Puppy Harness For Kitty Cat?

Has anyone here ever used a puppy harness for their kitties? I'm in the process of harness training one of my cats and have bought two harnesses already. My Scamp doesn't seem to be an odd shaped kitty and is a small enough 4kg, however both harnesses I've got seem to pull up around the shoulder blades and look very uncomfortable. I'm thinking a puppy harness might give a little more length between the neck collar and the body harness is the makes sense?



These photos aren't great but they might give an idea of what I'm talking about..!



Thanks for your help!

Have you tried a figure 8 harness? That might give the fit you're looking for.
Figure 8 cat harnesses

I can't see any problem with using a dog harness rather than a cat one, though. The best fit is what matters, not which species it's being marketed for

Usually dog harnesses have too much wiggle room for cats. Dogs aren't quite as flexible (although puppy escape artists often find a way!). Cat harnesses are harder for cats to get out of, which is important, especially because they won't come back when called.

I had a pet store employee tell me that you shouldn’t use a dog harness because cats don’t have a collar bone and dogs do ... so the dog harness may slip off. Just heard it once but thought I would share.

Certain dogs, Border Collies I'm looking at you, have no trouble slipping out of 'dog' harnesses. Given that, I'd go with the cat harness.

I'd look at the more jacket-like ones. The one we got looks like an explorer jacket except no pockets, which maybe why Sweet Gum hates it. It does fasten with Velcro which means you'll have to keep on top of how that's wearing and how kitty attacks it.

I wish I could tell you how well it worked, but it's only been a year and we haven't managed to get it on her yet.

It depends on the harness. Some dog harnesses put too much pressure on their neck/throat and can be harmful. Other dog harnesses are exactly the same as cat ones. The kitten harness at petsmart is identical to the tiny dog one at Meijer. Ours is a little loose by the shoulder blades but she's never gotten out of it.

I stand corrected! In view of the other replies here, definitely go with a cat harness. With a bit of searching, you should be able to find something that works for Scamp

My GSD puppy, years ago, got out of a dog harness and ran across 4 lanes of traffic. He made it and never wore a harness again, although they supposedly make secure ones now for dogs. Having said that, I have owned 3 cats who wore harnesses made for cats in order to sit outside in the patio when I was at home supervising them. This was some time ago and they all buckled, but no one ever got out.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. It looks like I'll definitely be sticking with cat harnesses so!

I think there just needs to be a little more room between the collar and the body so I'll be looking out for that and hopefully that'll help with the pulling up behind the shoulder blades.

I used small dog harnesses for greg and arnold. I found the cat harnesses were too tight. Even with the small dog harness on, cats look like they were being tortured.

I found they slipped out of both the cat and dog harness. They would wear it to humor me, but made it quite clear that when they had had enough, they would simply slip out. Arnold would often look me directly in the eye when he did so, just to make sure i got the message.

The strait jacket, body glove, type harness may have been more efffective........but I would have had to put it on very snuggly to prevent them getting loose and they would not have been happy.