Mattie, I looked at the 7 page loose leash link you listed and it mentioned harnesses so now I'm curious as to whether or not I'm using a good harness. I use the sporn halter, and it looks like this:
http://www.sporn.com/cgi-bin/commerce.e ... ey=SPUS100
I've taken him on walks with it at our old house but not here (I unburied it from under a box just now). He seemed to do really good with it before. There were only two things I didn't like about it. The first thing being that it took me forever to get it on because I always somehow twisted it inside out with my super awesom skills
and fortunately Buddy was very patient with me as he sat waiting for me, giving me an encouraging lick from time to time.
The second was that the strap part in the back that the leash hooks to would slack up if he walked beside me and then the armpit thingys got really close to the ground so if he lifted his feet up much he might slip a leg out. I believe this might be because it is a size too large for him since I did have to adjust the harness to a smaller size to fit it on him without it slipping (and since he's slimmed down more I'll probably have to adjust it again).
Other than that, it never rubbed against him and if he did pull his pulling power was considerably less, even on the rare occurance that we did run into another dog (the ironic thing is that we have only ever met one dog (not including Rico, who's case is still debatable) that got along with him). The straps loosen up and hang a little when he's walking so the only thing that is really in contact with skin is the red part of the harness. It only tightens when he pulls. Is this a good harness to use?
BTW, While I'm thinking about it, are multiple bad encounters with dogs a bad thing for him? I'll list all encounters he's had with other dogs.
1. Our first dog Lucy did not like him from the get go. She growled at him and when I took Buddy on walks around the yard, she'd follow us peeing wherever he peed. I think she didn't like him in her "territory" judging from the peeing thing.
2. When we took Buddy and Lucy on a walk down the road, a pit bull came tearing out a driveway and straight for us in obvious attack mode as he aimed for Lucy. My dad kicked him in the side and he circled back around going for my sister instead. My mom stood in front of her and used the infamous "grandpa voice" (my grandpa had a really deep voice and every dog he ever met knew he meant buisness if he used it) and that dog stopped, shrank, and high tailed it the other way. Buddy just looked at him like, "Huh? You attacking a human? What's wrong with you?"
A female also came out of the driveway and this one was friendly but we didn't introduce them given the state of events.
3. I went down alone on the same road with Buddy and a different pitbull came out barking at us at a different location (but apparently owned by the same person(s), though my details are fuzzy). She had obviously had puppies recently and she seemed quite irratable. Buddy wagged his tail and sniffed noses with her and she growled at him some before she suddenly snapped at his face and not wanting a fight I used my own "grandpa voice" shouting "HEY!" and although both of them shrank down the female did retreat and trot down the road to her home.
4. On the same road (I'm sensing a reoccuring pattern
), met two herding dogs through a fence. Sniffed noses, and then the dogs tried to snap at him through the fence as they exploded into a barking frenzy. Buddy retreated back a little and we walked on since at the time I did not see any point in standing next to a fence and two frenzied dogs any longer.
5. Again, on the same road, my sister and I went over to our neighbor's house. They have two dogs, a male german shepard named Thor and a male bassett hound named Rocky. Then Natalie, the mom of the house, came in and said Thor and Buddy had got in a fight, much to my confusion (Buddy was supposed to be back in his enclosure at home). So I went out and sure enough, he was there. He had dug out of his enclosure and come over to the neighbors most likely because we were there and he saw us go over before making his escape.
Natalie explained that Buddy had come in the driveway and at first Buddy and Thor had seemed to get along fine and they had actually started play restling when suddenly Buddy must have made Thor feel threatened because he suddenly launched into attack mode. Buddy submitted immediately, but when Thor continued his attack he was forced to retaliate and fight back. Buddy had a tiny scratch above his eye and Thor's ear got torn, but otherwise they were both fine. I don't know if Buddy ever got along with Rocky. Natalie never mentioned him.
6. The ONLY open and visibly positive encounter he's had. I again walked down the same road and we met a black female lab named Dora that we had found lost before and held onto until we found her owner. Dora was about a year old. They sniffed noses, wagged, sniffed hind quarters, and seemed to get along fine. I let them sniff for a few minutes and there was no growling from either. I petted and praised him for being a good boy and having no confrontation as we moved on. Dora actually tried to follow us and I had to tell her to go home.
7. This one actually happened at my grandma's house. Remember when I mentioned the neighbor on the left who had two dogs? Well, his name is Chris, he's actually a pretty good friend of ours, and he was helping fix up the garage one day his dogs jumped into the car and refused to budge. So he eventually just brought them over. The more dominant of two dogs is Rock, a big male shepard cross who likes to be the boss and has wandered around a lot and even in my grandma's yard. The other is a medium male mutt that is a stray he's taken in that he's named Pettie. Pettie was no problem on this encounter (though ironically Pettie is the one that barked and growled at me when I walked by).
Rock kept on trying to climb out of the truck and was growling the whole time as Buddy looked up at him and growled to a lesser degree but seemed more curious than actually agressive like Rock's body language suggested. Neither calmed down even after about five minutes so to settle their dispute we agreed to introduce them. Just as I had thought, as soon as the door opened Rock rocket launched down onto Buddy. Buddy side stepped him but Rock still got a hold on his shoulder fur, but it was thick enough he didn't draw blood. Buddy whirled around and bit at his haunches. They did two or three circles before Chris shouted his command to Rock and that made Rock stop the attack and Chris commanded him back in the truck. He didn't look too thrilled about it, but he got in the truck anyway. There was no growling from either of them again and I haven't seen Rock in the yard since, so Buddy must have established himself as a dog he shouldn't mess with. He's peed around the yard regularly so I think he's possibly established the yard as his territory and maybe that's why Rock avoids it now.
8. When we were at the vet and got him microchipped and checked up on there was a really over weight Rottwieller across from us that kept growling and trying to get at Buddy repeatedly. Buddy did try to lift his leg while the rotty was watching, but I stopped him just in time. After a few minutes they both came to reasonable calm and Buddy lay down and relaxed so I started petting him. The rott still seemed a bit irritated though.
Okay, if I could comments on how I/Buddy did in any of these situations, I would really appreciate it because I would like it if I could eventually socialize Buddy with more dogs. One consistent thing that I've noticed with Buddy is that he always seemed to wag his tail during the encounter and his ears are generally perked up and to the sides, if that helps at all.