Chest harnesses for Pugs and French Bulldogs

Two brachycephalic dogs in one household — that's a fun combination, but it does make harness fitting a bit more involved. Small dog harnesses often fit too loosely around the chest or have rigid frames that don't suit compact, barrel-chested builds, and brachycephalic breeds like Pugs and French Bulldogs have short necks, wide chests, and very little distance between the neck and the front legs, which means a lot of standard harnesses end up sitting right on the throat or restricting shoulder movement. The right choice for a Pug is very different from what suits a Dachshund. Can you tell me the weight of each dog, what you're mainly using the harnesses for — daily walks, car travel, both — and have either of them had issues with harnesses slipping forward or rubbing under the armpits before?

Those are exactly the two most common problems with brachycephalic dogs — the short neck means harnesses creep forward, and the wide chest with deep armpit area causes chafing on anything with a narrow chest strap. Before I recommend, one quick question: are you looking for one harness model in two different sizes, or are you open to different harnesses for each dog if one suits them better?

Honestly, one model in two sizes will work perfectly here, and I'd go with the Julius-K9 IDC Powerharness. It comes in a size 0 for your Pug (suits dogs roughly 7–10kg with a chest girth around 45–68cm) and a size 1 for your French Bulldog (suits 10–15kg with a chest girth around 58–76cm). The key reason it works well for brachycephalic builds is the chest plate — it's wide and sits flat across the sternum rather than using a narrow strap that digs into the armpit area, which directly addresses the chafing your Frenchie has had. The Y-shaped front opening keeps the straps away from the throat and off the shoulders, so it won't creep forward and sit on your Pug's neck the way his current harness does. It's also got a top handle and two attachment points — chest and back — which is useful if either dog is a puller. I'd still recommend measuring both dogs' chest girth before ordering, as brachycephalic dogs can sit toward the wider end of any size bracket. It's available on Amazon UK for both sizes.

Fair concern, but it's not an issue in practice. The chest plate on the Julius-K9 is firm but not rigid — it conforms reasonably well once the harness is worn in, and it doesn't hang below the chest on properly sized dogs. For an 8kg Pug in a size 0, it sits flush against the sternum without dragging. The harness is also quite lightweight relative to how sturdy it looks, so it won't weigh him down. The bigger risk with low dogs is actually that the belly strap sits too low and catches on grass or kerbs, but the Julius-K9 straps sit higher up on the body than most, so that's not generally a problem either.

You're welcome — good luck with both of them. Measure their chest girths before you order to make sure you're on the right side of each size range, and if either dog is between sizes, go up rather than down — you can always tighten, but a harness that's too small across the chest on a brachycephalic dog will cause exactly the rubbing you're trying to avoid.