Reflective Hooded Dog Raincoat

No more towelling down a soaked dog at the door.

• You stop planning walks around the forecast: water beads on the outer face and runs off past the hem instead of soaking through.
• It goes on in about ten seconds: nothing to thread the legs into, just lay it over the back and press the fastening strips shut at the neck and belly.
• The leash still clips where it always did: an opening in the back panel lets the clip through to a harness underneath.
• A size for a 4kg terrier and a 38kg shepherd: nine of them, measured by back length, chest and neck rather than by weight.
• Drivers pick your dog out before they pick you out: a reflective strip runs across the shoulders where a headlight catches it first.

Why a cape beats a coat with legs

Rain lands on the back, the shoulders and the rump. It does not land on the inside of a leg. A coat with four sleeves spends its effort on the parts that were never going to get wet, and takes two minutes of wrestling to get on.

This drapes instead. The panel runs from the collar to the base of the tail and hangs down over the flanks, the belly stays open, and your dog can squat, run and shake without anything pulling.

Thin on purpose

The shell is light nylon with no padding behind it. That is the point. It rolls up small, there is nothing in it to hold water, and a dog wearing it on a mild wet day is not walking around in a duvet.

What it will not do is add warmth. In January your dog wants an insulated coat, and this goes over the top of one or stays on the hook.

The ten minutes after you get back

Normally that is the towel by the door, the hallway floor, the shake that reaches the skirting board, and the smell that hangs around until everything is dry.

Undo two strips, lift the coat off, hang it up. Your dog walks through the kitchen dry and the wet thing is the one on the hook.

Questions