harness vs. collar?
 

I've read a few comments that said that you should use harnesses instead of collars. Why is that?

You should use a harness rather than a collar because yorkies are prone to having problems with their tracheas and the collars put too much stress on the trachea

It is very easy for a Yorkie's trachea to collapse with any pressure applied to it. Using a leash with a collar will apply such a pressure. Their necks are so tiny anyway - they just don't need antyhing that can possibly hurt them. Please always use a harness with a leash. Lots of harness vets products available from members.

P.S. Welcome to YT. You can search under Harness or Collar and find lots of information also...

I guarantee you'll get a lot of response on this subject! I'm going to put mine in and go away :) .

The primary issue, as I understand it, is a serious one. It is the propensity among Yorkies to have problems with collapsed tracheas. Pressure on their little throats is potentially dangerous.

We had a couple of close calls with Bailey darting out the door as someone was coming in or going out, so we decided she needed to have a name tag on all of the time. Thus, we keep a collar on her with her name tag and our phone number.

When we had her on a leash, we would put a halter on her. I learned something interesting one day when I needed to let her down to potty and didn't have a harness with me. With a harness, she often pulled against the leash - generally not behaving as she should. That day, with a collar, she didn't pull at all. She behaved like a little lady. With even the tiniest tug on the leash, she would back off and come back closer to me. I've since taken her for walks using a collar (not all of the time, but once in a while) and she consistently behaves impeccably with a collar - and a little bit on the rowdy side with a harness. Based on the behavior of OUR dog - I'm really torn. I guess that's why I'm still going back and forth between collar and harness when Bailey's on a leash.

Harness
 

Welcome to Yorkie Talk!

I am in total agreement with everyone so far. I believe that harnesses are far safer for Yorkies not only for the trachea issue, but also because Yorkies can be little escape artists and it is almost impossible to weasel out of a well-fitted harness. There are several people here on YT who make safe, good quality harnesses. I happen to be one .... My Step-In harnesses are made from dupioni silk. I have found that the silk is gentler on the fragile hair and delicate skin than other types of fabric and nylon ribbing.

...btw.... I noticed you are from Atlanta, that makes us neighbors, I am from Rome :)

I am a big advocate - to the point of telling Yorkie owners in pet stores:p - about only using harness' due to their tracheas but one other feature that no one has touched on yet is the ability to pick up your Yorkie in a New York second by the leash if another dog is coming after them. Sometimes we don't have the time to even bend over to safely pick them up but with a harness on I can pull them right up with a leash something I could not do with a collar:eek: . So in my opinion the only way to go with a Yorkie if you are walking them is with a harness.:)

VERY good point! :thumbup:

i agree with everyone as well on the harness issue. and you just reminded me of the story Des told about yanking Tiger into her arms when another dog came running at him. It was scary to her and Tiger, but i keep laughing every time i think about it because i wonder what the other dog was thinking when he say tiger "fly" into mom's arms. heheheh

:wavey: :welcome4:
i use only a harness. collars for yorkies seem cruel to me. they are so fragile.

I use a harness because lex is a horse when he goes outside. He likes to see and smell everything. Also god forbid he sees someone walking by he wants to go into defence mode and will start to pull to bark at them to stay back from me....lol.

I definitely think that the harness works best for health (collapsing trachea issues), safety (grabbing if something is coming your way that can hurt them) and generally control if you have a horse like Lex. You can always attach the name tag and rabies tag to the clip on the harness or to the leash.