Loobani Dog Sling Review: Long-Term Use With a 68 Pound Golden

Biscuit turned twelve in March. She is a Golden Retriever, about 68 pounds, and our vet diagnosed hip and elbow arthritis when she was ten. Most mornings she is fine by the time breakfast is over. The hard parts are specific. Three wooden steps down to the back yard. The lift into the back of our 2019 Subaru Outback. The first two minutes after she stands up off the living room floor. Everything else in her day still works, which is exactly why I did not want to start carrying her.

What pushed me toward a rear sling instead of a harness or a wagon was a simple observation. The back end gives out first. Her front legs are still strong enough to pull her up the hallway. It is the hindquarters that sag on the steps. I bought the LOOBANI adjustable dog sling about ten months ago, mostly for those three steps, and it has hung on a hook by the back door ever since. Ten months is long enough to know what a piece of equipment does on a good morning and what it does on the morning your dog is stiff and you are running late.

How I've Used It

The LOOBANI sling is a band of nylon that passes under the belly, just in front of the hind legs, with a handle at each end. You hold both handles and take some of the dog's weight while she walks. That is the entire design. No frame, no wheels, nothing strapped across her chest, and nothing to buckle behind her elbows.

I use it four or five times a week. Most often it is the three deck steps first thing in the morning, when she is stiffest. Second most often it is the lift into the Outback. Every so often it is the hardwood hallway on a bad night, when her back paws slide out from under her and she needs a steady hand to get to the bedroom. Those are the three jobs, and they have not changed in ten months.

The first week I used it wrong. I held the handles too high and took too much of her weight, and she stopped mid-step and looked back at me with that flat Golden expression that means please stop. Our vet had told me the point was to help her balance, not to carry her, and she was right. Once I let the band sit slack and only lifted when she needed it, Biscuit relaxed and started moving again. That correction took about four days and it is the single most useful thing I can pass along.

Ten months in, the motion is automatic. Left hand on the back door frame, right hand on both handles, down the steps at her pace. It takes about twenty extra seconds. That is the whole interruption to my morning, and I would have paid far more attention to a device that took two minutes to rig.

What the LOOBANI Sling Actually Is

The LOOBANI band is nylon and it is machine washable, which matters more than I expected. It has a soft, fleece-like lining where it sits against the belly, and the padding is thicker through the middle section that carries the load. There is a drawstring to adjust the fit, and it comes with a small storage bag. The whole thing weighs about seven ounces, so it folds down to nothing and rides in the pocket of my barn coat when we travel.

The listed weight range is 15 to 30 kilograms, roughly 33 to 66 pounds, for large and extra large breeds. Biscuit sits at 68 pounds, which puts her a couple of pounds over the top of that range. The band still passes under her with a few inches of adjustment left, but I want to be straight about it. If your dog is meaningfully bigger than mine, a heavy draft breed or a very large male, I would look at a sling rated higher rather than assume this one will do.

Fitting took me two tries. The first time I had it too far back, almost across the hind legs, and it slid forward while she walked. Moving it up so the band crosses the belly an inch or two in front of the rear legs fixed it. It has not slipped since, and I am not stopping mid-walk to adjust it while she stands there waiting.

The Three Deck Steps, Ten Months In

Our deck has three steps down to the yard and a rail on the left side. For about two years those steps were the reason we stayed inside on mornings Biscuit was sore. She would stand at the top and think about it, and I would think about it, and eventually we would turn around and go back in. That is a small thing if you have never lived with it. It is a large thing when it happens most of a winter.

Now we go down. She gets the sling on the bad mornings and nothing on the good ones, and the good ones have become more common. I am not going to claim the sling did that. She has been on her joint supplement for a year and a half and that has helped, and the seasons matter, and honestly some of it is just her deciding the yard is worth the trip again. What I will claim is that the sling removed the reason we were skipping it.

The part nobody mentions is the bending. You are reaching down to a 68 pound dog's belly height four or five times a week, and it is your lower back doing the work. I am sixty-three. For three steps it is fine. If you have a long flight of stairs and a big dog, your back is going to notice, and a ramp or a different arrangement of the stairs may suit you better than a sling will.

The sling did not make her younger. What it did was stop three wooden steps from being the reason we stayed inside.

What I Looked At Before Buying

I looked at three other things first. A full body lift harness with straps front and back, which offers more support but also more strapping and buckling twice a day on a dog who does not enjoy being handled. A set of folding stairs for the car, which the Outback's hatch height made awkward to position in a parking lot. And a wagon, which is a wonderful piece of equipment for a dog who cannot walk at all and useless for a dog who can walk and just needs a hand on the steps.

I went with the sling because the problem was narrow. If Biscuit had needed front-end support as well, I would have bought the full harness and put up with the buckles. If she had stopped walking entirely, I would have been shopping for a cart. Matching the equipment to the actual problem kept me from buying three things instead of one, and it kept me from putting her through a harness routine she would have fought. That is the whole argument for the LOOBANI sling, and it is the argument against it too if your dog's trouble sits somewhere else.

Loading Her Into the Outback

The Outback's rear hatch sits at about the height of my hip. For a year I lifted her front paws onto the bumper and boosted her back end, which worked right up until it did not. Now she puts her front paws up, I pass the sling under her and take the rear weight, and she walks herself in. A couple of seconds of setup and no boosting, which my shoulder appreciates on a cold morning.

Eight months ago I added a folding ramp for the same job, mostly for vet visits and the weekend drives to the park. The two things do different work. The ramp is better when she is fresh and there is room to set it up. The sling is better when the ground is wet or the space is tight or she is too tired to trust a ramp. I keep both, and I would not give up either one.

One honest note about the sling and cars. Getting the band under a dog who is already half in the cargo area is awkward. I put it on while she is still on the ground, then let her step up. Doing it the other way around means leaning into the vehicle and fishing the band under her, which she tolerates and my shoulder does not.

How It Has Held Up

Ten months in Boise means a hot dry summer and a cold winter, and the LOOBANI sling has been through both. The nylon has not frayed where the handles meet the band, which is where I expected it to fail first. The lining has flattened a little where it presses against her belly. It has not torn, and it has not started shedding fibers onto her coat the way an old fleece blanket does.

I wash it about once a month, cold, and let it air dry over the back of a kitchen chair. It has been through the machine a dozen times now and the drawstring still holds its setting. The storage bag is the one piece I barely use. The hook by the back door is more convenient than folding anything away.

The handles are the part I watch. They are what you pull on, and on a 68 pound dog they take real load. No stretching so far, and no loose stitching. If that ever changes I will say so, but ten months of four-times-a-week use has not produced a single failure I can point to. For a piece of nylon that lives outdoors on a hook, that is a better record than I expected.

What It Does Not Do

The sling supports the rear legs. That is the whole scope. Biscuit has elbow arthritis too, and on the days her front end is sore this does nothing for her. I want to be clear about that, because a reader whose dog's problem is in the shoulders could buy this expecting relief and get none.

It is also not a treatment. It does not slow arthritis, it does not replace anything our vet has prescribed, and it is not a reason to skip a checkup when your dog's mobility changes. Biscuit's weight, her medication and her supplement are the things our vet manages. This is equipment, and it belongs in the same category as a ramp or a runner rug in the hallway.

And it is not for a dog who cannot bear weight on the hind legs at all. If your dog is dragging a back paw or knuckling over, that is a different conversation and it starts with your vet, not with an online order placed at eleven at night.

Who This Is For

This is for the dog who can still walk and needs help with the hard parts. Stiff first steps in the morning. A short flight of stairs. In and out of the car. Slick hardwood where the back paws slide. A dog in that 33 to 66 pound range the sling is rated for, and an owner willing to bend down four or five times a day. If that describes your situation, ten months of use says the LOOBANI sling holds up and does what it claims.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if your dog is well past 66 pounds, if the weakness is in the front end, or if your dog cannot stand without full support. Skip it if you have a long staircase rather than a few steps, because your own back will pay the bill. And skip it if what you actually need is a way to get a dog in and out of a vehicle, because a ramp does that job with less lifting and less leaning.