Dog Gear

Blushing brides used to come to their new marriages with a hope chest and a trousseau – a collection of the basic necessities for setting up a new household. It occurred to us that dogs should come to their new homes with a trousseau, too – containing everything dog and owner need to lay the foundation for a successful lifetime relationship. We put our minds to the task, and came up with the following collection of items that should be in every dog owner’s hope chest.

Putting a coat on your dog shouldn't be about making a fashion statement. Rather, it should be about keeping a chilly dog warm, thereby preventing hypothermia, a dangerous condition characterized by a reduced internal body temperature. (The normal canine body temperature is 100.5 to 102 degrees. A dog whose temperature drops below 95 degrees can die.) A dog's natural protection against cold varies from breed to breed. Labradors and certain Northern dogs (Huskies and Malamutes, for example) have developed with special physiological responses for coping with cold.

Once again, it’s time to look back at all of the great products we’ve reviewed over the year and pick out our very favorites. The following are our top (four paws) picks from the last 12 months – great suggestions for gifts to put under the tree of your favorite dog-obsessed human friends or relatives, stuff in your dog’s stocking, give to the hostess of that upcoming holiday party, or buy for yourself as a reward for doing another whole year of positive training with your canine pal.

Often, after we have reviewed a certain type of product, we get calls, letters, and e-mail from Whole Dog Journal readers telling us about similar products that we did not review. While we do not – and cannot – test every example of a product concept, when we learn about an exceptional or unusual one that we missed, we like to bring it to your attention. The following are a few notable additions to our product reviews from the past year.

Not very many dog owners look forward to bathing their dogs, and most dogs are even less enthusiastic about the ritual than their owners. However, having the right equipment can make the task less burdensome for human and canine participants alike. There are a number of accessories on the market that claim to make your bathing chore less onerous. These include tools to help you get your dog wet, tools to get her dry, and tools to hold her in place while you do all the stuff in-between.

Consider your dog's dinnerware, a topic more complicated than you might have thought. A visit to your local pet superstore, for example, will reveal dozens of choices, in plastic, stainless steel, glass, nylon, ceramic, and possibly aluminum. Among them are many simple, practical and economical models, meant for long-term everyday use, which are the focus of this article. Of course, bowls also come in a million different specialty" models – to feed automatically

Summer is in full swing, and dog owners all over the country are hiking and camping with their canine companions. WDJ decided to take a look at several of the products on the market that are designed to make hiking with our dogs more fun and easier for dog and/or human: a canine backpack, two pairs of doggie hiking boots, and two portable food and water bowls.

The weather is just starting to turn brisk, but many short-haired dogs are already shivering. The time to order your dog’s winter coat is now, so you have a cozy coat standing by for the season of the most serious cold snaps. Whole Dog Journal tested a number of dog-warming coats, sweaters, blankets, what have you – for warmth, fit, and ease of application. We also washed and dried the blankets per the manufacturers’ recommendations. To test how the coats fit and stayed in place, we put them on dogs and threw balls for them so that they’d run and jump.

Each issue, Whole Dog Journal brings you reviews of dog products we have tested on real dogs and dog lovers. As 1998 rapidly draws to a close, we’re looking back at the year’s best bets and a couple of great new ones, to help you decide which products you might want to add to your holiday shopping list for your dogs and your dog-loving friends.

Warmth relaxes humans and dogs alike, for physical and emotional reasons. Heat on the skin causes an increase in circulation. Blood flows to the area and tense muscles under the skin begin to relax. A warm touch might also recall the lazy enjoyment of a nap in the sun, or the comfort of a companion on a cold winter night. Reusable heating pads are a wonderful way to bring the benefits of gentle heat to a dog. The pads I use are portable, liquid-filled plastic envelopes that, with just a push of my thumb, radiate soothing warmth for a few minutes or a few hours.

We all need it to survive. Most states have laws requiring us to provide “adequate” supplies of it to our dogs. If we don’t provide it we could be prosecuted for animal cruelty and our dogs could suffer, even die, of thirst. “It,” of course, is water. With all of my dogs I sometimes feel like I spend half of my day cleaning and refilling water bowls, both indoors and out. Isn’t there a better way? Whole Dog Journal thought so. We searched high and low for watering systems that would provide a larger, if not constant, supply of fresh water to our dogs.

Each issue, Whole Dog Journal brings you reviews of dog products we have tested on real dogs and real dog lovers. As we look ahead to the new year, we’re looking back at our Top Picks of 1999 to help you select stocking stuffers and presents for your dogs and your dog-loving friends. Most of these products described below were our top selections from our reviews – published earlier in the year – of that type of product. But in a couple of cases, we found a new favorite some time after we published our review.