We have a very large very strong 2.5 year old male Anatolian Shepherd. He weighs in at 150+ lbs. with a 26" neck and a 40" chest and is pure muscle. He lives in the house most of the time, but also spends time with us at our barn which is fenced in. We built a very strong industrial like trolley system to get him from the house to the barn and vice versa. There are tie outs on both ends to get him to and from safely in and out of the door or the gate to the trolley line. Our problem is he is EXTREMELY reactive and will "take off" at the sight of a person, squirrel, bird, rabbit or the neighbors unleashed dogs. If it is in his sight, it belongs to him. The power behind him is incredible. It isn't a training issue, it is an instinctual issue. We bought what we thought was a "heavy duty", "strong enough for him" harness for the system. He took off after a squirrel we didn't see, hit the end of the line (it is cushioned and he wears a heavy duty bungee) and the harness he was wearing blew apart. Now he's loose! He didn't continue after the squirrel and we are lucky he didn't realize he was loose or other dogs ran out. I was able to calmly grab his collar and get him inside. Very shaken to say the least, we immediately jumped online to search for "something" that will hold him if and when that happens again. My husband landed on the Duo-Gear website and actually was able to chat with a live person on the weekend! That person happened to be Raj, the owner of Duo-Gear. I jumped in and explained our situation and what we needed. He offered to customize the Duo "Eclipse" harness for our Auggie. He added extremely strong Cobra clips and heavy duty rings as well as extra box stitching. He described it as "bullet proof". It is important that the rings are structural, not just sewed in to handle this kind of power. Raj said that he would get us pricing within a few days, which he did. He also said it would be ready in about 2 weeks, which it was. We kept in contact from start to finish and then again to share a success story. Auggie bolted on Sunday morning after another squirrel. This time in his new custom made Duo Eclipse harness. Every piece of equipment did it's job as it was supposed to. We inspected the harness very closely and don't see anything out of place. We are so grateful to know that he is safely contained now. Thank you to Raj and everyone involved on the Duo side for your understanding, attention to detail and above and beyond excellent customer service. (sorry that was so long!)
