Tupelo came home on a Saturday in the middle of March, and by Tuesday I had a problem I had not thought about once in the twelve years since Duke died. My new dog is a Boykin Spaniel, about thirty two pounds, not quite two years old, and he believes every squirrel in Brunswick is a personal invitation. On a plain collar, our first two walks were mostly me being towed down the block with my arm going numb.
So in his first week home I ordered the rabbitgoo no pull harness in size Medium. Two things in the listing sold me: it has two metal loops for the leash, and four adjustable straps. I liked the idea of clipping a leash somewhere other than his windpipe. Eight months later the rabbitgoo harness still hangs on a hook by my back door, and here are the ten reasons it earned that hook. If you are bringing home a dog who has not yet learned that sidewalks are for walking, this is the list I would hand you.
The harness on the hook by my back door
Size Medium, four adjustable straps, two metal leash loops, reflective strips along the sides. Measure your dog's chest first: the listing puts Medium at 15 to 27.8 inches.
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Every walk on a plain collar put the whole of his lunging into a band of nylon across the front of his neck, and I could hear him breathing wrong when he really committed to a squirrel. The rabbitgoo listing calls this a no pull harness with two sturdy metal hook loops for leash attachment, and I clip to the loop on his chest. When he surges, the leash goes taut across his chest and turns him slightly back toward me. He still pulls. He pulls a great deal less, and I am not hauling a dog around by the throat at seven in the morning. It worked for us. Your dog may feel differently, and a dog who lunges hard at other dogs is a conversation for a trainer, not for me.
Two leash loops let you change the walk you are actually on
I did not understand why two leash attachment points mattered until about the third week. The chest loop is what I use on the neighborhood loop, where the squirrels live and where I need him beside me. The rear loop, above his shoulders, is what I use in my fenced back yard when we practice walking on a loose line without me steering him. One piece of gear, two different jobs, and I did not have to buy anything else to get both. The rabbitgoo listing says both loops are metal, and after eight months of a strong dog hitting the end of a six foot leash, neither has bent.
Four adjustable straps fit the dog in front of you, not an average dog
There is a strap at each shoulder and one at each side of the chest, and all four slide. Tupelo is narrow through the ribs and deep through the chest, a shape that almost nothing off a shelf fits, and I was able to take in the chest straps and let out the shoulder ones until the vest sat flat instead of riding up toward his neck. The listing says the four straps are meant to leave room for growth. I mostly needed them for the opposite problem in March, which was a dog whose shape I was still learning.
The buckles are quick, which matters more than it sounds
It goes over his head and fastens with a buckle on each side. That is two clicks and a strap check, maybe fifteen seconds, and it happens twice a day at my back door. Fifteen seconds sounds like nothing until you are holding a leash, a bag of something, and a dog who is dancing because he can hear the marsh from the driveway. The closure is a buckle, not a fiddly thing you have to line up perfectly in the dark. My hands are sixty one years old and they manage the rabbitgoo buckles before my coffee.
Mesh and polyester, which is the right call for a coastal Georgia summer
The listing describes durable fabric with breathable mesh, and that is what it is. Brunswick in July is not a dry heat. I walk him at eight in the morning when the air already feels like a wet towel, and the vest does not turn into a sponge the way a wide padded strap does. I check under his front legs after every single walk, because I check everything, and I have not found rub marks. If your dog has thin hair or sensitive skin, ask your own vet what to watch for. I am not a vet and I do not play one on the porch.
Reflective strips for the walks that happen before the sun
The listing mentions bright reflective strips for early morning and late evening walks, and I have now tested that claim by accident. My evening walk in November happens in the dark whether I plan for it or not. The strips run along the sides of the vest and they catch headlights from a good distance. A neighbor stopped her car to tell me she could see him before she saw me, and I was in a light jacket. That is not a small thing on a road with no sidewalk, which is what I have on two sides of my block.
The chest measurement is the number to write down, not the weight
This is the part I would tape inside a kitchen cabinet if I were you. The listing puts size Medium at a chest of 15 to 27.8 inches, and weight is a poor substitute for that number. Tupelo is about thirty two pounds, which sounds like one size and is actually another, because spaniels are deep and narrow. I measured him with a cloth tape around the widest part of his ribs, just behind his front legs, with two fingers of slack, and ordered from that number. It fit on the first try and I have not had to exchange anything.
A dog who is not dragging you can actually be taught something
I am not a trainer. I am a retired librarian with a treat pouch and a library book about loose leash walking. But here is what I noticed. For his first two weeks, I could not teach him anything on a walk, because every bit of me was occupied with not being pulled into the street. Once the leash attached at his chest, I had a free hand and about half my attention back, and we could work on stopping at the curb. The harness did not train him. It made training possible in the fifteen minutes I actually have.
It survives the marsh, which is the real test
Our weekend walks are on a boardwalk path out toward the marsh, and he comes home with burrs in his feathering and something that smells like low tide on the vest. I rinse the rabbitgoo harness in the kitchen sink with a little dish soap, hang it over the porch rail, and it is dry by the next morning. The stitching at the leash loops has not frayed. The straps have not stiffened into cardboard. Eight months of salt air and it still looks like a piece of gear instead of a rag, which is more than I can say for the first leash I bought.
The straps still have somewhere to go, eight months in
He was about fourteen months old when he came home and he is not quite two now, and he filled out a little across the chest that first spring. I let the chest straps out one notch in June, in the kitchen, with him standing on the mat by the sink. I like knowing the vest was not a one summer purchase. The listing says the four straps are meant to leave room for growth, and for us that has been true in a small way, which is the only kind of way it ever is with a dog who is nearly grown.
What I'd Skip
Two things, and I have watched a neighbor do both. The first is ordering a size up because your dog is big or because he is going to grow. Chest measurement, not weight, not a guess from a photograph, not a number you remember from the last dog you had in 2014. The rabbitgoo straps adjust, but they do not adjust across a whole size, and a vest that is too loose slides sideways and rubs. The second is expecting the harness to end the pulling on its own. It is a tool that changes where the pressure lands and gives you a free hand. The walking is still the work, and the work is slow.
A neighbor stopped her car to tell me she could see him before she saw me. That is not a small thing on a road with no sidewalk.
Measure the chest, then hang it by your own back door
The rabbitgoo harness is the one I bought in Tupelo's first week and still use twice a day. Four adjustable straps, two metal leash loops, reflective strips, size Medium at a 15 to 27.8 inch chest. Give a new dog a week to get used to it before you judge it.
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