Dean and Tyler harnesses: a step up in harness quality.

You may have seen my post: Walkin' Easy with the Easy Walk Harness.  I've touted Easy Walk Harnesses for years and years and years.  And I still think they're a good tool to help an owner control their dog -- especially large dogs.

However, I've always had problems with Easy Walk harnesses rubbing the undersides of my dogs' legs.  Their skin gets red and their hair rubs off, and sometimes they would even get a rubbed a little raw.  Ouch!  And on Leopold, the straps would also rub his fur off his chest, too.  I ended up adding some fleece padding to help solve that problem, and it worked for the most part.

Then, years ago at this point, we took Halo to see a behaviorist.  While we were there, she noticed the fleece on our harnesses and asked about it.  I explained, and she pointed out that the harnesses rub because they don't fit right.  And the harnesses don't fit right because, lets face it, Easy Walk Harnesses are not high quality.
I'll be honest, part of me was a little miffed because if you go into Petsmart or Petco or wherever and look at their selection of harnesses, the Easy Walk Harness is on the more expensive end...!  (At least they used to be; I haven't been in a Petsmart or Petco, etc in years.) But then the other part of me thought "Oh, duh. That makes sense".
The behaviorist made a recommendation: Dean and Tyler harnesses.  She had some on hand and we tried them out on the dogs.  They looked smart and seemed to fit well.  So we took her recommendation and bought a pair for our pups.

Not only do Dean and Tyler harnesses look smart, but once they're fitted properly to the dog, they do not rub at all.  I haven't had a problem with raw skin or even fur being rubbed off since we switched.

We walk Leopold with his leash connected
to the front of the harness to help control
him if he starts pulling.

Some other nice features about these harnesses: they have multiple locations where you can attach your leash.  You can hook your dog up at the chest, which helps prevent a dog from pulling like the Easy Walk does, but you can also attach a leash to the back or the sides--a "pulling" function if you want to hook your dog up to do some work and pull something around.  There's also a handle, which I LOVE because it means it's really easy to grab my dog, and I don't have to grab them by their neck collar (seriously, how awful do you imagine it is for the dog to be grabbed and yanked around by their neck??).  There's also an option to add patches via velcro to either side of the harness.  Patches can say things like "Ask to pet" or "Therapy dog" or I've seen some that say things like "Lap dog" and "Mamma's boy". Ha!  Mine came with a blank patch, so I made my own with Leopold's name.

The downside is that the harnesses are a bit pricey.  And if you've got a deep-chested dog, you'll need to also purchase an extender piece for the belly (or multiple extenders...!).  Actually... I don't really consider Leopold a deep-chested dog; he seems pretty normal to me, but he needed the extender belly piece.  But you know what they say: buy right, buy once.

We love our Dean and Tyler harnesses and are very happy that we spent a little extra money for a product that works well and is more comfortable for our dogs.

Interested in purchasing your own Dean and Tyler harness?
Here's the product page on the Dean and Tyler website for Universal No Pull Plus, which is what I have.  And then here's the extender strap.
If you want it faster and have Amazon Prime, you can also purchase it from amazon.com:
Dean and Tyler DT Dog Harness.

happy walking!

Convenient Product Link (for amazon.com):