The morning Waylon's back legs slid out from under him on the kitchen hardwood, I did what I always do when something scares me. I sat down on the floor next to him and pretended I was fine. He was eleven that March, sixty-eight pounds, and he had been my dog since he was a puppy. That same week he walked out to the CR-V, stopped at the back bumper, and looked at me instead of jumping in.
I am not a vet and I am not going to pretend to be one. Dr. Reyes is our vet, and I asked her before I bought anything. What she told me, and what I have learned since, is that a rear sling like the LOOBANI lift harness is not a treatment. It is a handle. It lets you take some of the weight off the back end so your dog can keep doing the walking. That is the whole idea, and it is why one has been hanging on a hook by my back door since March. Here are ten reasons it stayed there.
The hook by my back door has held one thing for eight months
A padded rear sling with handles, a drawstring closure and its own storage bag. It does not replace your vet's advice. It just gives you somewhere to put your hands.
Amazon See the LOOBANI Lift Harness on Amazon →It moved the work from my back to his legs
For two weeks before I bought it, I used an old bath towel as a sling. It worked, more or less, but a towel has no handles and no shape, and my hands were at a bad angle the whole time. The LOOBANI sling has a soft band that goes under his belly and hips and handles you hold at a height you choose. My husband Gary has a bad back and does not lift Waylon, so this is all on me. Taking some weight off him without wrecking my own back is the first reason it stayed.
Three back steps are still three back steps
Our house is a one-story ranch. Waylon does not use stairs inside because there are none. The only steps he deals with are the three wooden ones from the back door down to the fenced yard, and he does them every morning and every evening. That is maybe six trips a day, and each one had gotten slow. With the sling, I walk beside him and take a little of the weight on the way down. He still climbs them himself. Nothing about that changed.
Down is harder than up, and it is where I use it most
Going up, Waylon manages. Going down, he hesitates, and I can see him thinking about it. That hesitation is the whole reason I keep the band on him for the steps. I am not carrying him. Sixty-eight pounds is not something I can carry and Gary cannot either. I am just giving him a little lift so the front end does not have to do all the work while the back end catches up. Talk to your vet about what is safe for your own dog's joints before you start doing this, because I only know what I see in mine.
It is a sling, not a full harness, and that matters
I want to be clear about what this thing is, because the listing pictures can confuse you. There is no front chest piece. It is a padded band that goes under the belly and hips with handles on top and a drawstring closure. He stepped into it the first day without a fuss. If you are looking for something that wraps the whole dog, this is not that, and I would rather tell you now than have you find out.
Bad days at the car are exactly what it is for
Waylon uses a folding ramp to get into the back of my 2017 Honda CR-V, and he has used it since May. On his good days he walks it on his own. On his bad days, he gets halfway up and stops. That is when I put the sling on him and steady him while he finishes. I do not lift him into the car. I cannot, at his size, and I am not going to hurt myself trying. The sling lets me be useful without being a crane.
It folds into a bag the size of my hand
The whole thing weighs under fifteen ounces and it comes with a storage bag. When we are done with the steps, I shake it out, fold it, and it goes back on the hook. I have tossed it in the back of the CR-V for the Saturday trip to Frontier Park more than once. Something you have to wrestle with does not get used. This one gets used.
It goes in the wash, and I do not have to think about it
Nylon and machine washable, per the listing, and I have washed it. If you have ever owned a fabric sling that got damp and stayed damp, you know why this matters. Waylon is a Labrador. Nothing stays clean. I wash it, I hang it, it is dry by the next morning.
It gave me something to do that was not just watching
I am going to be honest here because I think it is the part that actually matters. Before March, my job when Waylon went down the back steps was to stand there and watch him, tensed up, waiting for something bad. That is a miserable way to spend six minutes a day. Holding a handle is different. I am helping instead of hovering. He is still an old dog who is slower than he used to be. Nothing fixed him. But I am not helpless beside him anymore, and that changed my mornings.
It shifted back the first week until I learned the drawstring
The downside, because there is always one. The closure is a drawstring, and if you do not set it snug, the band slides backward when the dog moves. Mine did, twice, that first week. Once I started setting it properly before we went out the door, it stopped. Nobody warned me, so I am warning you. Take thirty seconds with the drawstring.
It does nothing for the front end, and you should know that
The LOOBANI sling supports the back half of the dog. That is its job. Waylon's front end is fine, so this works for us. If your dog's front legs are the problem, a rear sling is not going to help with that, and no amount of adjusting will change it. Ask your vet which end of your dog actually needs the help before you spend anything.
What I'd Skip
I would skip buying two mobility products in the same month and then trying to figure out which one did anything, because you will not be able to. I bought mine one at a time, months apart, and asked Dr. Reyes before every single one. I would also skip a rear sling if your dog's trouble is in the front legs, and I would skip it entirely if your vet has told you your dog needs to be supported differently than this.
And I would skip believing any product is going to turn your dog back into the dog he was at six. Waylon is eleven. He is stiff on cold mornings. The sling helps me help him down three steps, and that is all it does, and that is enough for me. Your dog is not my dog, and I cannot tell you what you will see.
I am not carrying him. Sixty-eight pounds is not something I can carry. I am just giving him a little lift so the front end does not have to do all the work while the back end catches up.
If you are at the stage where your dog stops at the bumper of the car and looks at you, that look is the whole conversation. He is not being stubborn. He is telling you the jump got too big. A sling is one plain answer to that. It is not a fix and it is not a cure, and I would be lying if I told you it made Waylon young again. It gave him a hand, and it gave me a job.
One handle, three back steps, and a hook by the door
Padded rear sling with handles, a drawstring closure, machine washable nylon and a storage bag. Ask your vet first. Then buy one thing, use it, and see what your own dog shows you.
Amazon See the LOOBANI Lift Harness on Amazon →