It’s been about three months since we did our review of the Umbilical Belt Dog Leash
I grab a bottle of water when I get back from running, so it only makes sense to put on the Umbilical Belt so I can juggle my water along with the dog and treats for training. Plus it’s just easier on my hands (which have their own issues of arthritis, etc.). But the one thing I hadn’t done yet was to walk Sheba with it. Sheba is a puller and a weaver when she walks. I always say she’s like flying a kite….back and forth she goes. It’s a challenge to keep her on the side of the road and just walking in a straight line. I wasn’t sure how hands free would work with her. But I had noticed that both Luke and Cricket seem to walk better on the hands free leash. There’s something about meeting the resistance of my full body, as compared to just my arm/shoulder, when they pull, that makes them walk better.
Since our friends over at Groovy Goldendoodles were brave enough to walk two dogs on theirs, I knew it was time to try Sheba on it, and then work up to more than one dog at a time. So this week we took the first step with Sheba, and I was very pleased with how it went. Sheba did try pulling a bit more, but it’s so much easier for me to absorb that with my core than with my arm and shoulder. Overall, she walked better too, and I think with more practice she’ll get even better.
Next up: get a second leash and try more than one dog, or I may try one dog hands free and one on a leash to start. We’ll let you know how that goes, though it may still take me some time to be ready for that! In the meantime, I highly recommend the Umbilical Belt for walking or running with your dogs.
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Just getting caught up and saw this post. So proud of you!
I would love to try this, because I figured out the other day why I had such tremendous pain in my shoulder. 🙁 My concern is using it walking both dogs and all the crazy encounters we have in our neighborhood. I know if it was just one I could always use my arms to help gain control of the situation, but if you could only see these too. I think, for me, it would be disastrous.
I understand that, Jodi. I think this is best used with dogs that walk pretty well, which is why I hesitated to try it with Sheba. She can get a little wild sometimes, but usually it’s when we’re just starting out and then she settles down. Our neighborhood is pretty quiet, so that makes it easier for us too. When we took the two girls hiking, I didn’t use it either, but my hands were feeling the pain of that afterwards (and I get that shoulder pain too)!
What a cool product. I’m glad you are getting such great use out of it Jan. Hands free is always nice! It’s been a while since I visited…I hope you are doing well. Come visit sometime my friend.
Love, Pixel
I’ve been most curious about using these leashes with pulling dogs. Please update your progress with Sheba over time.
Dogs are so physical and they use their whole bodies to bump against each other and communicate intent. I wonder if using a leash attached to your body creates a dynamic that dogs understand better?
After all, dogs don’t use their paws to hold or direct things very much.
I think you could be right about that! I’ll keep you posted on Sheba’s progress.
Nice to see your still using it. Good luck on your training.
Hi Y’all!
I almost never walk on lead unless I’m traveling or in an area where leads are required. Maybe my Human should try that hands free for those times…I’ll be watching to see how y’all make out.
Y’all come on back,
Hawk aka BrownDog
I think it could work very well for you, Hawk, especially since you seem like such a well behaved gentleman. You have to be to be trusted off leash I would think!
There is definitely something to be said about your entire body being able to better manage the movements of a dog than just your arm/shoulder! I have a handsfree Hipster by Outward Hound that I use when I go hiking, mainly because it’s a fantastic means of carrying a few first aid supplies, my phone, and car keys. It does come with a leash attachment I haven’t really used yet when out on hikes. So far, I’ve used it to practice polite loose leash walking 🙂
That sounds interesting since you can carry supplies with it as well. I might have to look into that if we start doing more hiking. We took the girls yesterday, and they don’t walk as well on hikes in unfamiliar places, as they do on our usual routes – they pull a lot more.
Definitely comes in handy on hikes. Our pups also tend to be a bit more investigative when walking/hiking in unfamiliar places.
It must be the excitement of being someplace new!
I’ve seen this before but never used it.
We bought a hands free leash for Cocoa. I love it for running but I have to be really careful and aware of her seeing something and getting crazy!!
You do have to be sure you have a well trained dog that doesn’t get too out of control; which is why I hesitated to use it with Sheba! But my dogs don’t really go crazy over critters, and we don’t really see a lot anyway. They tend to stick close to me for the most part.
I’ve seen people running with those. They look convenient for that purpose. We have one somewhere too but I’d have to take up running first!
I’m not really devoted to running. My hubby goes every other day without fail, but I’m more like once or twice a week is enough for me!
I’ve never used one of this but this looks great! I’d like to try one.
What a smart idea, to walk your dogs as your running cool-down. I run solo, too, mainly because my pug isn’t up to the challenge of a human-paced run. I may try your technique with him.
Jean from Welcome to the Menagerie
I always feel guilty exercising without the dogs, so this has turned out to be a good solution to ease that guilt! 🙂
Sounds like a really cool product! Glad it’s working for you!
They are so cute! <3 I really like handsfree leashes! Have you see the one by Hurtta? They make one that attaches to your thumb and wrist so even if you open your hand you can't drop it.
I hadn’t heard of that one, I’ll have to check it out!
That loose leash with Luke is so impressive! I’m glad it worked so well with Sheba, too! I don’t know what Bar would think about it–and I think with Barley’s other dog issues, I’d be wary to use it with her because it seems like a disaster waiting to happen if a loose dog charged at us, but I love the concept.
Sounds like a brilliant idea!
I’m glad this is working so well for you guys! But I speak for experience when I say: watch out for squirrels. 😀
More seriously, Pamela at Something Wagging offered a really helpful equation for me. Dogs can pull up to three times their weight easily. So as long as you weigh three times more than your dog, you can probably safely run with them on a waist leash, even if they have high prey drive and might take off if they see a critter while you’re already running and not prepared to slow down.
Oh, then I guess that means Cricket is the only one I should probably use it for! For some reason, we don’t see a lot of critters when we walk. We do hear chipmunks sometimes and the dogs will go alert but they don’t usually try to give chase (knock wood).
But I’ve been known to hit the ground when walking with a regular leash. Luke took off when a neighbor’s dog ran out after us (he was harmless but we didn’t know that for sure). While I was lying on the ground, refusing to let go of that leash, Luke slipped out of his harness and ran home! I was OK, mostly just embarrassed!
I want one of these so badly. I know I can’t do multiple dogs with one (given the past two weekends), but I could walk one dog and it would be really nice and allow me to do the speed walking arm motions.
I did see you’ve had a rough time of it lately. I’m too chicken to try to walk all of my dogs at once, so I give you credit for doing it! This leash does just help to give better form and posture I think even if you’re only walking one dog, and would be perfect for speed walking.
We have a similar leash and I love it. It also comes in handy when brushing Bentley. He tends to walk while I brush. Haha!
That’s a great idea! Sheba does the same thing when I brush her, so I might have to try it for that too!
Love this!!! Glad it works!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We have seen the leash before. A great idea if you have pups that love to walk
Peace baby
Lily & Edward
Good luck. I used one of these when I used to run with Tino and loved it.
I am glad that you found something that worked. I can’t wait to hear how walking two dogs works out.
We love ours for running, but haven’t tried it with walking. It works great for running and we can’t imagine running with a leash in hand ever again!