by Craig Green

Tally-Ho: May/June 1997

Last time, I described the tracking harness My wife Kay and I have used for more than a decade. Made of two-inch wide cotton webbing, its two halves are held together with Velcro. It's the most flexible, convenient, comfortable, lightweight and practical harness I've ever seen. But if you want one, you'll have to make it. Kay designed and made all of ours.

My Favorite Harness

I include three photographs with this column. The first shows the harness in use from a side view. The second shows it separated into two halves, and the third shows them turned over so you can see the Velcro.

In the first photo, the back (vertical) loop around the body is clearly shown (behind the front legs, over the ribs). The front loop over the dog's shoulders is inclined at an angle, to conform to shoulder layback and to meet the breast strap in front of the legs.

The second photo shows the upper half of the harness (right) and the bottom half (left), with a 12-inch ruler for scale. The top half is shown as if you were looking down from the top of the dog, with the neck to the right. By turning the bottom half around, bringing it up from under the dog and linking the halves together, your "tracking dog sandwich" is complete. The bottom half has the Velcro facing outward, while the top part has the Velcro facing inward, so the top straps can fit over the bottom ones. The harness is designed so most of the length of each top strap overlaps its bottom counterpart.

The third photo shows the Velcro on each half. By adjusting the Velcro straps at four overlapping contact points (two on the back loop and two on the front loop), any Basset Hound can fit this harness. Once a particular dog is fitted, only one of the back contact points (over the ribs) need be removed to get the dog out of the harness (one front leg has to step out of a loop). That way, it doesn't have to be re-adjusted each time you use it on the same dog.

Notice the breast strap (horizontal on left half) is much longer than the top strap (horizontal on right half). This is where most commercial harnesses are poorly designed for the Basset Hound's huge chest. If you don’t want to make a harness like ours, I recommend lengthening the breast strap on commercial harnesses, so the back loop (over the ribs) is vertical.

Next time, I will include more photos showing how the two halves of this harness fit together and how to put the harness on a dog. This is an important subject, but difficult to explain in words; so I think the extra photos and description will be worth it. Stay tuned.