Gooby Escape Free vs PetSafe Easy Walk: Small-Dog Escape or Pull?

These two get cross-shopped by small-dog owners because both are popular, both fit toy and little breeds, and both promise a calmer walk — but they’re built around two different problems, and buying the wrong one means it won’t do the job you needed. The Gooby Escape Free is a security harness: it’s shaped around how a small dog slips out and bolts, with an extra rear strap that closes the gap a toy breed reverses through. The PetSafe Easy Walk is a no-pull harness: a front-clip design whose chest ring turns a pulling dog back toward you. So the real question isn’t which is “better” — it’s whether your small dog’s problem is escaping or pulling. Get that one question right and the choice makes itself; get it wrong and you end up with a well-made harness that doesn’t touch the thing you were worried about. We haven’t hand-tested either; we read the published specs and reasoned from how each is built.

The Gooby Escape Free exists for one job: the small dog that spins, ducks and backs outof a normal harness the moment something spooks it. Instead of scaling down a big-dog design, it’s built around small-dog escape geometry — a snug vest plus an extra rear strapthat removes the gap a panicking toy breed reverses through — in a lightweight build a little dog can actually wear. Its honest limits are worth being clear about: it’s a back-clip harness, so it’s about security, not redirecting a pull— if your dog leans into the leash, this won’t curb that the way a front clip does. And it’s aimed at small and toy breeds, not a large, powerful escaper. If your worry is a bolt-and-run little dog, though, that’s exactly what it’s designed to stop. The reason this matters is simple: a small dog that has slipped its harness once will often try it again, and the failure usually happens at the worst moment — a startled reverse near a curb or a parking lot — so a design built specifically to close that reverse-out gap is doing real safety work, not just adding a strap for the sake of it.

The PetSafe Easy Walk is built for the small dog that pulls, not one that escapes. The leash clips to a front chest ring, so when the dog pulls, it’s gently turned back toward you instead of getting the forward reward pulling normally gives — the no-pull mechanism the Gooby doesn’t have. It’s simple, widely available, and easy to fit. Its honest limits: it’s a front-only harness, so on a small dog with a deep chest the front strap can rotateto one side if it’s not snug, and the whole thing has to be fitted tightto work — a loose Easy Walk both reduces the no-pull effect and gives a determined little dog room to wriggle. It is not built as an escape-proof design; it curbs pulling, it doesn’t stop a genuine Houdini. There’s also a training point worth naming: a front-clip harness works partly because the redirection makes pulling unrewarding, but it does its best work when it’s paired with a little loose-leash practice, so the dog learns the habit rather than just being steered every step. On its own it manages the pull; with a bit of training behind it, it helps fix the pull.

At a glance

Pick the Gooby Escape Free if…

Your small dog’s problem is escaping — it spins, ducks and backs outof ordinary harnesses, usually when it’s startled, and you’ve had (or nearly had) a loose-dog scare. The Gooby is built around exactly that failure, and fitted snug the extra rear strap closes the gap a toy breed reverses through. This is the one to reach for when security, not pulling, is what keeps you up at night. Owners of nervous rescues, small seniors that spook easily, and toy breeds with narrow, tapering heads tend to land here, because those are exactly the dogs that can shrink back and reverse out of a standard vest before you can react.

Full detail on the fit and the extra strap is in our Gooby Escape Free review, and you can compare the field in our escape-proof picks for small dogs. One habit worth keeping for any known escaper: run a correctly sized backup leash to a well-fitted collar as well, so a single point of failure never turns into a loose dog by the road.

Pick the PetSafe Easy Walk if…

Your small dog’s problem is pulling, and you want the front-clip redirectionthat curbs it — a simple, widely available harness that turns a puller back toward you rather than letting it tow you down the block. For a little dog that leans into the leash but has no history of slipping out, the Easy Walk does the specific job the Gooby doesn’t. It’s also an easy harness to live with day to day — it goes on without lifting a paw through anything, adjusts quickly, and is cheap enough to replace as a growing dog changes shape, which is part of why so many small-dog owners start here.

The full breakdown — the front ring, the fit, and the rotation issue on a deep chest — is in our PetSafe Easy Walk review, and there are more little-dog options in our no-pull picks for small dogs. The one thing you can’t skip: fit it snug. A loose Easy Walk both softens the no-pull effect and gives a wriggly small dog room it shouldn’t have.

The bottom line

Match the tool to the problem. If your small dog bolts and slips out, the Gooby is the specialist; if it pulls, the Easy Walk’s front clip is what you want. Some small dogs, honestly, do both— they pull and they’re escape artists — and for that dog you have two sensible routes: fit an Easy Walk very snug and add a backup connection to a collar, or choose a dedicated escape designlike the Gooby and accept that it won’t curb pulling on its own. Whichever you pick, on a known escaper always run a backup leash to a collar— a second point of contact is cheap insurance against a bad day. And if you’re genuinely unsure which camp your dog is in, err toward security: a harness that curbs pulling but lets a dog escape has failed at the more dangerous job, whereas a secure harness that doesn’t redirect pulling just means you have some training to do. The downside of over-securing is mild; the downside of an escape is a dog in the road.

Fit is everything on a small dog either way — check the girth, aim for two fingers under a strap, and re-check as the harness settles. And because a small dog has a delicate windpipe, keep the main walking connection on a well-fitted harnessrather than dragging on a collar. If pulling is genuinely the bigger issue, it’s worth pairing the right harness with a little loose-leash training so you’re fixing the behavior, not just managing it.