The Great Harness Adventure
Today I got measurements for all my dogs plus my grandparents Labrador Annie. I will be getting a multitude of makers such as Chasing the Wolves, Angry Melon Gear and Windigo. We will be getting a few different types of harnesses such as standard X backs, Hybrid X backs and Stick Harnesses. We will also be getting matching limited slip collars. Some harnesses will be bright and vibrant, others will be in our kennel colors. When you have off breeds it can be so hard to find off the rack harnesses. So if you are interested in getting into dog powered sports with your German Shepherd or Malinois I will always highly recommend going the route of a custom made harnesses.
A few Reasons why I am choosing the markers I am for my harnesses are for a few reason. My harnesses I’m getting From Chasing the Wolves is because she is a good friend of mine, she is hoping to be successful in making custom harnesses as well as possibly some standard sized harnesses in the future and my dogs are the perfect test subjects because they are “oddly” shaped and she will be able to personally have her hands on these harnesses to see how they hold up and fit. She is also going to try her hand at making some stick harnesses for me as well! I look forward to going on this adventure with her! I am getting Angry Melon Gears harnesses because I have gotten them in the past (to actually be used for bite work) and I find the material to be high quality, have vibrant colors, can have matching patches sewn on to them, and the fit was amazing! Another quality I do really enjoy about this harness is the loop is actually a bungee! This I’ve found to be great for super powerful dogs (like Omen). It also seems to help keep a line out for my dogs personally! Finally the final maker Windigo I will be getting their Hybrid Swenson X-Back and their Stick Harnesses. What I like about their X-back is that it has nice thick padding all the way down the harness and it almost floats across the ribs. I have bought this harness in the past (second hand) and I really did enjoy the fit but it was just a tad too short for Aston and the Neck was too small for Omen. I am really looking forward to trying some Stick harnesses from this maker. These will be my first harnesses of this type! I have been doing some research about how stick harnesses are super beneficial for dogs that are super power as it puts minimal pressure on the hips and back. With Shepherds having such long backs I do feel this will be beneficial to having a nice long career in harness! This type of harness is not to be confused with competitive weight pull harnesses though! Please check out weight pull blog where I will go into further detail about those harnesses!
I will say if you are interested in Canicross or Bikejoring we do enjoy the Second Skin Type harnesses that are available from Howling Dog Alaska. I personally like the higher attachment points for these sports. HDA does make very nice quality harnesses for dogs that are “standard” sled dogs, my running partner Taylor often uses this brand for her Sibes! They are wonderful quality, padding and the is a wonderful female ran company and I really wish their X back harnesses would work for our German Shepherds but for now we will just use their other models! Another brand I personally like is Non-Stop for their X-Back and their Stick Harness, these fit the Malinois and Labrador body type very well as well as the standard mushing breeds, they do fit the GSD’s a bit funky so I would proceed with care but it could possibly work out for you! Another brand of harness I have seen a good handful of people have luck with that is a bit customizable is made by Nahak, these seem to hold up well and have a nice amount of padding to the. The final brand that I have personally used and did work for Styx was made by Sun Dog (formally Kondos), these harnesses are a great intro option! They have a good variety of sizes, they’re a bit on the less expensive side but I do wish they had a wider variety of colors personally. One recommendation I will make if you do decided to go with this brand is to change your loop out as I have had 2 loops break on dogs while on runs.
I will update this page as we get our new harnesses and collars in! Here is a great infographic made by Chasing the Wolves that shows and explains how to have the perfect fit for your x back harness!
