The Lift Harness That Gave Our Old Lab His Boat Ladder Back

Murphy has loved the water since he was a puppy. Every summer weekend, Ray and I load up the camper shell and head to the lake with our pontoon boat. Murphy stands at the front like he is the captain. He would swim until his tongue dragged. Last summer, that changed. He would stand at the top of the boat ladder and whine, and I knew what he was asking. He wanted down. He just could not figure out how to get back up. That was the summer we ordered the LOOBANI lift harness.

Our vet says Murphy's hips and elbows are stiff. At 12 years old and 78 pounds, he still greets us at the door, but the mornings are slow and the stairs in our two-story house have become a negotiation. The boat ladder was the worst of it. The rungs are far apart, and once he was in the water, there was no way for him to climb back aboard without help. Ray and I tried everything we could think of. We lifted him ourselves, which meant one of us in the water and one on the deck, and neither of us is as young as we used to be. We tried a beach towel under his belly, but it bunched up and made him panic. We even talked about building a ramp, but the deck sits too high off the water for a ramp that would not be a hazard to swimmers. The towel went back in the drawer.

That is when our vet mentioned a rear support harness. Not as a cure for stiffness, she was careful to say, but as a way to help him use his own legs while we took some of the weight. I ordered the LOOBANI Dog Lift Harness for Large Dogs with low expectations. I have bought a lot of gadgets for this dog over the years. Some of them are still in the hall closet. I figured this would be another one.

The first time we used it at the boat was a Saturday in late July. The water was still cold enough that Murphy paddled in a tight circle at the bottom of the ladder instead of swimming off, and I stood on the deck with the handles in my hands. The LOOBANI harness has two padded handles over his back and a soft band that goes under his belly. You slip it on over his head, clip it around his chest, and the handles sit right where your hands naturally want to be. Ray climbed down a couple of rungs, settled the band under Murphy's belly, and I lifted. His back feet found the first rung, then the second, and before I could tell him what a good boy he was, he was on the deck shaking lake water over both of us. Ray held the handles, Murphy paddled, and together they made it up the ladder like he had been doing it all summer.

Ray held the handles, Murphy paddled, and together they made it up the ladder like he had been doing it all summer.

I will be honest with you. The LOOBANI harness is not magic. It does not fix stiff hips, and it will not make a 12-year-old Lab young again. What it does do is give you something to hold onto. When Murphy hesitates at the truck tailgate, I can stand behind him, lift gently on the handles, and let him do the rest of the work. His back legs push, my arms take maybe a third of the weight, and he climbs in like he is proving something. The first morning I used it at home, he got up the whole flight of stairs without stopping to rest halfway, which he had not done in months.

We also use it on the stairs at home. Murphy can manage the hardwood steps on his own, but he does it faster and more steadily when I hold the handles and walk beside him. It is not a sling and it is not a wheelchair. It is a pair of handles that lets you help without bending down and grabbing a dog who does not want to be grabbed. For a 63-year-old grandmother with a 78-pound dog, that matters. It means I do not have to lift his whole weight.

The LOOBANI harness has its limits. The band under the belly needs to sit in the right place, and it took us two or three tries to get the fit right. The first time I clipped the chest strap too loose and the whole thing slid sideways. The second time I had it too tight and Murphy stood frozen, looking at me like I had betrayed him. The third time, we got it right, and he walked to the door and waited for his leash. Murphy does not love the moment it goes over his head, but he tolerates it because he knows what comes next. And you still have to be careful on steep stairs or slick docks. It helps. It does not replace common sense.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at my kitchen table with coffee, here is what I would say. Talk to your vet first. If your dog's stiffness is new or suddenly worse, that is a conversation for a professional, not for me. But if your vet agrees that your old dog just needs a little help, the LOOBANI harness is worth trying before you give up on the things he loves. It is not the answer to everything. It is the answer to the boat ladder, the truck tailgate, and the stairs at home. The first time Murphy climbed that ladder with my hands on the handles, Ray said, 'Look at him. He thinks he's a puppy again.' He is not a puppy. But he got one more summer of swimming, and that is a thing you cannot buy.