I often hike remote trails with my dogs. I like getting out there and letting my dogs off leash and explore on their own. This is a benefit I don’t always get when I go to the more popular trails where on-leash is the rule. When I’m out there though I need to take a few precautions with my dogs and one of them is making sure they are visible. This is important for me because when you have two dogs running it is easier to keep an eye on both of them if they are wearing orange dog vests. Otherwise they naturally blend into the forest. If something were to happen where they got hurt or started going off too far I would have a hard time finding them. It is also important to me that they not be mistaken as wildlife, namely coyotes. Up close I realize a dog and a coyote look very different. That is not always the case when you see one in the distance or only catch a glimpse through a wooded area. Coyotes may be hunted year round in Maine and New Hampshire and when I am hiking remote trails I just do not want to take the chance of someone misidentifying my dogs.
I have tried several vests on my dogs in the past and the one I settled on and have been using for years is from LL Bean. It is called a Dog Safety Vest. These are made out of a durable soft cloth. The orange is very bright and it is easy to slip on and off of my dogs. The vest attaches snugly under my dogs in lower chest/ stomach area which has the added bonus of protecting them from underbrush. I will point out that this is not an intended purpose of this vest and there are other specialty vests to go to if that is a feature you are looking for.
The Dog Safey Vest also has reflective material that goes across your dog’s upper chest. I find this useful during my early morning neighborhood walks – so I am getting double duty out of these vests.
They are also easy to care for. I wash mine whenever I am doing a load of dog towels and I must have washed them a dozen or more times by now and the color has not faded.
If you let you dog off leashed while hiking I highly recommend some type of orange vest. It not only helps you keep track of him but it let’s others identify him as a domestic animal.
