Tag Archives: dog walking

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness

Put an End to Pulling with Xtreme Pet Products’ No-Pull Harness

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness

 

Sadie’s got a new specialty harness we’ve been working with lately – the Xtreme Pet Products No-Pull Harness. Now you may be asking why in the world I need a harness to stop pulling when Sadie is a pretty small dog. She usually seems well behaved too. But what you don’t know is that in certain circumstances, Sadie does have a tendency to pull. She’s not a big, strong dog, so it’s not a dangerous problem, but it’s still an issue I thought it was time to address. Hence our testing of the Xtreme Pet Products No-Pull Harness.

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness
When I first received this harness, I was a little confused about how to use it. Don’t be embarrassed if you look at a harness and just see a bunch of strings with no idea where they go, because that’s how I feel at first too. But the Xtreme Pet Products website has a nice PDF file that you can save or print to show you exactly how to put your dog into the No-Pull harness (click here to view the PDF instructions). There are two loops that go around your dog and you just need to slip both over your dog’s head with the larger loop going on first.
dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness
Now Sadie’s main issue with pulling relates to avoidance. She is not comfortable with other dogs, so she tries to pull me away from them. This sometimes happens with people or strange/noisy objects as well. This behavior can sometimes be embarrassing for me, like in the sponsor room at the BlogPaws conference when Sadie got tangled under a vendor table trying to avoid probably the most well behaved dog I’ve ever seen. So I decided to take Sadie to some pet stores so we could encounter other dogs and see if this harness could really stop the pulling. There was definitely a difference in Sadie’s behavior. With any old harness, Sadie would be straining at the end of her leash and halfway into the next aisle if I went near another dog. With the Xtreme No-Pull Harness, Sadie would attempt one pull and then just stop and look at me. So far this harness test is a success.
dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness
I also took some video of Sadie and I on a walk using the Xtreme Pet Products No-Pull Harness. The video was taken towards the end of our walk, when we are about half a block from our house. At this point in the walk Sadie is normally rushing as fast as she can, trying to drag me down the street to our house. She typically looks like a little sled dog trying to mush me home. But with this harness on, Sadie acted completely different. As you can see in the video, Sadie is just walking along normally, occasionally looking back at me. Instead of pulling harder when she reached the end of the leash, Sadie just glanced over her shoulder, as if waiting for instructions or waiting for me to catch up.
The No-Pull Harness from Xtreme Pet Products comes in 21 different colors. Many of the colors contain reflective threads to help increase the visibility of your dog. Ours is pink, of course, with silvery white reflective threads. It’s made in the USA from a shock absorbent material that stretches when you apply pressure, which helps to lessen the strain placed on your dog. The No-Pull Harness is only for dogs 10 pounds and larger. You actually order the harness by picking your dog’s weight from the list, ensuring you receive the best size. You can get your own for $30-$37.

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog harness, Xtreme Pet Products, no-pull harness


This post is part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.

 

Heart Like a Dog


 

This post is also part of the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop hosted by Ruckus the Eskie, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.

 

Ruckus the American Eskimo Dog Blog


 

I received a sample product in exchange for an honest product review. All views are my own, based entirely on personal experience.

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, snow, cold weather

Cold Weather Walk Alternatives

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, snow, cold weather

 

The cold weather is hitting hard right now in many parts of the US and that makes walking your four legged friends much more difficult. Not only do you not want to go out in such frigid weather, but in some places it’s so cold that it’s literally too dangerous to go out for a walk. So I’ve been trying to come up with some alternatives to outdoor walks to get Sadie the exercise she (and I) needs. Here are a few of the options I’ve considered:

The treadmill is always a great option for humans and pets to get some walking done indoors. Unfortunately Sadie and I don’t have a treadmill at the moment, so I don’t know much about the process of actually using one with your dog, but most professionals suggest utilizing this tool if it’s available. However, Sadie has created her own treadmill alternative exercise for herself at home, which is both adorable and effective. You can read about Sadie’s treadmill alternative here.

Take your dog for a walk around the mall. Here in NJ, we’ve got dozens of indoor shopping centers all over the state where people go just to walk around and get some indoor exercise. At the mall closest to my house, I’m allowed to walk with Sadie on a leash. According to mall security, leashed dogs are allowed with you in all common areas of the mall, except the food court, as long as you are respectful of other patrons and clean up after and control your dog. Dogs are allowed in some of the stores, depending on rules of the individual store. The mall is a great place to walk as long as your dog doesn’t mind crowds of people and noise. You can check with the security guards at your local mall to see if they allow leashed dogs.

Make a game of going up and down the stairs. If you’ve got a safe staircase in your home that your dog is comfortable climbing, you can use that as a tool for cold weather exercise. If you want exercise yourself, then you can just go up and down the stairs, calling your dog with you to make sure he or she follows you up and down. If you get tired, you can throw a toy down the stairs for your dog to go get, then call your dog back up the stairs and throw the toy down again. Make sure you remove the toy from the staircase when exercise time is over, because you don’t want someone to trip and fall over a toy on the stairs.

 

Sadie and I will continue to brainstorm other fun exercise alternatives during this cold, crappy weather. We’ll let you know if we come up with any other interesting ideas. And we’d love to hear any ideas you have, so feel free to leave a suggestion below!

This post is part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.

Grab The Badge This post is also part of the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop hosted by Ruckus the Eskie, Love is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.