Best Everyday, Hiking and Service Dog Harness? RUFFWEAR SWITCHBAK HARNESS Impartial Review 

I'm so glad you liked it! Also, Ruffwear offers a discount for service dog handlers that makes this vest very affordable. It does run hot so you may want a summer version if you're going to be some place warm or if your dog runs warm. Hit my up on instagram and I can send you a picture of the vest with the writing/printing I had done on it if you haven't seen that before.

So glad you found it helpful!

Sewing the velcro proved to be very difficult due to the construction of the pocket. It would have had to be hand-sewn so I ended up having some screen printing done on it and love it! :)

Thanks for taking the time to comment! Happy trails!

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the webmaster but I always thought the angle of that back strap was too close to Jake's ... parts. I do not have that concern at all. Jake (second dog shown) is right at the edge of a small and it still fits well enough for me to pick that size for him. So, in any event, I think this one will likely be okay for your guy, but I would maybe try to check it out locally if REI is carrying it ...

That's totally true about this harness. It sounds like your dog would prefer the Balance Harness by Blue-9: amzn.to/2POLwHp

@@DoggyU you are awesome. Thank you so much for the recommendation. I have so many different kinds of harnesses for my service dog and he's 25 lbs he's a mixed Terrier. The problem I always find is with the neck. you have to pull it over their head to take it off it's such a hassle. I'm so excited to go look at the one you're recommending and again thank you so much. Also thank you for saying you do not need papers for service dogs. I've had my little guy for 11 years as my service dog he is of course in retirement right now. I have been hassled so much... where are your papers, where is your card with the picture on it, you have nothing you can't come into this store you have no paperwork and on it goes. I used to volunteer for the ADA. And the real way it used to be where you got your service dog actually registered was through animal control of the county you live in. You used to have to bring two doctor's letters and show them the tasks that the dog is trained to do. once you do that they give you a tag. On the tag is the state of California where I live and it says California assistance dog with numbers and things on the back. that's the real deal but nobody knows it at least nobody I've ever talked to. Thanks.

@@kavitadeva that's very interesting. I think it would be hard to prove task trained in some situations such as many alerting behaviors since you can't produce an episode like a seizure on cue, and while most dogs are task trained in multiple tasks, the ADA only requires one. So maybe that's why they no longer do that.

@@DoggyU hi there, I'm sorry I don't know your first name. I should have clarified and it is my mistake. You don't have to show them exactly what the dog does for the reasons you said. If you have an alert dog Well it can't alert unless you're having your issue whatever it may be. What I had to do is tell them what tasks my dog learned to do to mitigate my disability or to assist me with my disability or disabilities. But for real, it used to be that was the way you got your dog registered as a service dog. There were no other papers as you know or cards with pictures on them or a whole kit that you can buy from several companies off the internet and they even will call it the service dog registry. We both know there is no registry. Now maybe there Should and from all the hassles I've endured over the years I think it would be cool if there was something like a driver's license that was good for maybe 4 years but you had to have something to show your dog has been through training and has tasks that he does to help you. So thank you for pointing that out to me I didn't mean you have to demonstrate it. You have to tell them what the dog does. And because my dog is both a psychiatric service dog, mostly he's a psychiatric service dog for some serious meltdowns I have so I certainly wouldn't walk into animal control and fake a full-on meltdown. So thank you for bringing that clarity to light. Have a wonderful day I'm curious to know because you told me you do training of guide dogs and then you place them. That's fascinating to me really fascinating. What do you do when you have trained a dog and you're going to give it to an owner? what kind of certification do you use if any. What do you think we can do to stop this problem of fake service dogs everywhere? I'd love to know your opinion. Have a great day.

Hi Emma, thanks for reaching out! First I would try to hold off on getting your puppy until it's at least 8 weeks old. Most breeders will not release the dog to the new human until then so that the puppy has the full benefit of being with its siblings and potentially mother until at least 8 weeks. This harness would be ideal for you to get once the dog is older and has stopped growing. It will be too much harness for a tiny puppy and i would instead recommend a balance harness when they are young; amzn.to/3hwTe2G Young puppies should not do any real hiking until their growth plates are closed, so you'll have some time for your pup to grow up before you need a harness like this, but once they are old enough to safely hike with you, I think this is a great harness to have, especially for everyday walks/shorter hikes. If you do longer hikes and you want your fully-grown dog to carry their own supplies, also check out the single track pack which has a bit more space and is the one i use for longer hikes: amzn.to/2TwYrzi