Harnesses are awkward for slender dogs. Our dog is a bit lanky underneath all of his hair and has a tiny pencil neck, which means he requires ‘small’ in collars and harnesses, even though he’s taller than a lot of the breeds that are classed as requiring ‘medium’.
Harnesses are tricky though, because the small ones are fine in terms of girth, but just aren’t suitable for his proportions, and the medium ones are better in terms of his proportions, but are too loose.
I discovered this when walking over Cannock Chase – over two hours without issue, then suddenly… squirrel! Then Benny effortlessly lept out of his harness, which comically whipped back into the extending lead handle, leaving me looking at it slightly gobsmacked as he ran around like a massive pillock. Local spectators found it highly amusing to shout “BENTON! BENTON! JESUS CHRIST!” as I called after Benny. -_-
I imagine a whippet would have the same issue, being quite long but skinny? Not sure if you can get whippet specific accessories?
I abandoned the harness and have been walking him just on the lead, taking him to training every week (over a year and still no bronze citizenship award…). He does walk a lot better on the lead now, but still goes bonkers if he sees a cat. I’m not sure why, whenever he does get close to one, he just has a sniff and gets punched in the face by it.