Indi-Dog: Feature Product - Walking belts!

I mentioned in the last entry that walking belts had just gone on sale, and that I would do a post about them, so here is said post!

When I put the belts on sale I had a lot of queries into the uses and benefits to belts, many people have not seen these in use before and couldn't understand how they could be beneficial to them. Belts have been popular amongst Siberian Husky owners for a while now, due to the Husky being a dog bred to pull, however, belts can be fantastic tools for owners of all breeds.

The thing I like best is that using a belt leaves you with your hands free, so you can take a phonecall, poop scoop, rearrange harnesses etc, without having to juggle leads about. This also means there is no risk of you dropping the lead/s, I own Siberian Huskies, a breed bred to run and known for their poor recall, so dropping a lead is a nightmare situation for me, if near a busy road, it's highly likely the dog would be under a car before I could catch them!

Having dogs attached around your waist is a much more comfortable way to walk, especially if you have dogs who lunge or pull, your hips take the strain of the pull rather than your arms, which means you can put all your body weight into controlling the dog, rather than just your arm strength. Your centre of gravity is also lower, meaning keeping balance is much easier! My dogs have very high prey drives and are keen hunters, if they see a cat they WILL chase, but with a belt on all I have to do is lean against them, they pull forward, I lean back. If I were to be holding leads in my hands and they saw a small furry to chase, they would either pull the leads from my hands, or pull me over and drag me across the ground (literally!).

So for me a belt really is a lifesaver, it gives me more control, more stability, more security and all with my hands free!

The design of the belt is really quite simple. 2" webbing (padded with polar fleece) makes the main support of the belt, onto that a single length of 1" cushion webbing is sewn on, and sewn into a loop at each end. Heavyweight elastic is sewn inside this loop to make a shock absorber, to dampen any sharp pulls. Finally another loop and a strong metal ring is sewn onto each side. Leads can be clipped onto both metal rings or a mountaineering grade karabiner can be used to attach the leads to the belt.