At School For The Dogs, we are very picky about products we recommend:  We try to guide our clients towards products that we feel really work well and are made by US-based, sustainability-minded small businesses. North Carolina-based business 2 Hounds Designs ticks all the boxes. In particular, we are big fans of their Freedom Harness. It is one of only two harnesses that we sell in our Manhattan shop and in our online store. This innovative "no-pull" front-clip harness is one of the best selling items in our shop, and for good reason: it helps dogs learn to stop pulling! Annie interviews 2 Hounds' president, Alisha Navarro, who stumbled upon a little-known harness design nearly 18 years ago, purchased the patent, and now has a factory and 40+ employees who are working to keep up with ever-increasing demand for it. Annie and Alisha discuss why the harness works so well, the design's origins, its diehard fans, how the manufacturing side of the business was impacted by the coronavirus,  and more. 

For a limited time, get 10% all 2 Hounds Design products at StoreForTheDogs.com using code ALISHA. 

https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/2-hounds-design

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Partial Transcript:

Alisha Navarro:

I’m Alisha Navarro. And I’m the founder and president of 2 Hounds Design.

Annie:

And how would you describe what 2 Hounds Design is?

Alisha:

So we make dog colors, harnesses, and leashes. Our harness is a patented no-pull harness. It has a Swiss velvet lining, and it’s all made in the USA.  And our collars are pretty high end. We’re known for creating collars with our own ribbon designs.

We also use some really high-end materials. Sometimes we’ll use home decoration materials, something that you would see in a luxury home. We’ll use that to put on collars. We’ve also taken wedding dresses apart and make collars out of them to match the bridal party. So we’ve done some really fun stuff on our collar side as well.

Annie:

So I discovered 2 Hounds because of the Freedom Harness. And so I’m really curious about that, but first I wanted to ask you, why is it called 2 Hounds?

Alisha:

2 Hounds Design was named after my original two retired racing greyhounds, Iceman and Paradise. I adopted Paradise first in 2001, and I adopted Iceman in 2002, I believe. And then in 2003, I founded my company, and we were trying to come up with a name for it. And the company exists because of them, because I was selling collars for them. So we just named the company after them.

Annie:

So the Freedom No-Pull Harness is one of our best-selling items both in our online store and in our actual shop. And it is one of only two harnesses that we sell. And it’s definitely the harness that we recommend most. I love it for some reasons you already mentioned, for instance, I love that it has the velvet under the armpits. I love the front attachment.

I was first made aware of this style of harness because of the Easy Walk harness, which is a similar harness, that I think is not as good actually.  But I’d love to hear the story of how you came to discover this kind of harness. I understand that you didn’t invent it. But you kind of well, tell me, I bet there’s a good story here.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

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