Perhaps try a 'Strong Stuff' harness?

http://strong-stuff.mysite.orange.co.uk/

They're made to measure and I believe you can get them in 40mm thickness, which may be more comfortable for your boy? Not sure whether or not it'd help with the pulling, but if you're looking for a very strong harness, this is an option to consider.

Hmm... I'd be a bit dubious. It might work well as a training aid for a dog who genuinely hasn't learned any leash work, but for a dedicated puller, I doubt it would be any good, as the dog will just lean against the direction the lead is tugging, and we all know how strong that can be.

But sorry DoKhyi-- to answer your original question: yes, I have had experience of walking an extremely powerful large dog of exactly the same weight, 43 kilos, on a harness. I've tried many. On a standard harness-- just a regular one, on a long lead-- I was once pulled several feet through the air when my boy spotted a fox and took off, forgetting he was on lead at all. My clothes and much of my skin ended up being shredded and there was no way I could keep hold after I eventually hit the ground. I certainly sympathise with you on this.

I've tried many harnesses. The best was the Lupi. It's manufactured by Mikki, and is a fairly simple, straightforward harness that transfers forward energy upward. It was okay for control, but really, it only made him walk funny. I could hold him back, but he could still pull perfectly well. I think it would be much better for small dogs with high energy: it's supposed to be very easy on the spine. The worst was the one with the rubber tubes that went under the front legs. That was the one that rubbed a hole in my boy's back. I don't know what it would have done to his armpits if I hadn't sewn fleece covers for those rubber tubes. I wish I could remember what it was called so I could warn you against it. It just tugged at the throat and under the front legs to cause discomfort. No good at all. I threw that sucker away.

For what it's worth, in my limited experience, standard harnesses worked better for me than any controlling harnesses apart from the Lupi, precisely because they do not cause discomfort. Perhaps the best one was the Ruff Rider car harness, which is actually a seat belt restraint thing. The design is a loop around the neck with a cross diagonally across the chest, connected to band that goes around the dog's back. It's not designed as a walking lead, and I only use it as such for brief out of the car walkies, but it's designed to restrain a dog in the event of collision, and is very good about not impinging on the throat or straining the spine. Maybe if you could find, or someone could suggest, a harness of similar design? My Akita boy, who usually walks with a Halti, is fine with the car harness and will walk quite well on it. You might be able to adapt something like that to purpose.

I think one of the problems with harnesses is that what may fit one dog doesn't necessarily fit another, so to an extent it's always trial and error.

I think if the main problem is lunging when seeing things, training may solve a large part of the problem.

What you can do is teach that your dog only gets somewhere if they offer a nice, appropriate behaviour first. Then they get to do what they want (even if they don't always in real life).

So perhaps using some self control exercises and the Premack principle (eat your greens before your dessert!) will be useful here.

Example: dog sees someone it knows and wants to pull over to them, but they understand (after training) that they have to Sit first ... this improves self control, lessens frustration and the likelihood of being dragged over rather than nicely walking over.

I also use a method where I put a bowl of food about 10 paces away, and ask for a loose lead walk all the way to the bowl, and only then can the dog get the grub

If the dog pulls, he/she has to wait, and can only move forward if the lead is slack. At first you may move only one pace before the dog pulls, but after a few sessions you can take more paces, then soon do the whole distance with a loose lead

After training indoors, take it out of doors and then proof it by training in various locations and then adding other things the dog wants to get to, such as other dogs/friends, etc.

You can put a cue word for the behaviour once the dog knows what to do. I find that this tends to prevent the dog pulling the owner over to whatever they usually do. Of course, it's good to sometimes allow the dog to go over, on your terms, if all is safe etc. with no pulling ...

Hope that makes some kind of sense

Wys
x

Have you tried the Dogmatic headcollar as they are brilliant? The premier easy walk harness is also good, but not sure if would stop pulling totally.

One of my dogs came out from an op wearing a lupi harness due to a spine injury she should not wear a collar. I found I had little control with that and previously she would walk nicely on an ordinary collar.

In the past (when I walked a few dogs in public areas) I was a Halti fan and my dogs got on well with them.

FWIW on Thursday at Windsor dog show it was working/pastoral day and with the exception of the husky type breeds who were mostly walked on harnesses, owners of the bigger breeds who needed close control were using head collars of various makes.

I've heard very good things about the Dogmatic. I have not tried one myself, but I've seen one in action. It looks very well designed, even for very large snooted dogs, and by all reports it does not choke or hurt, and doesn't gwinch up into the eyes (a fault I found with the Gentle Leader).

I found with my two, walking them on a collar and lead was a no-no. My 10 pound Tibbie pulled so hard she throttled herself and because of her wrinkles, my 37 pound Pei either slipped her collar or it chaffed her neck.

After tryng various types of harnesses, none of which were succesful in controlling their pulling I bought them both Lupi harnesses only to find the smallest size was too large for my tiny Tibbie and the cords which went under my Pei's front legs rubbed off all her fur. As the design was good and helped considerably with the pulling problem I searched online for something similar and eventually settled for a Company of Animals no-pull harness, which have a slightly elasticated front panel and fleecy padded sleeves covering the cords which fit under the front legs. Perfect for both sizes of dog and having solved that problem set out to train them to walk on lead without dragging me after them.

Even though I walked the dogs together I decided to concentrate on my Pei because she was much larger and a faster learner than Miss Tibbie. Training began at the front door. If either of them was excited once their harnesses and leads were put on I simply dropped their leads, ignored them and did something else until they were calm. Same at the front gate, if they weren't calm they were taken back inside the house. When I walked them along the lane, the moment my Pei attempted to pull I'd stop her and tell her to "wait". It would sometimes take a good half hour to walk a hundred yards but she learnt fast!

The hilarious thing was that although I'd made no effort to teach my Tibbie, she was smart enough to learn from her larger "sister" , so I got two dogs trained for the price of one!

Strangechilde - Ouch! Flipping foxes are the bane of my life as we have a breeding pair locally and the vixen and cubs think teasing the big dog and laughing at the stupid human are great entertainment. Luckily the couple of times I've been pulled over I landed on grass. Nowadays he's more likely to help me up than pull me over. I tried one of the style of horrible harnesses you mentioned, though this one had fleece rather than rubber. He was about 8 months old when I tried it and it had no effect at all on him. Come to think of it, I have a car harness for him and when I use it, I clip his Halti lead onto that and his collar. I might try that on a walk and see how it goes, though I'm beginning to think the harness may be a non starter as the size of him, I really do need to have control over his head.

Skyewolf/Strangechilde/twix - Had to get a refund on the dogmatic I tried as they just don't seem to fit TM's heads and it was up round his eyes. Not that it would have worked judging on every other head collar I possess that he learned to pull into as effectively as a normal collar (he just pulled sideways instead of forwards). Saying that, my friend with English Setters swears by them.

Wysiwyg - Yup, tried all that and to be fair he's excellent 95% of the time. When he was young I once spent a week changing direction every time he pulled and as a result he walks very well on a loose lead. But he's stubborn enough to think it's worth choking himself if he sees something of enough interest.

chlosmum - I used a no pull harness on my first bearcoat as she would just run full tilt to the end of any lead she was on and spin herself round with the momentum. I was scared she was going to break her neck! I put her on the no pull harness and within 3 walks and just a couple of tries at throwing herself to the end of the lead each time she was cured and never pulled again.

I have to laugh at your Tibbie. It's funny how some dogs learn much faster watching another dog doing what you want them to do. I can imagine her thinking "Well, I'm not being put through all that!". I swear the Tibetan breeds are wise enough to live up to all the Tibetan folklore about them. Mind you, shar-pei are in my experience the easiest breed to teach things to. You can teach them anything and they will grasp it almost immediately. My first dog was a very intelligent collie x retriever and could do all sorts of things. But it would take me days to teach her anything and it sink in. The only thing is, she would reliably do what she was taught whenever I asked her because she liked to please me. The shar-pei will categorically not do what they know how to do unless they see a good reason for you asking.

My cousin is very pleased with his Halti harness as his dog is walking quite nicely on it. I think I'm going to have to think about this a bit more. Thanks for all your replies and suggestions.

Your in luck...I have Ben ( TM ) old Halti harness that you can have for nowt.

Like your boy, Ben walked lovely on a lead until he saw something of interest, I could hold him on a collar, but if he took me unaware s, I was off down the path before I could plant myself for the big heave.
I too have had the embarrassment of flying through the air, luckily, it was on sand when Ben decided to have a mad race with his friend.
I also tried various head collars, which just didn't fit right, and a few harnesses, including the Walkeeze and Mekuti, the Mekuti was the worst, he hated it and wouldn't walk with it on.
I settled on the Halti harness, it didn't stop him pulling entirely, but it did take a lot of the force out of his pull.
Just let me know if you'd like the harness, it's been sitting here since Ben died, waiting on a new owner.

That's very kind of you. I'll PM you.

I know what you mean about that big heave. He's nearly had my arm out of it's socket a couple of times. It's alright if you're ready for it, but it only takes a cat or a squirrel to appear out of nowhere and him see it first. Then it's the extreme sport of land based waterskiing with a dog for a motorboat and me turning the air blue. I never knew it was possible to simultaneously run quite fast and pull backwards with all my strength before I got a TM!