Cooling Vest Recommendations

Does anyone have any recommendations for a cooling vest for dogs, during hot weather?

I have a ruffwear swamp cooler for Duke, for hikes during hot weather that works well for him but am going on a canoe based backcountry camping trip in a few weeks and will only be bringing Mavrick, who is too small to wear Duke's large size cooling vest.

Having a dog joining in on the trip, were going to do most of our paddling earlier morning, in the canoe I'm going to have a cool bed that can be soaked with water, and also make a tarp area overtop to provide shade. Still, it has been averaging between 26-30 (celcius) most days here, and going into the backcountry, I'd like to have a cooling vest in addition to other safety precautions to be safe.

Duke's not coming along the trip because of his artheritis, I think it would be too uncomfortable for him being in the canoe for 4-6 hours a day. Mavrick on the other hand would love it, but I don't want to bring him if he can't come along and be comfortable and safe.

I was looking at the RPCM style Chilly Dog vests, there supposde to be used for military dogs, there a little out of my price range, but would be worth investing in for my own piece of mind. I'm just curious if anyone has any other recommendations or can give me a review on the Chilly dog vests: Link below:

http://store.coolvest.com/c-1-chillydog-cooling-vest.aspx

Mavrick is a border collie and about 50lbs, I'm going to contact the maker, but it seems as though they only come in a large size (being modeled by a GSD) and a small size, so I wonder if either make would work properly for Mavrick.

I think we had a thread on this recently...might want to do a searh since that thread could have good info for you. At any rate I have a Saratoga Horseworks cooling coat for my dogs and really like it.

I've heard good things about the Hurtta Cooling Coat but I have never used it

I have the RPCM vest. I got the large one, and it is too big for Tempie. It barely fits Boone, but that's who it was for, and I wanted the larger one in case other dogs on my team needed it. I like it. I don't use it while he's working as it would just get in the way. But when I break him, I cool him down by pouring cold water on his belly, groin, and pits, and then I put the vest on him. It's the only vest I've come across that I actually liked.

Very old picture, 8 months old I believe? But she's grown into it a lot, but I bought one of the swamp coolers because I was gifted a Bass Pro shop gift card and needed to use it on something and decided to make it something useful:


I personally love it. Although I have no experience with any other product I would give this one top marks as I found it works to cool even when it isn't wet, at least on my very sun soaking black dog.

I find it interesting how much the Hurrta one looks like the swamp cooler, I would like to see one in person to compare, no idea where I would find them though.

Asides from that, the only other cooling products I have/use are those Sham-wow's and knock offs, you can get cheaper knock offs that work just as well, or I also place old towels in the freezer wet, really nice for super hot days! I also just recently experimented with something, I made a custom embroidered neck cooler for Enda, it has a piece of one of those shammies in it. Sorry no pics right now, Adobe's crashing my computer again.

Goose has a Hurtta and we like it quite a lot I've not used any other brands to compare, though

The Hurtta seems to be thicker to me than the RuffWear coats - it just seems like it would hold more water. I know that it holds water well - I accidentally left one in my car in the garage overnight (windows open, closed garage at about 90* air temp) and it was still damp the next afternoon.

Thicker/holding more water isn't necessarily better. Ideally for max cooling you want a high evap rate and just enough water retention so you don't have to constantly re-wet. Otherwise with a heavier coat or a coat with a evap rate that's too low, once you exhaust the Cp value of the water you just end up with a damp and warm/hot dog and the value of the coat is mostly just in reflecting sun.

That does make sense Shai. Not sure how to compare the two verbally really lol - it didn't seem heavy or anything like that but I havent had my hands on a wet swamp cooler before, either.

Thanks for all of the input everyone,

I think I'll go with the cooling vest made by Saratoga horseworks, it's closer to my price range.

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?f...=918&ParentCat=256&string=Saratoga Horseworks

I love the Saratoga Horseworks coats I have for my dogs. They are very light and breathable, which means they don't hold water near the dog. Water on the skin just heats up and they have a layer of hot water on them. Lots of studies were done prior to the Atlanta Olympics on how to cool a horse effectively. You don't want them wet - you want them drying constantly.

I've heard good things about the Herta, and I may give them a whirl, as I have someone who is willing to get them wholesale and sell them to us for zero profit. For now, the Horseworks blankets reflect the sun beautifully off my dark colored dogs, and I can wet them and let them dry fairly quickly.

I just bought Quinn a Hurtta cooling coat and while I haven't used it yet or seen it in action (I decided to go for it after hearing really good reviews) the fit is amazing. Quinn has proven to be nearly impossible to fit as she is so long in the body but also so narrow and lean. The cooling coat is the perfect length and provides a lot of coverage. It's very light and seems to sit off of her quite well, too.

In the future I would like to get a reflective coat for her just in cases where I can KEEP her cool and don't/can't wet her, but I'm very happy with the fit and design of the Hurtta.

I saw that, you must have been feeling rich lately and wanted to fix that, a cooling coat AND a life jacket from them :rofl1:

Do these really work, make a noticeable difference for the dogs?

The Saratoga makes a huge difference for Mira, and a noticeable but not as significant difference for Kim.

Mira is a single-coated black dog. The white alone helps to keep her much cooler, and the evaporation of the water really keeps her much cooler still.

Kim is a very dense-coated, thick double-coated gold color dog. The white doesn't make as big of a difference (though it does seem to help). The evaporation of the coat's water keeps the surface of her coat cooler and does seem to help her as well but the effect is not as immediate...the biggest difference it makes is if I get it on her *before* she's hot in the first place...seems to prevent her from getting as warm. Once she's already hot it helps but is not as effective as on Mira.

The Saratoga coat makes a huge difference on Meg. Like Mira, she's a dark colored, relatively thin-coated dog. I will put it on her when we leave the tent at an agility trial if it is hot and sunny, and not pull it off until the dog before us is on the line. Even in the sun, she will be cool on her back if I put my hand under it. If it is especially hot, I'll get it wet and toss it in my cooler for a bit, but I love that it works even dry.

Gusto has only worn his once, as he just got it. He has more trouble with the heat than Meg does, so I'm hoping it works as well for him. He's darker and has a thinner coat, so I'm hoping.

I'm not sure if I was feeling especially rich, but I am now feeling very poor LOL. Poor but loving Quinn's new gear!

Duke's ruffwear swamp cooler cooling jacket makes a big difference for him, he's a larger mixed breed primarily all black with a short double coat and he pants much less in hot weather when wearing it.

Oh most definitely! Even dry it works great for End, who is mostly black with dark rust trim! I placed my hand between the coat and her taking it off a couple weeks ago and she was nice and cool under the coat, compared to where the coat doesn't quite cover her behind.

I have a Hurtta cooling coat for Zuma and will be using it for the first time today at her disc dog comp, I'll give review when we are back!