Product Review: Petco Adjustable Mesh Harness

The Petco Adjustable Mesh Harness is a Roman-style harness that uses a wide mesh panel in the front, instead of the typical single strap. It comes in a huge variety of colors and patterns that change every season, and is available in four sizes to fit dogs with chests as small as 15.5" and as large as 30".

Photo by Erin Koski

Not gonna lie, I found this harness in the clearance bin. Somebody, somewhere, thought this color/pattern combination was a good idea. They had every size in the bin, marked down to $4. If they came small enough to fit Ru I would have a matching set.

Mesh harnesses like this have been around for a long time. The first ones I remember seeing were by Gooby, with synthetic lambskin straps and ridiculously high prices. (Gooby harness review coming soon.) However, the largest of those are for dogs with 24" chests, and Brisbane is a couple of inches bigger. I tried the Gooby harnesses on him a few times in stores, but it was never meant to be.

Several years later, mesh harnesses became more popular and began appearing in major chains. I think the first one I ever tried on Briz was a purple sparkly one in PetSmart. However, neither the original Gooby harness, nor the newer varieties had an adjustable neck hole. This was an issue, nothing seemed to be a good fit.

Enter the Petco Adjustable Mesh Harness. You can't see it in my picture, but the neck of this harness is adjustable. The straps are hard plastic, and ratchet in and out like the straps on rollerblades in the 90's. The harness is supposed to fit a dog several inches larger than Brisbane, but I have it adjusted about as big as it can go.

Pros: Comfortable for extended wear, distributes force very well. Lots of options for doggy fashionistas. Fits considerably larger dogs than most harnesses of this style holds up even when Brisbane is determined to destroy the mail carrier.

Cons: The wide force-distributing center could potentially irritate the armpits of some dogs. Only one clip around the middle so I have to put one of Brisbane's legs through it. Some color combinations are doomed to fail.

Bottom Line: There are styles of harness that I like better so this one doesn't get a whole lot of use. I mostly only put this one on Brisbane when I'm feeling silly. It seems to be a solid design though, and I'm pretty sure I trust those plastic neck adjusters now.