The best harness fit for Whippets

Updated January 2025

As a commercial pet photographer, I have photographed 100s of dogs, I get asked quite a lot about these harnesses so I thought it may be useful for anyone who was thinking about one for their hounds, my experience is with Whippets but you can take a lot away from this article for most dogs.

Why I choose Ruffwear

There were two reasons I was looking at harnesses; my old boy Jasper was quite sensitive around his head when he had his inner ear removed, I felt a harness would be much gentler for him, and then there was Shadow.

When I first adopted Shadow, I realised that we would need a harness for some of our walks, basically wherever there was going to be any excitement, if he saw anything even remotely fun then he would leap four foot in the air and dance around like a maniac. Not great when the only thing he is tethered to is a collar round his neck.

It’s notoriously difficult find harnesses for sighthounds, most fits seem to be too loose because of their deep but skinny chests. I was pleasantly surprised by the RuffWear Front Range Harness, because of the amount of adjusting we could do at several points, it fitted perfectly. I also loved the fact that rather than being strips of thinner material like a lot of harnesses, this has wider, more padded sections and the front almost feels like a chest piece.

The front range harnesses are great for general walking, however Shadow learned how to back out of it. So I checked out the six point Webmaster – problem solved! Again this is super adjustable, it fits him really well and with the added benefit of the harness coming further towards where the waist tucks in, it’s Shadow proof. I went for the addition of the stomach protector as he had previously had trouble with an awful rash after going through long grass. Hey presto, I have the perfect harness!

I used the front range harnesses for all the other hounds with great success. I had the small size for all five hounds, that shows how adjustable they are as they are very different in height & weight! I can also pop them over  Redhound for Dogs fleeces, although they now have lots of great whippet coats and jumpers with harness holes.

I got asked quite a lot of questions about the fit, so I have popped a little video up here: Ruffwear Harness Fit

When do I use them?

We use them quite a lot, like if we are going somewhere super busy like DogFest or now I live in the Lake District, I really need that useful handle to help my dogs over stiles and do a bit of scrambling. Anywhere there is too much going on for us to be trying to direct the hounds from collars, somewhere like a dog event isn’t easy on their necks as they are constantly trying to hoover up dropped food or follow exciting smells.

Update January 2025:

This blog was initially written in 2017. I am still using Ruffwear and now I have moved to the Lake District, they are much more frequently used, alongside the Roamer Bungee lead they are indispensable! I’ve changed Bertie over to the Flagline Dog Harness with Handle as for some reason he didn’t like wearing the Webmaster, not an issue I have had with the other dogs, but he’s very happy with the Flagline!

If you have any questions about my experience with these harnesses, please don’t hesitate to ask, and I’d love to hear if you have them for your hounds too!

With thanks to additional models Buzz, Ozzy & Ollie who are also RuffWear wearers 🙂

Kerry x