Julius-K9 Longwalk Harness For Dogs – An Honest Review

The first y-shaped harness from Julius-K9, famous for their front-strap style harness, is the LongWalk any good? 

Picking the right harness for your dog is not easy. It’s something that takes time, and research. And, if you’ve found this piece? You’re doing your research, well done! I’ll tell you a bit about my experiences with the Julius-K9 LongWalk, and give you honest insight into the good, the bad and the ugly of this harness!

Introducing The Julius-K9 Longwalk Harness

Useful Features

The Handle!

Some people love a handle (I’m actually not one of them), but it can be useful depending on the scenario, such as with a smaller dog who you can hold with a handle in this manner.

Washing? What washing?

The colour is bold and bright, and it holds it’s colour. There’s no real fading, it doesn’t mark that badly and wipes down. Meaning this is one of a few harnesses of mine that has never seen the inside of a washing machine. It also doesn’t hold dog smell actually, now that I think about it.

Customizable

Like their famous chest-strap harness, the julius longwalk comes with a velcro patch which you can pop their name on or something like “Do Not Pet” or whatever you fancy! Julius can make these for you, or they’re widely available on amazon too. And even as an onlooker, it makes me smile to see the customization elements on other dogs, some puppy parents are so much more inventive than me, that’s for sure!

Lightweight

It’s a really nice, light harness – it weighs 290g (approx) which is about 0.5lbs?
And with that, the Julius-k9 Longwalk has got a wonderful range of motion involved and it means that your dog doesn’t have to feel encumbered by wearing their harness, it’s not restricting any muscle groups (unlike some other JK9 Harnesses) and it means that they’re being nicely looked after.

No dangly straps!

One of my favourite things is that they have small little rubber bands? That act to hook the excess straps back to the body so no flapping around whilst your running! Hooray! It’s something I see on so many harnesses, but the fact that they take care of it – even if it is with something as simple as a rubber band) I like it.

Reflective

The reflective bits are actually pretty nice? There’s a lot of them too so it should make them pretty easy to spot from a distance when they’re wearing it. So when it comes to road safety? You’re covered! Well done Julius.

Who Needs This?

Fans of the Julius brand

If you love a julius harness, and you’re planning on taking a walk (aka a walk where their front-strap harness is not appropriate), this is a great alternative. If you want to have something different to others in the park, this could be a great option too.

If You’re In Love With The Aesthetic.

Whilst I may not be, if you love the look of this harness, then it’s great choice. It is solid, it is sturdy, it is durable. If you like the look of it above its other competitors? Then sure! Go ahead! So long as it fits…

Who It’s Not For.

XXL Dogs

Again, this size fits Indie nicely. Indie is a 90lbs/40kg shepherd cross, and it fits him in the XL-Long category – the very largest size they do – and the ‘limit’ of the harness too. And Indie’s not that big of a dog. But that’s it for the longwalk – which I find to be an interesting choice, if I’m honest.

Most people…

I don’t think this harness offers anything that a cheaper, equally good (if not better) harness can offer – buuuut I’ll get into that later.

Room For Improvement

Over engineered

It has a lot of snazzy features that it gives patented names to – but they’re pretty much not used. There is the Duo-Flex system, which is advertised as being the solution to pulling, to fit and movement – and yet – weirdly I don’t think they add anything to the harness. It definitely doesn’t ease the pull of any dog over 70lbs – the resistance just isn’t there. And the flex on the chest? I’m not sure that even moves… when my dogs are moving in it.

But the clincher for me is the piece of elastic that holds the ring where you attach your leash. To my mind? This is just going to deteriorate over time and perish… which for the cost of this harness? Eh. I would expect better.

The look…

It’s hard to say what I don’t like (other than the little invisi-window at the top to show off the ring on the top – which just fills with floof for Indie), but I feel that it’s just not that attractive? It’s like it wants to be functional yet stylish, and bridge that gap – but I don’t think that the Julius-k9 longwalk achieves it.

The fit

I don’t like that when your dog leans down, that the rear of the harness tips up, and I don’t like that the chest gapes whilst they lean down – and it gapes a lot. It doesn’t feel like a sensible piece of equipment to me, and there’s just not enough adjustment, really, to make it right. And that goes for both coonhounds, a German shepherd cross and a full german shepherd who are advertised as being the right size for this harness…

Do I Recommend It

You’ve been waiting for this bit, right?

Do you know what? For the price of it, the relative ‘effectiveness’ and such? No. I actually don’t recommend it. I’ve yet to find a single situation where this outshines others that are cheaper, more solid and just as versatile (if not more so).

I use it because I have it, but it’s just not my go-to. The harness itself is not special. The harness is a nice harness, but it’s not $79.99 of harness – which is double the cost of the ruffwear front range.

Where Can You Get One.

If you’re still determined you want one, you can grab one over on the Julius K9 store for a whopping $79.99… ouch.

Author, Ali Smith

Ali Smith is the Positive Puppy Expert, dog trainer and is the founder of Rebarkable. She is passionate about helping puppy parents get things right, right from the start. To help create a puppy capable of being a confident and adaptable family member and keep puppies out of shelters.

Ali has won multiple awards for her dog training, and has had her blog (this blog!) rated as 2021’s worlds best pet blog!