Dogs generally pull about 60 per cent harder on a leash when wearing a padded harness compared with a collar, even when the equipment is marketed as “anti pull” – putting the people walking them at risk of injury.
Some dogs – especially smaller breeds – pull with a force more than twice their body weight on the collar, potentially damaging their throats, says at Southern Illinois University.
“It’s really very shocking,” she says. “The dogs are almost choking themselves on that collar repeatedly. But the harnesses in our study just didn’t inhibit pulling in any way, and that’s definitely a wake-up call – especially because of the risk to owners.”
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More than 80 per cent of owners report that their dogs pull on the leash. Constant collar pressure can reduce blood flow to dogs’ brains, interfere with breathing and damage neck tissues, leading many owners to opt for harnesses instead.
Some harnesses are purported to reduce pulling, but they may also make pulling more comfortable for dogs, says Perry, resulting in greater forces and risking injury to owners.
Perry and her colleagues used a tension gauge to measure leash-pulling forces made by 28 adult dogs of a wide range of breeds and sizes. They tested each dog twice – once with a flat, wide nylon collar and once with a padded harness with a clip for the leash on the pet’s back. Each dog faced three pulling temptations during their walks: seeing an unknown dog, finding food and watching a toy being thrown.
On average, dogs pulled with a force of around 6 kilograms on the harness compared with nearly 4 kilograms on the collar, says Perry. The larger the dogs, the greater their pulling strength, with the biggest dogs peaking at an average of about 24 kg of force – about 83 per cent of their body weight – and reaching up to 44 kg during individual yanks.
Surprisingly, it was the smaller dogs – those weighing 13 kg or less – that pulled the most relative to their size, with peak forces in the harness averaging 122 per cent of their body weight.
Peak individual forces on the collar were also considerable, reaching up to 20 kg in small dogs and more than 30 kg in larger dogs. In fact, the strongest pull the researchers recorded was by a 22-kg, one-year-old Labrador retriever mix, peaking at 49 kg of force against her collar. “There’s real potential for veterinary injury with forces on the neck like that,” says Perry.
Good education and training – with expert-guided use of training equipment if needed – can resolve the pulling conundrum, allowing both dogs and owners to have safe and pleasant outdoor walks, she says.
Journal of Veterinary Behavior
