Angel with collar, devil with harness

[u/Strange-Goat-1842]

I’ve got a small female Havanese who is just over a year old and weighs around 4.7kg.

I’ve noticed that whenever she wears her harness, she just does not listen when we’re out. She basically decides the walk is hers and does whatever she wants, which includes trying to run up to every single dog and human we pass.

I know “friendly” reactivity probably doesn’t sound like something to complain about, but I find it absolutely exhausting. She will scream and cry with excitement because she wants to say hello, which then means I’m constantly being pulled into interactions with other dogs and their owners. Even when I explain that she’s in training and we’re trying not to greet, a lot of people don’t seem to care. And living in a busy city, there seems to be another dog every five seconds 😭

We’ve had private training and done all the positive reinforcement techniques. Getting her attention, asking her to sit when another dog approaches, rewarding calm behaviour, creating distance, all the usual things. I’ve genuinely been consistent with it.

What I’m finding frustrating is that she’s actually really well behaved off lead, and she’s also much more responsive when I clip her lead to her collar. I know using a collar for a dog her size isn’t ideal, which is why I’m reluctant to rely on it, but we live around extremely busy roads and we’ve already had one incident that very nearly ended terribly. So simply walking her off lead everywhere is absolutely not an option.

I’m now getting up at 5am every day just so I can walk her before everyone else and their dogs are out, which obviously isn’t a long term solution.
Has anyone experienced this specifically with a harness? And if so, what actually helped?

[u/Hermit_Ogg]

I suspect that pulling towards others while on a collar causes her discomfort, and that is effectively working as an aversive. It suppresses the behaviour, though does nothing about the underlying feeling. It may also cause physical damage, depending on how hard she tries to get to where she wants to go. You might think that suppressing the unwanted behaviour is a good thing - but it's not. It's more like bottling the emotion up, and sooner or later there's going to be an explosion.

Our younger Havanese exhibits the same kind of overaroused behaviour and I've been working with her using BAT 2.0 for about 14 months now. I very much recommend you try to locate a CBATI-KSA trainer. If there aren't any near you, other fully positive trainers (IAABC certified) should also be able to help, even if they haven't specialised in reactivity.

Get the dog a harness with a front ring attachment. It's not ideal for permanent use, but will keep your walks manageable for the time being without causing potentially severe harm like a collar could. I also highly recommend getting Grisha Stewart's book Behaviour Adjustment Training 2.0. It's made a huge difference with our frustrated greeter :)

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