# My dog HATES her harness, any advice?



## Bumblina (Jul 6, 2010)

Hi, my 1 year old female hates her harness. She runs under the couch every time we bring it out for her walk. She loves walking...I just think she just hates the feeling of anything on her.

I am using kikopup's videos to help her start liking her harness, but is there anything else we can do? Even after three weeks of clicker training, she scrambles under the couch at walk time, when the harness comes out. (She is willing to come and put her paw on it...even sniff it...but REFUSES to put her head through the loop.)

Your words of wisdom appreciated!


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Check very carefully that it isn't rubbing her or pinching her at all. Maybe adjust the sizing or wrap some padding around any pressure points/buckles that might dig in. 

Are you using high value treats? If she's not treat motivated, is whatever you are associating with the harness her favorite thing? Try tiny bits of cooked chicken or tiny bits of hot dog for a high value treat.

You could try putting it on her before every meal, I got my dog to tolerate my trimming (sanding actually) his toenails by taking care of his nails while feeding him dinner a handful at a time. A few days of that and he realized it wasn't so horrible after all.


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## That'llDo (Apr 13, 2010)

Does she hate _wearing_ the harness, or does she just hate getting it put on her? I had trouble with getting Rigel to wear his harness (he acted afraid of it) until I realized what he hated was the way I tended to loom over him when I put it on him. So, I tried making sure I sort of brought it up over his head from starting near the floor, and kept own body low and away from him. This let me take the pressure off putting it on him, and he became much more willing to stick his head through, so that I could train him to do it. I'd say, first try to figure out what about it she hates, and see if it is something you can mitigate, then up the ante treat-wise.


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