by Craig Green

Tally-Ho: July/August 1997

In 1980, Kay and I had the immense pleasure of training the great champion Strathalbyn Shoot to Kill to track. However, he refused to walk in our old leather harness. Had it not been for Kay’s design of a new, more comfortable harness, he might never have taken a step in the tracking field.

In my last column, I briefly described the harness Kay and I have used for many years. It's made from two-inch wide cotton webbing, consisting of two parts held together with velcro. In this column, I’ll show how the harness fits together, and how to put it on the dog. I’ve included four photographs.

The first photo shows a top front view of an empty harness. The short strap on top, connecting the angled front loop and the vertical back loop, is folded over at its back end, with a D ring for attaching a long lead. In this photo, I left the two outside straps on the front loop slightly pulled apart at the bottom, to show how the top straps fit over the bottom ones. The bottom strap, much longer than the top, covers the dog’s chest, connecting the back loop to the front loop. The two halves shown separately in my last article are connected together here, to form a complete harness. This harness is made of black nylon, and is rigid enough to stand alone for the photo. Cotton webbing is more comfortable, but may be difficult to find.

The second photo shows a lighter-colored cotton harness, in the first step of putting it on the dog. Once adjusted to the dog, we leave the entire front loop intact, putting it over the dog’s head like a collar. In this photo, notice that part of the back loop is hanging loose, over the dog’s right front leg. Once the front loop is placed over the dog’s neck, the right leg steps through the attached side, while the remaining contact point is fastened behind the other front (left) leg.

The third photo shows the final step for putting the harness on the dog. The white velcro strips on each strap are placed together to secure the harness on the dog. About 10 or 11 inches of velcro is used on each double strap, for plenty of strength once the harness is complete. It takes about a yard and a half of double (paired) velcro to make a harness, and about four yards of webbing.

The fourth photo shows the completed harness. Both main straps shown here are from the top half of the harness, with velcro on the inside. The bottom half is unseen, but the two straps with velcro outside are just inside the visible straps. Notice how the short upper horizontal strap and the long bottom horizontal strap allow the front loop to be angled across the shoulders, while the back loop is vertical.

Conclusion

The arrangement of overlapping, two-inch cotton/velcro straps in this harness design provides the utmost in comfort, distribution of weight and strength. With such a harness, the dog can concentrate on tracking, without the annoyances of poorly-fitting equipment. Next time: tracking leads.