What Should a Dog Wear?

Miniature Schnauzer on a Sink in Tuffie

Good question. I am totally in the “nothing” camp and I hate seeing dogs dressed up in clothes as if they were babies. The only textile products dogs should be using are their dog beds.

Well, I am not totally adverse to clothing. When I work my dogs away and they have to stay in the car over night, I usually put a fleece on them if it is in the middle of winter. Although three of them together in the back of a truck generates a lot of shared heat, it is still better to make sure they all have warmth.  They all have thick dog beds so nobody ends up on a cold base of the car, but still, in the highlands I have come out to an over iced car in the morning and been very pleased with the dog beds and the dog fleeces. Also when I let them out in the back garden in the winter they may need a fleece. I make the fleeces my self and when they run around and play rough, they often accidentally tear each other’s fleece jumpers, so it’s best if I can quickly make a new. Last winter I ended up making an extra armoured jacket for Gollum because the young Gaia just kept on ripping his fleece. I used the same, strong material, the Wipe Clean, that we make strong dog beds out of and it certainly put a good stop to the ripping. His jacket is a little bit more stiff than a pure and nice fleece, but he is cosy as toast in under it. Lovely to take them in from the garden in the evening and find them with fresh, cold noses, cool ears and toasty bodies. They are really happy that way.

Should dog wear collars? I never have collars on my dogs when they run around in the garden. They have quite a good doggy area with a patio, where they have their little kennels for rainy days, stuffed with warm dog beds and they have outdoor dog beds on the patio. But they also have a little wooded area with tall grass to do their business, a pond to swim in and apple trees for their five a day. But for the reason of the trees, I find it too risky to allow them collars out there as they can get strangled. There is no need for them to wear them anyway. Only when I work the dogs in the heather or in thick wood land does the collar become essential. When they stop on point, you can sometimes hardly see them, especially the darker two, unless they wear their orange collars. With tippex, who is white and black it’s a little easier. In woodland in the winter where the light is bad it is also important to see them better with a fluorescent collar.

Gollum retrieving a bird

If I walk them in town, I also put a lead on of course, but I do not understand whey people put halters on their dogs. You need to teach them to walk to heel so you don’t need uncomfortable halters on them.