Only Taking Her Out Twice a Day Because Every Lift Hurts?
Her back legs give out right when she squats, so every trip outside starts with you bent over her back end. Here is why that lift hurts so much, and what changes it.
Morning and evening. That is how often one couple, she is 59 and he is 65, now takes their old girl out to pee and poop, because lifting her was wearing them both down. If you have started counting trips too, you are not a bad owner. You are tired, and your back is telling you something.
Her front legs still carry her. It is the back end that folds, and it folds at the worst moment, halfway into the squat. So you bend over, slide a towel under her belly or grab her hips with your hands, and hold her up with your lower back until she is done. A few hours later, you do it all again.
One owner of a 70 lb dog put it simply: she felt she was about to die lifting her girl to the grass.
1. It is the lift that is broken, not you
Cutting her trips does not mean you love her less. It means the way you lift her was never made for your body. A towel has to go under her belly, so you fold over her to hold it, and the weight lands in your lower back on every squat. Holding her hips by hand is worse: you stand bent in half, arms under her, waiting for her to finish. And her weak back end is not something you caused. In many older dogs the muscle goes from the back legs first while the front stays full. The problem is where your hands are, and that part you can change.
2. Hold her from a handle above her hips, not a towel below
A rear support harness is one flat panel with two openings for her back legs. It wraps around her back end and closes with hook-and-loop strips and one buckle. Straps rise from the panel to a single handle above her hips, with an elastic mat in the grip, and a slide buckle sets the strap length for your height (11.8 to 23.6 inches of lifting rope on sizes S to L). Spine researchers who study caregivers found that lifting a heavy body by hand loads the lower back, and that handles reduce the load. That research was done on people, not dogs, but the idea carries over: your hands go above her, where you can reach.
3. You can keep her hips up until she is done
The hardest second of any trip is the squat. Her back legs start to shake, and if nobody holds her, she sits down right into it and the trip ends with a bath. With her back legs through the two openings, you hold the handle and keep her hips up for as long as she needs. No towel to hold under her, no hands on her hips. She gets to finish standing, the way she used to.
4. Myth: a harness for the back end is not enough
Some harness makers say anything less than a full-body harness will slip or leave your dog without support. For a dog whose front legs still work, that gets it backward: the front carries itself, and the back end is the part that needs you. If your dog is weak in front or falls forward, a full-body harness is the better choice, and we would rather tell you now. This one is for the dog with strong shoulders and failing hips. Back-end harnesses that slide off are a real complaint, so check the fit the first time she squats in it, and use the free size exchange if it is not right.
5. Pick her size by her weight
Sizes run from S to 2XL, and her weight picks one: for almost every dog, that is all you need. The 2XL covers dogs of 56 to 100 lbs. If she falls between two sizes, or the one you picked does not fit, we send the other size at our cost, one time. A PDF guide on putting the harness on comes with your order.
Find her size and use it on her next trip outside
One rear support harness in her size, one free size exchange if it does not fit, and the PDF fitting guide.
Wrong size? Tell us and we ship the right one at our cost, one time.