Choosing the right harness for your dog is an exercise of love and a key consideration for their well-being. It provides control without discomfort, secures without constraining, and affords them freedom without the risk of danger.
Enter the Saker Ascension Harness – a popular choice among dog owners, touted for its ergonomic design and safety features. But does it live up to the hype? In this review, we will dive deep into the features, advantages, and potential concerns surrounding this product. Our goal is to provide dog owners like you with a comprehensive understanding of the Saker Ascension Harness, enabling you to make an informed decision that prioritizes the comfort and safety of your furry friend.
Attachment Points: 2 +1 flexi
Adjustment Points: 6
Materials: Nylon, Aluminium Alloy
Features: Reflective trim, Overhead only, Handle, Car Safe
This harness was a Kickstarter, they had some teething issues, but I will say, it's a really fascinating harness.
The idea of a "Modular" harness is not new, it originated with Perfect fit, but Saker have taken it up a notch, with additional tummy strap, and backpack? The Ascension is beautifully considered for dog parents. Gone are the days of having to have multiple levels of security, or needing a crate for your car, or a different backpack to enjoy camping together.
The Saker is crash tested and belts directly to a seatbelt, it's reflective, its got a handle and multiple attachment points too. The whole thing is incredibly well considered.
About Our Testing
- Swim test PASSED
- Run Test PASSED
- Hike Test PASSED
- Rest Test PASSED
- Roadside Test PASSED
- Play Test PASSED
- Pull Test PASSED
We tested the M-L Saker Ascension harness, with both Shelby (75lbs coonhound), Lucy (75lbs coonhound), Indie (90lbs German Shepherd). nate
Addressing Safety Credentialling
Saker is a start up, they ran a really successful Kickstarter, and the hype about this harness was real. However, they hit a snag with their buckles. The male part of the buckle simply didn’t stay in the harness, which meant that it wasn’t safe, and it got it’s CPS (Center for Pet Safety) certification revoked, which is really sad.
However, after speaking to Saker and CPS about this, they have both told me that this was actually about a breach of contract associated with the buckle failure – this has since been fixed, but it was re-tested by CPS to the limits of their agreement and the buckle issue wasn’t remedied within this period. Due to this, CPS chose to revoke the certificate.
What I love About The Saker Ascension Harness
Allows For Motion
One thing that is expected of a harness is to allow our dogs to move freely – but, surprisingly, a lot of them don’t! But the Ascension isn’t one of them. The Ascnesion gives great structure, and plenty of room (even behind the shoulders!) for pups to run, sprint, jump and climb – which delights me. And even better, they fully provide you with a guide on how to get a good fit on this harness and how to get the adjustable straps entirely correct!
As Strong On The Front As It Is The Back
The Ascension has two equally strong leash attachment options, one of the chest and one on the back. And I know that will be something a lot of people will miss about this harness is that not only is it a double clip harness (or a front clip harness) similar to the immensely popularruffwear front range harness, but it’s also the strongest front clip harness currently on the market – which is phenomenal.
Historically? I’ve tried to make people aware that front clip harnesses aren’t designed to be used with just the front attachment point – but the Ascension has me eating my words. This one uses the identical clip on the back and front. Both are an aluminum v-ring – which is very sturdy and can really help you get better control on pup.
It’s also good to note that it comes with an extra flexible leash attachment option.
Safety
Two things here, the rainbow reflectors and the cobra style buckles.
Having the roadside safety of reflectors, or even if you’re on a late-night walk or similar, these things are really valuable!
Having Cobra-style buckles (that now work) is a huge, huge benefit and peace of mind for the parents of large, strong dogs. They are something I love to see in a harness. It ensures the harness is strong.
One Harness for all occasions
This is one of the very, very best things about the Saker harness.
It’s one harness that can happily be used from your morning walk, to your vet trip, playing at the dog park, to your car ride, to your camping trip. For us, it’s definitely gone into an everyday use rotation.
It’s Aimed At Big Dogs
With chunky straps, soft backing, and cobra style clips? This is a high end harness that is study enough for even your biggest mastiff, not to mention that indie – my 90lbs german shepherd – fits in a M-L. And I can count on one hand how many harnesses where Indie isn’t in the largest sizes. I know he belongs in large sizes, he’s a 90lbs dog! But I love that there’s options out there for our even larger dogs with the larger sizes of XL-XXL – which is incredibly rare! And I love that.
It’s wonderful for different sizes like this to go up above a german shepherd, which is awesome. So this one’s for the adventure dogs, the big dogs, and for dog parents who want to take their dogs with them wherever they go.
Backpack functionality
If you’re going on day hikes and you want pup to help out carrying a little extra, or even just their own water adding the saddle bags is such a good idea. They sit nicely across your dog’s back and can each be one of two sizes, and it secures quite nicely to the harness too, without compromising the design of the harness with unnecessary attachment points. Now, I don’t recommend a backpack for all dogs. However! It’s a wonderful functionality to have on a harness, and to have the flexibility to put it on, take it off etc.
Flexible-Leash Attachment Point
The Saker Ascension comes with a leash attachment point that clips and unclips, and has tonnes of locations you can attach it to, including turning it into a trailing leash (which is perfect if you’re tracking or training recall!). That is a pretty unique feature that I’ve not seeing in other places, and that? That makes me happy.
Escape Proof
The Ascension, when we have the belly strap involved (the “extension”) it’s escape-proof for most dog breeds of healthy shape and size – and definitely suits both my Shepherd and my Coonhounds – and my Shepherd is at the top end of the M-L we have been testing. So if you have houdinis or spooky dogs, this harness will help you keep your pup safe, so long as the tummy strap is smaller than the chest , it should stop most dogs from squeezing out!
Crash-tested
Car accidents happen. And when they do? It’s really problematic, and there’s actually very few harnesses (or crates for that matter!) on the market that are crash-tested.
I love that it’s been crash-tested, and that they share that footage with their clients! However, it’s good to note that it’s only crash tested up to 75lbs – which covers my coonhounds – but not my German Shepherd… which is sad! However, they are right – I’d rather trust one that was tested for 75lbs, than one that wasn’t tested at all. Now, I will say, it gets a bit fussy securing them into the car, but I’d rather pass the car seat belt through a crash-tested harness than rely on another piece of kit that’s just another potential failure point.
See other Crash-tested harnesses.
Warrantied for genuine failures
I love the fact that they decided to warranty this for 3 years for genuine failures (e.g. not for alterations and not chewing, which is pretty reasonable, right?), which gives awesome peace of mind given most harnesses in the industry don’t do this.
However, I do feel the Ascension could be lifetime warrantied like some other harnesses in their “premium” tier, but, I at the same time, I appreciate a warranty at all!
What I Don’t Love About The Saker Ascension
Pricey
There’s no getting away with it, the Saker Ascension has a chunky price tag. However, I will say, if you were to buy the ruffwear front range dog harness, the and ruffwear palisades – the price is not significantly different, and then you’d still need to buy a crash tested crate… so is it worth it? The value is definitely there if you’re going to use the functionality and it’ll be a lot less complex to use.
Partially American Made
I always get a little sad when a new brand comes out and they’re almost totally made in America! It’s so close too, because the harness was researched, developed and assembled in the US, but everything else is made in china.
And, again, I know making things in the States is expensive and making it in China isn’t, but, I can’t help but think that changing off some profit for making it in the US wouldn’t be entirely problematic and would be nice to see.
Fussy To Fit
From the belly adjuster, to the neck, everything is fussy to fit, we had a lot of twisting and tweaking, more so than most other harnesses which I found really interesting. Please don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s because of how adjustable it is (which is not a bad thing!) but it did take me us few wears for us to get a good fit.
Do I Recommend The Saker Ascension Harness?
Actually, yes!
Whilst it’s pricey, I love the consideration in the design, I love that it’s adaptable, and I love that I can use one harness to cover hiking, camping, road walking and safe car travel – and it moves seamlessly from one to the other, which is phenomenal. However, I would say this might be overkill for small dogs.
If you’re not sure this one’s the right harness for you? Go check out the best dog harnesses!
Author, Ali Smith
Ali Smith is a professional, qualified, and multi-award winning trainer is the founder of rebarkable. She has always believed animals deserve kindness and champions force free methods. Believing that dog guardians will all choose the kindest options if proper information is provided, she aims to help all dog guardians who need it and make dog training as accessible as possible
Ali lives win Maryland, US with her husband and her three dogs.
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