Toby's Puppia: Finding the Right Size for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Because of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel's unique potential health problems, it is very important that they wear a harness instead of a collar on walks to relieve pressure around their necks and backs. Toby has personally gone through every single variety of harness sold at Petsmart as well as a large variety of harnesses ordered online. His problem? He eats them. The minute a harness goes on Toby he becomes a world class contortionist, able to twist himself into whatever position is necessary in order to chew off the plastic snap closure, destroying the harness. It isn't even that he doesn't like having the harness on -- he couldn't care less! No, this escaping talent is more of a leisurely activity. He lounges around, contemplatively chewing that bit of plastic, probably thinking about dog parks or riding in the car, without a care in the world. Finally, tired of buying Toby a new $20 harness each week, I modified the latest one he had broken with a metal closure. This solved the problem but I have never had much faith in my sewing abilities so always feared he would escape the harness while outside. Also the modified harness was a little unintuitive and tricky to get on and off. Once he even came back from Pooch Hotel wearing the harness completely backwards!

So it was obvious that Toby needed one last harness, the Ultimate Harness. The ultimate harness being Puppia brand. I had heard good things about this brand online, how it was well-crafted, durable, and perfect for Cavaliers. The only problem was the sizing was really strange. Some reviews said their Cavalier fit into a size medium, some said large. I couldn't imagine Toby wearing a size large anything, so I measured him. Multiple times. And looked at the little chart Puppia has on their website. And measured again. To no avail: the numbers just made no sense. We would have to take Toby to a brick and mortar pet store to try on the harnesses.

Having searched through most of Chicago's boutique pet stores (Puppia not being sold at Petsmart), we were unsuccessful at even finding Puppia at most places, and the one place we found the brand only had sizes large and extra small. At least I was able to ascertain that Toby is NOT, in fact, a "Large".

Finally I decided to just buy a medium online to try it out. Fortunately, it fit perfectly! And the plastic clip seems to be in a spot even Toby can't reach. The benefits of Puppia so far: the harness doesn't pull his fur out (other harnesses were giving him a bald spot on his front and behind his front legs), he can't chew it, it is very well-made, it is easy to take on and off (way easier than any other harness we have tried), he doesn't pull so hard in it that it makes him cough, and he looks so fancy wearing it!

I would suggest that most Cavalier King Charles Spaniels should try a size "Medium" first. Toby is not fat but the "Medium" on him is fairly loose and has a lot of room for expansion. The main issue is the size of the neck hole, which is not adjustable. However, Toby has plenty of room to spare so unless your Cavalier has an abnormally huge head, the Medium should be fine even if he or she is a little pudgy. If you are still wondering whether your Cavalier and Toby are approximately the same size, or close enough to wear the same size harness, I have provided this hopefully helpful reference shot of Toby sitting next to a common cinder block.

Not counting his head or tail, Toby is about as long as a cinder block, as you can see. And from above, I'd say he is about 2-3 inches shy of cinder block width.

Now that you know what size Puppia harness to buy, I would strongly recommend buying from Amazon instead of in a traditional store. Why? Because every place we found Puppia harnesses in person, they were at least $26.00. Price at Amazon? $15.25! And, unlike any store I have visited so far, IN STOCK!



Puppia Soft Dog Harness (Mesh) Black Medium
Price: $15.25