Hi Val,
This is our problem. We rescued this cute little terrier breed mix from the shelter that we named Baxter. He was pretty skinny and not in the best of shape. After several months of good food and exercise and training, he has improved greatly as far as his skin condition and appearance and temperament. I am a very active person and enjoy running and walking and biking with this little guy. He seems to really enjoy our outings, but, whenever I go to put his harness on, it is a struggle. He cowers and tries to escape as if this is torture for him. Like I said, once I have the harness on and we are out and about, he is happy as a clam. What can I do to make the harnessing routine less horrendous. I would appreciate any advice.
Thank you, Kate
Hi Kate,
You are the 3rd person to consult with me on this particular problem this week. So lets make this problem a public training session.
Taking into consideration he is a rescue, the behavior with the harness you are describing may have been formed from an unpleasant experience with a harness prior to you, or he has not yet associated the harness with things that he truly enjoys. Some dogs are able to put two and two together to figure out harness means ‘let’s go out and have fun!’ If a dog had even one unpleasant experience with a harness, the dog will associate this unpleasant experience with the harness. For example, the hair or skin can get pinched in the harness clip, it can be too tight, they can get caught on something, or it is foreign to them and they need to have some positive exposure with the harness. Lets increase his positive exposure to the harness so that he wants to put it on to go do fun things.
The following is a 9-day plan for exercises to get your dog in happy harness shape.
1) Keep the harness in a location that he can see it, smell it or touch it during this process
2) Exercises for counter-conditioning and creating good feelings about the harness:
Hold the harness in one hand, and a pea size piece of chicken, hot dog, cheese, bacon, etc. in the other hand.
Hold the harness to make a wide opening with the one hand and hold the piece of goodie on the other side of the harness opening so that your dog needs to put his head through the harness opening to get the goodie.
Do this repeatedly up to 10 times and then put the harness away.
Do not try and apply the harness.
After you have done this exercise for 3 days, then do the same exercise and gently drape the harness across your dogs neck and remove and repeat. Do this for another 3 days.
Now, do the same food treat exercise, slip the harness over your dog, drape across the neck, and buckle for a second and then remove.
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
Work up to the point in which your dog gets happy feet when he sees you grab the harness.
You can watch a live demo for this harness application process at my Face book Page, Val Stallings CPDT and Behavior Coach
Thank you for the great question. Keep them coming.
If you have a question about training or behavior, please email me @ HappyLabLady77@Yahoo.com
Make it a Pawsitive Day!
Val S Elliott CPDT Behavior Coach
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