The pets thread aka my house smells of cat/dog/other piss

This is the harness our hydrotherapist uses when he's doing his work on the treadmill - would it be alright for general walks? He has mild elbow dysplasia. 

I'm a bit weary as the breeder we got him from (and various other Bernese owners) flat out told us not to use a harness as it puts extra strain on the joints when pulling and can cause/exacerbate the dysplasia. They may have said this only applied while he was growing though, can't fully recall.

I'll speak to the hydrotherapist and a breeder or two about it but I'd like to know your opinion too as I've seen you post pictures of your (gorgeous) three bernese and you have a fair bit of real world experience.

Thanks!

Eh, we use those harnesses all the time whenever we take them anywhere. The idea of holding back ~50 KG of muscular dog (that's been bred to pull carts) with a collar round it's throat sounds way worse than what a harness would do ymmv.

Even piddly dogs should be harnessed imo. Collars for contact info if they get lost.

Also I'm at work and having doggy withdrawl. Sad times.

Puppia make good harnesses for small dogs at least. Our had hers for her entire adult life and it's as good as new.

Wish she was

We swear by Perfect Fit, they come in three parts so you can get the right fit for your dog. Gives the full movement for their legs and everything, no restriction like some others do (julius). Might be a bit small for one of those but for when she's older.

I lost her a month ago today mate, she was an absolute angel and I'm struggling to deal with it a bit. I still have one other who is really missing her and a new puppy though.

Very sorry to hear that, Frog.

Fluff in fluff!

I'll stop spamming with updates as I know it will get annoying but last night was the best yet. She went in her cage at 11, fell asleep and that was all we heard from her. The wife said she wanted to get up in the night this time, so went through at half two and took Penny out for a wee. She cried for five mins when back in her cage, and that was it, until about 2 mins before I went through at six!

We ended up geting her a wee lamb toy that has a fake heartbeat in it and is about the same size as her and she loved it, so I'm presuming it was that that did the trick.

In all fairness I'm trying not to get TOO optimistic as it's still so early on! The good thing is she definitely likes her crate. After this morning's outside spell, breakfast and subsequent hijinx, she was back in it again for a nap for about an hour before I went to work, so she's very comfortable there. We're still trying to get used to the tells of various things but she now makes it quite obvious when she needs a poo, so that helps!

Just trying to work out the whole breakfast thing as well. When I went through this morning I took her out, she had a pee, then came back in. I gave her breakfast but she wasn't interested. We played for a bit instead then she had a few gulps of her breakfast before deciding that NOW she needed a poo so went to her mat. She then had a bit more breakfast, I took her out again and she did another small poo. Back in and then was happy to have a play then a nap. All within the space of an hour.

Feel like I got the order of things a bit wrong / upside down.

Nah it's a learning curve for both of you. Sounds like it's going great.

Dudley was fine in his crate at night to begin with, but absolutely hated being locked up in it for even a minute in the day. We still have it and now he likes to use it to chill out every now and then, but we never lock it now.

9 months.

Always happy to oblige!



Also slow mo video of his flappy ears