Harness suggestions

roguskie

roguskie

Forums Enthusiast
hi all,
Recently we have started talking about getting Pippi into agility and in particular Flyball. She can't start training until she is one here but I would love to get her a harness with a handle (I know we will need it) and get her used to it. I like the look of the Julius k-9 harnesses but am not really sure what they are like.
Suggestions would be great.
Thanks in advance.
 
The Ruffwear harness may be too much for a flyball dog to move completely comfortably in. For agility it has too many straps that need to be fastened and unfastened.

The K9 Julius has two straps and one quick release clip. The majority of the harness sits on the back starting at about the shoulder. A front strap goes over the head and around the chest. The second strap, the one with the quick release clip, goes over the rib cage. They are pretty popular in the US for agility and flyball handlers because, for agility, they are quick on and off and for flyball they don't restrict movement at all.

I have a Brilliant K9 harness which is similar to the K9 Julius but made in the USA by a small business and the strap with the quick release actually sits behind the rib cage, which I prefer.

The K9 Julius harness is a great harness for what you are looking for, though.
 
For Flyball I used a Comfortflex Sport harness http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm/product/1771/comfortflex-sport-harness.htm

My dog no longer wears a harness in Flyball and now wears a custom flyball collar. I decided she was ready to "graduate" to the collar once I felt she was pretty reliable coming back to me. The harness was nice, had little to no restriction of movement when she ran, but let's be honest a collar has none. I got the collar from rushtotug.com
 
My dogs have harnesses from Brilliant K9 (http://www.brilliantk9.com/BrilliantK9_Dog_Harness_s/1887.htm). They are similar to ones from Julius. But I picked them because they seem lighter weight and I like that belly strap sits farther back. I have had ComfortFlex too but they were always too big across chest area for my dogs. The Julius and Brillant K9 can be adjusted across chest.
I use them mostly for walks and hiking, so can't speak for flyball. But I picked them because they don't seem to restrict movement.
 
Team Mav said:
My dogs have harnesses from Brilliant K9 (http://www.brilliantk9.com/BrilliantK9_Dog_Harness_s/1887.htm). They are similar to ones from Julius. But I picked them because they seem lighter weight and I like that belly strap sits farther back. I have had ComfortFlex too but they were always too big across chest area for my dogs. The Julius and Brillant K9 can be adjusted across chest.
I use them mostly for walks and hiking, so can't speak for flyball. But I picked them because they don't seem to restrict movement.
Click to expand...

I agree that the ComfortFlex doesn't adjust across the chest, and it was a little bit too big for my dog in that area. But with her pulling to race (which I encourage), it wasn't a problem. But if it were any bigger it would be a problem.
 
Whatever you choose, make sure it does not restrict movement of the shoulder blades or front assembly. Those restrict front end movement and can cause issues later.
 
I have the Julius K9 IDC harness. I really like it for Declin because he tends to pull when he gets excited at class (Hey, there's another dog over there doing something fun and why can't I be over there doing that too?!), and I don't like him choking himself all the time on the collar. Plus, with all that fur, lets face it… You can't even tell he's wearing a collar.

We call it his "saddle" because well… That's what it looks like. I don't feel as though it restricts his movement, especially since he wears it during agility class and we haven't had any problems. It also comes off easily, just one buckle to unsnap and over the head it goes! So as long as you fit it correctly you should be okay!
 
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