Collar or Harness for Dogs - Which is Better?
A very common debate between dog owners is whether or not a dog collar is better or worse than a dog harness. The collar is better for ease of access and displaying ID tags. Harnesses help prevent choking, but can encourage pulling or yanking. So which one is better?
Dog Collars vs. Dog Harnesses: Facts
Dog collars go way, way back. All the way to Ancient Mesopotamia! They’re the classic look for a family dog. However, with dogs that like to pull, especially large breed dogs, they can cause choking. Some dogs respond well to being choked a couple times, and learn to stop pulling. Some do not.
Dog Collars:
- It’s the classic look. Easily customizable with infinite options on colors, designs, etc. to perfectly encapsulate your dog/your family.
- Lots of dogs tend to learn quickly when they pull and get choked a couple times with collars, and then quit that behavior.
- Collars can be kept on at all times, making it easy to take the dog on a walk, or to keep ID tags on display in case it gets lost in the neighborhood.
Harnesses:
- Again, choking. Some dogs respond well to choking, some do not. Lots of owners don’t like their dogs choking, so they opt with getting a well-fitting harness.
- Different harnesses have different uses. The most common harness, the back-clip harness, can encourage pulling just like collars. It prevents choking, but doesn’t discourage the pulling behavior.
- Front-clip harnesses are useful, but not on high-energy walks/runs. They can pull your dog to the side and mess up their stride, which in turn can mess up your stride. Great for dogs trying to learn not to pull.
So which is better between the two?
Both dog collars and harnesses have their benefits and drawbacks. Our dogs on the farm tend to have collars. A couple of our dogs started out as major pullers, so for those, we kept their collar on while we walked them on a harness.
The BEST advice we can give, from our own experience, would be to start with a collar, especially if it’s a new puppy. With regular walks, most dogs, especially doodles, learn to not pull while exercising. The pulling behavior can be stopped and trained out of the dog, but it takes work from you, the owner, to make sure they learn said correct behaviors. If the dog doesn’t want to learn, or if you don’t mind keeping it in a harness, then use a harness! There is nothing wrong with either.
We have information on leash training here, and here, if you’re interested in getting some help on training!
The dogs that began as pullers for us only required about a week of walk training to fully understand it. We recommend several different types of treats to help encourage good behavior when it’s shown. You can find them here, near the bottom of the page.
We’d love to hear your comments below!
