Tiny dog essential: The step-in harness

I purchased the step-in harness pictured above from Trixie and Peanut a couple of years ago after realizing that tiny terriers A) do NOT like collars; and B) their hyper-overdrive tendencies make "harnessing" the dog quite a challenge.

On top of that challenge, Zoe is a bit of an oddly-shaped dog. She's just under 7 1/2 pounds; her height at the withers is between approximately 11 1/2 and 12 inches; and her body length is just over 14 1/2 inches (from base of neck to base of tail). In other words, she's skinny and long and she has the tiniest fragile neck.

I remember the first time I tried to walk her with a collar. Every time her retractable leash reached it's end, the slightest resistance had her smarting and glaring at me. She finally stopped and sat down, as if to say, "No more lady. You wanna keep going? Get this torture device off of me!"

Enter OUR love/hate relationships with various harnesses and MY love/hate relationship with Zoe's proportions. The traditional harnesses available at stores like Target and Wal-mart really don't fit. The buckles can't appropriately adjust to Zoe's size, so the fit is always awkward. Many times, such an awkward fit eventually leads to a broken harness.

Awkward fit aside, the task of getting the average harness on Zoe requires near superhuman strength and patience. You see, the average harness employs a bit of an over, under and through process that small, hyper dogs (and impatient owners) do not enjoy.

Yes, I suppose I could leave a harness on Zoe all the time, but her hair is fine and a harness tends to rub raw places on her skin, so I opt to remove it at bed time and/or after our morning walk. Putting the harness back on after I return home from work is the most challenging - for reasons that should be obvious to any dog owner!

Hence the step-in harness that I couldn't live without. Genius design. Even the most flailing of legs can be correctly placed in this harness. As you can see in the first photo, the harness is shaped somewhat like a figure 8. One leg goes left, one goes right, then a single buckle meets in the back just under the dog's shoulder blades and voila, you've got one comfortably secured dog ready for a walk. Again I say, genius. And they're not just for tiny dogs, but Zoe sure loves hers!