Holding Your Dog Up With a Towel After Surgery?

A towel was never made to hold up a dog. It has no handle, so you hold it with two fists. It has no shape, so it rolls up the second she moves. And it sits under her belly, the one spot that needs to stay clear when she squats. Owners try sheets, scarves, a belt, even a cut grocery bag. They all fail the same way, at the same moment. So if the first days home have felt like a wrestling match, that is why. You were handed the wrong tool. And she is not being difficult either. She is doing her best on back legs that cannot hold a squat on their own right now.

Watch the squat closely. Her back end drops and her weight rolls back. The towel slides back with her, so you pull harder, and now it squeezes her belly right when she needs to go. Some dogs hold it in. Some go anyway, into the towel. With a male dog it is worse, because the towel sits right where he pees. So you ease off, and she sits down in it. A thicker towel will not change that. What the squat needs is support shaped around her back end, with each back leg through its own opening and one handle on top for your hand.

A towel keeps your hands down at her belly. That means folding in half over a big dog, several times a day, for weeks. Owners say it plainly. One could feel the towel in her lower back. Another said even a well-known harness kills your back. And if you get hurt, who takes her out? The Canine Assist rear harness has one grip, with an elastic mat inside, on two lifting straps above her back end. The straps adjust with a slide buckle and are listed at 11.8 to 23.6 inches on sizes S to L, and 11.8 to 21.7 inches on XL and 2XL. Set them to your own height before the first trip.

Truth: it depends on your dog. A rear harness holds the back end only. It is made for a dog whose front legs still carry her. If her front legs are weak too, she needs a full-body harness, and we would rather tell you now than sell you the wrong thing. Falling off is a fair worry. Owners write about rear harnesses that kept falling off, or would not stay on once the dog lay down. Fit decides it. Ours closes around her waist with hook-and-loop strips and one side-release buckle, the waist adjusts, and each back leg goes through its own opening. Her weight picks her size. If the size turns out wrong, we send the right one at our cost.

Size goes by her weight, not her breed, and for almost every dog the weight is all you need. Five sizes run from S to 2XL, and the largest covers dogs of 56 to 100 lbs. Your order comes with a free fitting guide that shows you how to put it on and set the strap length to your height. And delivery takes days, not hours. If you have a surgery date, order before it, not after.