Gear reviews

Collar or harness?
I'm definitely all for the harness, especially if your dog pulls often, it can actually harm their neck. And to me it just doesn't look comfortable, I hate it when I see dogs coughing and panting whilst choking themselves. This choking sensation can also increase the stress levels, making the dog even more hyped up. If you have a very strong dog, a anti-pull harness will be much more usefull than a choke chain.
Also, a harness gives you a bit more control over the whole body of the dog, and can be very usefull with different sports such as biking, hiking, climbing or agility. I love it and wouldn't want anything else. We only use a small collar indoors (see DIY projects) and when she is in the garden on her long line.
Of course, if you have a very well behaved dog who doesn't pull, then a collar should not be a problem at all!

About the Perfect fit harness from dog-games
I have had this harness for almost a year now, and it still looks great, is very durable and comfortable.
The harness consists of 3 seperate parts which you can order in different sizes, making it fit any body shape, which is perfect for us since Amber doesn't fit much harnesses.
You can also order every part in a whole variety of colours, so you can personalize it completely, I really really like that! The costumer service is great, very quick and helpfull responses, They send me a variety of sizes and colours to make sure I got the perfect fit. 

Durability
**** - very durable, has lasted a year, and will last us another 2 for sure, every part can be ordered seperate, allowing you to fix the harness, so you don't have to buy a complete new one.

Costumer service
***** - very nice, quick and helpfull! There is also a lot of pictures and videos online to help you get to know the use of the product, and if it would suit your wishes. The website has a whole list of breeds and which sizes these breeds normally fit, very usefull.

Useage
**** - can be used for everyday walking, as well as for loose leash walking training (has a front D ring).
It doesn't have a handle on the back where you could grab your dog, or the possibility to attach an extra strap around the ribs for those extreme escape artist dogs.

Easy to clean
*** - because it is made of fleece, when we walk in heavy rain it get's pretty wet. When we go swimming in summer it gets very wet and smelly. It doesn't take long to dry or wash out, but you do have to take it off the dog for drying. Amber doesn't really like swimming anyway, so no problem for us. 

Escapability
Only 1 escape! And that was when we just had the harness and I left the chest strap a bit too loose, after tightening this up we had no escapes anymore.

 

About the EQdog pro harness 
Very durable, and different looking harness. I like that it has the ability to attach backpacks to the sides and an extra chest strap which can be removed. It also has a front D ring, an attachment on the back of the harness and on the bottom allowing the harness to be used for varies activities. The main reason why I got this harness is because of the handle on the back, allowing me to lift Amber over obstacles or help getting her on rocks or other high surfaces during hikes.

The harness has these other cool features which I hadn't seen on anything else before, all the adjustable straps can be slided inside the harness, so no straps are sticking out, giving it a nice finished look. 

I do think the harness is a little hard, not so snug and comfortable as the perfect fit harness for example. I do like that the strap is not situated behind her armpits, giving her that freedom to move her front legs full out and making it escape proof.

Durability
***** - Very very good, I only had it for 2 months now, but it definitely looks like it will lasts a good amount of years.


Costumer service
*** - Not so good unfortunately, it took the company 2 weeks to get back to me about questions for the sizing. When I looked at the sizing graph Amber falls right inbetween size XS and S, so I wanted to know if they had any experience with sighthound shaped dogs. But luckily I found a very helpfull online store who send me both sizes so I could see for myself. It was a bit unfortunate that size XS is just a bit too tight, and S, even on the smallest 'setting' still a bit spacious, however, I decided to keep the S, and it works fine for us. Also I could not find any reviews on the product, no videos, and no examples of sizes on certain dog breeds.

Useage
**** -Because of all the features, handle on the back, 2 chest straps, 3 leash attachments, it can be used for a lot of activities. The loops on the side of the harness allow you to attach a backpack to the harness (I made my own backpack that can be clipped onto the harness, but hope to be able to get the EQdog backpacks one day, when my finances allow me).

Easy to clean
***** - Very easy to clean, it doesn't get wet and mud is easy to wash off.

Escapability
No escapes, the main strap is situated behind the ribcage, making her unable to slide out backwards.

About the Prowear 'Palisades pack look a like'
So I got very excited seeing this backpack / harness that looked just like the Palisades pack from Ruffwear, but much more wallet friendly. I took the smallest size home and fitted it on Amber.
Unfortunately it didn't fit... All the straps I had to set to the smallest setting, and around her chest it still moved around way to much. The strap for around the waist was way to tight, and situated way to much to the back. This resulted in the harness actually sticking in her hips.
The harness is also very hard, and not so snug, did not look very comfortable on her, so I brought it back...
The idea was very nice though, the backpack can be clipped on and off the harness, I like the orange colour and the reflective strips on the whole thing. It could very well be that it will fit prefectly on a bigger dog.

Not such a good fit...

Hurtta dog harness
I don't actually own a hurtta harness, but I have tried both the Y harness as well as the normal harness in the shop. I just have one thing to say, they are not for us, both harnesses Amber could escape from very easy. They are quite expensive but have a simple design, not much features for the money you pay. I do know people that have had these harnesses for years, and they are very durable and work great for them. But since Amber can escape from them easy, I never got one.



Hurtta sprint bag
I have had this product for over a year now, I intentionally bought it as a jogging belt, because the shop keeper told me that I could attach the dogs leash on the clip. Well... it's not meant for that I found out 10 minutes after first using it. I was jogging with Amber by my side, when she saw a dog she wanted to play with in the distance, the clip instantly snapped as soon as she pulled forward. So she stormed off towards this dog, who was luckily very friendly. When I looked up the product on the Hurtta website, it actually says that the clip is meant for equipment, not to attach your dog too. So I will not bash Hurtta's product, but the shop just gave me bad advice. Overall, it's a very nice handy bag, not too big or in the way. I store loads of poopbags in the bigger compartment, and it can hold more treats than you initially think. It also has a nice inner pocket which can be taken out for a wash, so it doesn't start smelling bad. Nice product, but quite a high price considering it's just a small treatpouch.


About the flexi retractable lead
You either love or hate retractable leads, at the moment I like a normal lenght leash much more, it keeps her close to me, so I am able to train her and keep in contact much better. But sometimes it's nice to give her that extra space to explore, and that is when I use the retractable lead. The difference in how Amber walks on the rectractable lead is very different, she is acting much more independent, not focussed on me at all, pulls in all directions, this lead is not for training purposes, thats for sure!

We had some bad luck with the flexi lead. We just bought this big pink one with 8m of lead on it. Whithin a week it snapped. I was out at night with Amber and she saw the neighbours cat, she started running towards it but I didn't notice until she reached the end of the lead, but then just kept on running! I was standing there with this thing in my hand, pushing the button... but she just ran on, into the night, and gone she was.
Because she had this long line flying behind her, we were really happy that she ended up in someones garden and the owner of this garden jumped on the line to make her stop running, and handed her over to us.

We brought the leash back to the shop and received a new one, but with this one the same thing happened whithin a month time. The lead was meant for dogs of 20kg, and Amber is only 13kg... so that was strange... probably a bad batch or something. Because Michael thought he could maybe fix it himself, he opened the thing up (don't ever do that to a flexi lead... it's a nightmare getting it back together!) and this whole spring system 'exploded' out of it... so we couldn't fix it and the shop didn't take it back anymore...
We instead send a picture to the company in Germany, and they send us a really nice looking luminous yellow flexi lead within a week! Really really great!
This flexi lead has been working perfectly fine, no escapes anymore, its nicely visible and looks kind of cool too.

Equiped with the Hurtta sprint bag, Flexi lead and Perfect fit harness!