Dog Vest or No Vest? If so what brand?
Always! Have to protect the dog. Nothing more terrible than waiting all year for SD and have a dog tear themselves open on some old barb wire.
I use the Cabela's brand. I run the ripstop vest early which is a light vest. In Dec I run the Cableas 5mm neoprene. Both vest in a blaze orange of course for the added safety for the dog.
Mine wear Mendota skid plates. They get rubbed raw without them.
I too run the cabelas neoprene. But my dog goes through at least one per year. Sometimes two. But they do protect them well.
Way too warm yet in SD for anything that holds body heat, but ya, my dogs shred neoprene vests in short order. Last year my male jumped through a sheep fence backed with barbed wire that not only laid the vest open, but the dogs back, from end to end. He never noticed and was happy to keep hunting, but had to stop and clean the wound, then listen to him snivel in his box all day.. Good nutrition makes all the difference in the healing process.
Agreed. My oldest Vizsla goes through one per year on average. Usually getting her another one toward the end of the year that she can wear till about January of the following year. But yeah the way the vest looks, Im glad I make her wear it. Problem is heat. On hot days I wish I had something lighter to protect her. She is one nipple less than what she was born with because of not having a vest on her on a warmer day. But the light vests with straps over the back just havent worked well.
I too run the cabelas neoprene. But my dog goes through at least one per year. Sometimes two. But they do protect them well.