulling from your dog will take its toll on your body sooner rather than later, especially when it comes to arm and joint pain that owners of dogs that pull very often complain about.
Not to mention the many cases of shoulder injuries dog owners found out they suffer from due to all these years of having to deal with a dog that pulls.
Dog Discomfort: Not only will a pulling dog cause you all sorts of pain and physical problems down the line, they’ll also cause themselves all sorts of discomforts, most notable of which is dry and scabby skin due to the constant contact and rubbing between the harness and their skin.
Dog Safety: Looking for a dog harness for dogs that pull isn’t just about making your life easier, it’s also very much about looking after your dog’s life and safety as well.
When you have your dog on a leash and they decide to suddenly pull on it and try to go somewhere out of the blue, this puts them at a great risk of sustaining a neck injury.
And, depending on how hard they pull on their leash, this neck injury could be minor at times, but could also be fatal at other times.
A harness wrapped around your dog’s torso will have any pressure from any pull they decide to do diffused across several pressure points across their torso, meaning the risk for injury is absolutely minimal, if even present at all.
What Criteria Should I Look For In The Best Dog Harness To Stop Pulling?
Proper Fit: A proper fit is absolutely necessary for these harness to do their job as intended, as well as to prevent unwanted and annoying chaffing that will just make your dog very uncomfortable.
To prevent any unwanted and uncomfortable chaffing, only have your dog wear a harness that has proper padding to it.
Also, a proper fit is an absolute must because even if you have the most cleverly designed harness to stop dog pulling, if it’s too loose on them and doesn’t fit them properly, they can easily get out of it, which just defeats the entire purpose of getting one of these in the first place.
Chest Led: To ensure maximum safety and minimize any chance of your dog sustaining an injury, you should ideally have them wear a chest led harness and not a back clipping harness.
Not only do back clipping harnesses actually encourage your dog to pull (which is obviously counterproductive to anyone trying to decrease their dog’s pulling), it also makes it significantly more difficult for you to keep proper control over your dog when they do decide to pull.
Chest led harnesses are much safer for dogs that tend to pull, don’t cause nearly as much discomfort as other types of harnesses do, are much more effective at achieving the desired goal and give you much more control over your dog in case they do decide to pull.
Harnesses with only a back clip to them will simply not get the job done right if you’re looking to minimize pulling, so keep this in mind.
Why Do Dogs Pull To Begin With?
– Excitement: One of the most common reasons to why dogs pull while on their leash in the first place is quite simply because of over-excitement.
When out for a walk with our dogs, you and I may have our own paces that we like to go by, while our dogs often disagree and may want to go at a significantly faster pace.
So, and because they think we’re just moving too slow for their liking, they may try to pull on their leash to get us moving faster.
– Curiosity: We all know how curious our dogs can be at times, and this is especially true when we’re with them outside the house and their discovery abilities choose to shine.
If something catches their eye and they want to get closer to discover something about it, or if they see something (or another animal around) that they decide they want to chase after – they’re going to pull with all their might to try to get there.
– Leadership: Depending on which dog breed you have, this may or may not necessarily apply to you.
Some breeds have such high leadership traits that they often exhibit behavior that shows they’re trying to be the leader even with their owner.
One of these behaviors is trying to dictate where to go while on a walk outside and impose their will on you, which leads them to pull in an attempt to steer the way.
With some breeds, it’s just almost as if they’re walking you and not the other way around! 🙂
A Quick Note About Training
At the end of this article, an important note must be made about pulling and dog training in general.
Making use of a no pull harness will not be solving the root of the problem, it’ll only offer an excellent method and design that prevents your dog from pulling – and there’s a big difference between a dog that isn’t pulling because they just can’t do that anymore, and a dog that isn’t pulling because they don’t want to do that anymore.
In an ideal case, you always want your dog to stop pulling because they know they shouldn’t be doing so, and not because something they’re wearing isn’t allowing them to so they decide to give up.
With proper training methods, your dog will eventually learn that pulling is bad and will stop doing it, regardless of whether you’re having them wear a standard harness or one that was specifically designed to prevent pulling.
On the other hand, if they haven’t been properly trained and you’re just relying on a no pull harness to do all the work for you, there’s always going to be a chance that they stop pulling now because you had them wear this specific harness that’s preventing them from doing so, but get back to their bad habits as soon as you put a standard harness on them or just have a good ol’ leash and collar.
So, always strive to solve the root cause of the problem with everything related to your dog, whether it be this issue or anything else they experience in life.
