Anonymous wrote:I have a poodle and use a cheap harness I got at PetSmart. I guess I'm not understanding why your harness would cause mats unless the dog is wearing it all day or something? My poodle wears hers 3x a day and each walk is about half an hour, and she gets brushed about twice a week and she is fine -- no matting. How often are you brushing your dog?

This is obviously not my dog but the length is the same. I׳ve never cut any length off. Just paws and face get trimmed so as you can imagine it gets matted from just a 20 minute walk. He gets brushed daily. Most people use a collar with these dogs but I’m afraid of causing tracheal collapse which my last peke had in old age. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekingese#/media/File%3A1AKC_Pekingese_Dog_Show_2011.jpg

I have a poodle and use a cheap harness I got at PetSmart. I guess I'm not understanding why your harness would cause mats unless the dog is wearing it all day or something? My poodle wears hers 3x a day and each walk is about half an hour, and she gets brushed about twice a week and she is fine -- no matting. How often are you brushing your dog?

Agreed that there shouldn’t be matting if you brush daily, regardless of harness used. I use hurtta and puppia harnesses on my papillons.

You should only be using a harness for walks. And long haired dogs should have daily brushing. With those two things, you won’t have matting.

If there are some in your dog's size, I recommend this website, which was started by a Samoyed owner. Samoyeds have a long ultra-fluffy double coat and need non-matting harnesses and collars. They make collars, leashes and harnesses with a specially smooth webbing that's comfortable in the hand and doesn't mat fur too rapidly (and doesn't stain white fur, always a problem with Samoyeds). Take the harness off in the house, of course:

https://www.whitepineoutfitters.com

I can’t find a harness to fit properly and not cause matting for a very fluffy full coated pekingese. If you have a similar dog what kind of harness are you using? I’m trying to avoid collars.