Dog Vest

[Curtis]

Are any of you using any type dog vest for chest/belly protection and or visibility?  If so, any vest recommendations or reasons why not to use?

[Sugar Creek English Setters]

Hello Curtis,

Great question as there seems to be a lot of products out there. I have not used vests on our dogs but have hunted with two friends that did. Those neoprene vests are to be avoided. Seems obvious but it was not to the person I saw using one to protect a dog from abrasion. He had a light coated dog very vulnerable to any sort of skin damage from grass, brush etc. Neoprene is for keeping retrieving dogs warm, and not much else. The other hunting partner had a dog that got a nasty wound across a front leg. It remained forever vulnerable to re-injury as the scar tissue had no hair and remained rather tender and vulnerable. Ten years ago it was tough to find a vest product that had leg protection  too. What he found created a whole new set of abrasion issues for his dog from the vest, which to be frank seemed due to poor design.

I used to use the two inch wide reversible collars on my dogs. I hung a bell off of them and found the reddish orange side of the collar was nearly always enough color in the woods to see (find!) a dog on point. As a recent convert to beeper collars, that is not such a big deal. Lots of gun dog supply businesses carry those collars.

 

Looking forward to seeing what others offer, as my own experience as you can see if pretty limited.

 

JC @ Sugar Creek Setters

[Walt Lesser]

Hi Curtis,

My vest experience is limited to one setter that was sheared too close and needed chest protection for early season hunting.  I initially  used a 100% polyester vest from Orvis that did work but was difficult to put on and take off because the front legs had to be put into sleeves and seemed to stress the old setter somewhat.  I later purchased a vest fro Duluth Trading Co. that worked very well, was much easier to use, and gave the dog more  protection.  This vest has a nylon outer covering over a thin polyester lining and is installed by simply being placed over the dog’s back and has velcro fastened straps around the dog’s neck and belly.  It worked well in heavy cover and I believe was cooler than the first vest I tried.   I recently checked the Duluth website and could not find any dog vest listed.  You might try contacting Duluth Trading if this is of interest.  Hopefully they still carry the item.  The vest even has a pocket on one side, which I could not find a reason for other than maybe to carry the dog’s sandwich.

I did notice that Chewy.com has a wide selection of dog vests available.

Hope this helps some.

Walt Lesser

[Author]

Posts