My dog lowers her body, tucks her tail, and slinks off away from me whenever I try to put on a harness or a hiking backpack. Im not sure why, it just started recently after her wearing them for awhile. Shes never liked wearing them, but I ignored it and just went on putting it on. Im assuming this created the bad experiance and caused it to progress.
Ive tried taking a food loure and having her willingly stick her head through it, and slipping it on.
It reminds me of trying to tame a feral dog because she'll start to chew at the food but then the second it touches over her ears she backs away and goes somewhere else.
I use harnesses/backpacks for when I take her for walks later at night, because they have reflective surfaces on them.
Should I keep doing what im doing, letting her willingly put her head through it and build a positive assosiation, or what?
I have a reflective collar & leash
I tend to just throw it on her when im in a hurry, and as I said she didnt like it to begin with. So it got progressivly worse over time because I was ignoring the signals she was giving me.
Ive been giving her a treat for putting it on, and giving her a treat for taking it off. Sometimes ill try to leave the harness just on for a few hours so shes use to it. The backpack is kinda bulky so i dont want her running around the house with that on .. she seems more afraid of the backpack because its so big.
Ive tried taking a food loure and having her willingly stick her head through it, and slipping it on.
It reminds me of trying to tame a feral dog because she'll start to chew at the food but then the second it touches over her ears she backs away and goes somewhere else.
I use harnesses/backpacks for when I take her for walks later at night, because they have reflective surfaces on them.
Should I keep doing what im doing, letting her willingly put her head through it and build a positive assosiation, or what?
I have a reflective collar & leash
I tend to just throw it on her when im in a hurry, and as I said she didnt like it to begin with. So it got progressivly worse over time because I was ignoring the signals she was giving me.
Ive been giving her a treat for putting it on, and giving her a treat for taking it off. Sometimes ill try to leave the harness just on for a few hours so shes use to it. The backpack is kinda bulky so i dont want her running around the house with that on .. she seems more afraid of the backpack because its so big.