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Originally Posted by kjc  I think so... With the harness try holding his fav treat and as you make progress reward him. |
That's an excellent idea. And do it even when you aren't going to harness him. Just pick it up, get a treat to hold right in the center of it as you approach him and give him the treat, take the harness and put it back in the drawer or hang it up. Just keep doing that over and over. Walk around and lay it down beside him with a treat in the center. Put it in his bed. Toss it in the floor with his toys, with a treat in the center. When he's out walking, have the extra harness to dangle near him and show him, give a little treat. De-mystify and take the magic out of it by just making it a part of everything he does and associate it with a nice treat.
And just desensitize him to it. Take 5 or 10 minutes 2 or 3 times a day and just slip it on and off him over and over very matter-of-factly. And just do this and do it and do it until he's very, very used to having his harness put on him.
As far as his behavior around the food bowl, I think he is just reacting to your controlling the food, acknowledging you as his pack leader. In the wild or feral packs, that is what the submissive dogs do with the alpha pair, who control all of the food. As long as you have the food, he is deferring to you. Once you back away, you acknowledge that it is now his. If he's bowing his head, etc., he's likely feeling a bit too insecure and in time should grow out of this as most dog do - or he may always do this if he's an unusually submissive dog. Be glad he's not resource-guarding and trying to bite you when you set it down. You can see a lot of that with pampered, small dogs or big, powerful dogs whose owners don't have much control of them.