New Harness!! (again)

Ok, so this is Mollie's fifth harness so far. To be honest, we would have stuck with the fleece one if it hadn't stretched, and if Mollie hadn't figured out how to reverse out of it - as it is, she can keep the fleece one for short walks that don't involve water. But for longer adventures, pub outings and places where she might be tempted to swim, she now has this:


The belly strap means she can't escape, and those of you with similarly adventurous terrierists will understand what an advantage that lift handle on the back is going to be: Mollie has a nasty tendency to jump over 2ft high walls and then discover they're that bit higher on the other side. Most of the time, she can jump back, as she's quite agile and bouncy - but every now and then she gets stuck.

The harness is also breathable, lightweight and can go in water without soaking a load up, so we don't have to take it off and carry it round just cos she's jumped in a lake... which is good.

She hasn't worn it out and about yet, as it only arrived yesterday, but as you can see she seems quite happy with it - we were out playing ball with her wearing it and she was happily leaping about, over the fence, over the hedge, doing her usual spectacular mid-air catches.

I'll report back on how the harness fares when we're out and about, but since it was designed with search and rescue dogs in mind I'm guessing it'll last us for a few years.

It's a Ruffwear Web Master. I got this one cheap as an end of range, but the new one has a broad chest pad, is generally a bit sturdier, and has reflective stripes and longer sleeves on the straps.

Belvoir Castle Country and Game Show

That's where we took Mollie dog on Sunday afternoon. The weather was OK - not too hot, not too cold, no wind or rain. And best of all, Mollie was a VERY good girl. There were loads of people,dogs and kids around, and she only barked a couple of times when she got really excited/frustrated (we wouldn't let her play with the clay pigeons or go in the agility ring).

Here you can see Mollie straining to get at the clay pigeons (skeets) - I reckon she thought they were little orange frisbees!



There were lots of stalls with doggie things (obviously working dogs like to have fun, too), so we bought her a new Kong Flyer frisbee; a rubber chicken and a new, soft fleece-lined harness. The new harness is much more comfy than the EzyDog, which just didn't seem to be the right shape.

Mollie saw someone else with a rubber chicken and wanted one, so we went and got one. Then she amused the crowds by running round with it in her mouth!

Here you can see her in her new harness, with her rubber chicken.

All in all, we were very impressed with her. A few months ago she would've barked and barked at all those strange dogs, but yesterday she met large and small with equanimity and a friendly, waggy tail. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, as you can see!

Harness update

Looks like we're going to get one of these:

It's an Ezydog harness and comes with a detachable seat belt clip which means we can leave the clip in the car and the harness on the dog.

This will be Mollie's 3rd harness - first we tried the Ancol one, which is fantastic (brilliant) as a seatbelt harness, but as you can't detach the metal clip it's inadvisable to use it for walking too far - the clip bangs on the dog's spine. So that was passed on to someone else and we got an RAC harness - much much better for leaving on the dog, but not so great in the car as the belt clip can't swivel at all. Because of this, and because Mollie seems to be a bit of a Houdini, she can get out of it really quickly - so once the new one has arrived we'll give the RAC one to next door to use as it's great for walking.

I'll let you know how I get on with the EzyDog.

Edit: Just ordered it from D For Dog. Jenny kindly let me knew as soon as they were in the catalogue so I could bag one - they're very efficient so I hope to get it Saturday or failing that, Tuesday. You wouldn't think someone could get excited about a new dog harness, but I am :D

Bad habits

Well, as I suspected would happen, Mollie's learned from Sunday's experience to slip her collar at will. She slipped it on Monday when out with the neighbour, who's going to keep her away from busy roads for the time being (luckily you can get to the woods without leaving our estate).

Mollie currently wears a soft collar from Rogz - it doesn't chafe, and if she catches it on a branch or whatever when rummaging in the undergrowth, it will stretch so she can get free rather than be stuck, if that makes sense - in fact that's how come she can slip it. I don't want to get her a leather collar, as they're not ideal for a dog that swims (in fact the last one she had stained her fur pink when it got wet!). So I guess that means getting her a harness of some sort for when she's next door - which would also help our lovely neighbour to control her when she's on the lead as she's a little monster and pulls really badly.

Anyone got any recommendations? Are terriers that rummage OK with a harness on, would it be likely to catch? Ideally she'd need a harness that can be left on while she's off lead...

Canny Collar vs Tennis Ball

We took Mollie for a bimble this evening - down to the village, round the back to the castle, up to the Leisure Centre, across the playing fields, back down to the castle then home. Mollie was in naughty (very bouncy and hyper) mode so we went for the Canny Collar AND the tennis ball. It's an interesting combination, as when she has the ball in her mouth and pulls on the lead, the collar causes her mouth to close - thus squeaking the ball. Every now and then she had to put the ball down and lick her lips a bit, but if we went to pick it up she nabbed it again. As we walked across the fields, throwing it as we went, you could see her getting tired as she sometimes fetched the ball but, instead of dropping it, ran back to us and just stood there squeaking it for a bit. On the way back, she was much better behaved - much less trying to bite the lead... sigh...but at least with the collar I can control her with one finger and she doesn't pull enough to hurt herself. Still, we're considering getting a chest harness to see if that works any better. She walks better off lead than on, but she has the road sense of a pheasant... no; wait - less.

Photo courtesy of Tracy ;-)