If you are lucky enough to become the owner of a wonderful four-legged loyal friend, then you already know that any dog requires attention and care. Keeping a dog pet requires quite a lot of accessories. One of these is a harness. A harness is a piece of equipment for your dog that consists of connected straps that go around the dog’s chest. There are several types of harnesses. They differ not only in appearance, but also in purpose. Harnesses are used instead of a collar for walking, for towing, for hanging weights to develop the dog athletically, for puppies, to evenly distribute the load on a fragile skeleton, and also for auxiliary medical purposes. All of these types of harnesses can be purchased at pet stores. At the same time, it is quite possible to sew a dog harness yourself, especially if you were unable to find the right size ammunition or an urgent need arose.
Professional necks are especially durable because... They are used quite harshly. For production, durable leather, nylon slings, strong leatherette, reinforcing inserts, welded rings and fasteners are used.At home, you can completely master the easier version.
We sew a soft harness from scrap materials. The presented harness consists of two main belts that cover the dog's chest under the neck and behind the front legs, and one auxiliary belt that fastens the main belts under the dog's body.
This version of the harness is suitable for a small dog that does not make strong jerks, a weakened dog, for example, recovering from an illness, or an elderly dog for whom a harness is more convenient than a collar.
If you don’t have a narrow nylon cable, then prepare a wide nylon or nylon braid, not too thin, to make it. To strengthen it we use fabric from old thick jeans. You will also need a nylon cord with a core. It is convenient to knit strong loops with knots for attaching a carabiner. If you have metal carabiner rings, use them.
A sewing machine and a lighter will also come in handy. A lighter is needed to melt all sections of synthetic braid and cord, this will prevent the thread from falling off.
We begin the process of making a harness by measuring what the dog needs. For the selected type of harness, only one main size is needed: chest circumference.
We measure the dog's chest by extending a soft centimeter just behind the elbows, size A.
We measure the resulting size on the tape. Because The braid is thinner than leather or dermantine, the harness will need to be strengthened. And the braid itself should be double. Therefore, we multiply the resulting centimeters by four (two main belts + double braid).
The next step is to cut denim strips the same width as the braid or a little narrower (so that the jeans do not protrude beyond the braid).
Fold the entire length of the braid in half. We lay denim strips inside.Next we sew the braid along its entire length. For stitching we use a zigzag seam with a pitch of 3-4mm. Zigzag withstands tensile load better. It is also better to use nylon or lavsan threads. We stitch the entire ribbon in a circle, then make another seam in the center of the ribbon. If you want, you can make several center seams for more reinforcement.
Next, we close the ribbon into a ring and stitch it. The seams at the joints must be very strong, so we duplicate each line 5-6 times. We received two main harness straps.
The auxiliary belt serves to connect the two main belts to the dog's chest. We measure the distance size B, add to it an allowance for the girth of the main harness straps + seam allowance, and cut a piece of braid.
Using a sewing machine we sew the auxiliary belt. It does not bear much load during use of the harness, so it is not necessary to reinforce it with inserts. You can leave it movable, as in our case, or fix it with seams to the main belts.
Try the harness blank on your dog. Pull the straps until they fit snugly around the body. Mark the ends of the harness that remain above the shoulder blades. Then machine stitch them to create narrow loops. Here the stitching must be especially strong, so stitch at least 8 times.
All that remains is to make the rings for the carabiner. Because in this case, the harness is completely soft, without metal parts, the rings are made of nylon cord with a core, which is quite strong. We measure out double the length of the cord so that you can freely tie it into a strong knot.
We thread the harness through the stitched loops, tie it, and hide the knot in the loop. We perform the second ring in the same way.For solidity, you can wrap the double cord of the ring with nylon thread to make it easier to hook the carabiner.
The harness is ready.
Please note that this harness is not suitable for a large, young or strong dog, and is not designed for powerful tugging, towing or intense exercise with a load on the straps. But it will be useful for small dogs and young puppies. Also suitable for a quiet walk, when you need to support the dog’s body or free the neck from the collar.
