[Ashley V]

Originally Posted by chattiesmom

My suggestion is to train Susie to accept handling in baby steps. First find one thing that you CAN do with her and praise her like there is no tomorrow. Will she sit quietly in your lap? This is a good place to start. Run one hand quickly down her back. Praise her and give her a treat is she remains quiet and still. Continue to stroke, praise, treat until she is absolutely comfortable. THEN and only then use your fingers and wrap them around her chest - barely touching her. Do it very quickly and release - the object is to get her to allow the touching WITHOUT moving. Continue touching, praising, treating until you can actually wrap your hands around her chest, put a bit of pressure on it and then release without her flinching. THEN take the harness and let her sniff it. Then run it down her back, praise and treat. Run it down her side, praise and treat, use it to make circles around her chest, praise and treat and then actually wrap it around her chest. When she is absolutely comfortable with this then and only then snap the harness closed and immediately unsnap it.


The problem with most training is that we try to start at the finish. We need to always find a starting point from where we can do SOMETHING with our dog and build upon it with baby steps, adding as many steps as we can along the way. By the time we get to the end, our baby will be thoroughly comfortable AND will have learned many other things along the way. Forcing is not training, it is teaching the animal to submit because they have no choice.

Believe it or not, if you use my method, you will get results a lot quicker than you think. If you try this and are consistent and don't push, I will bet you will be able to have the harness on Susie within a couple of days WITHOUT a fuss.

I concur. Baby steps and reward her for being good. You have to show her that it's nothing to be afraid of.