Living in the city without a backyard, we're always consumed with the weather as we venture out on our many daily walks. While we seem to have the cold weather thing down, it has been the extra hot weather that has us cutting our summer walks short with the pups quarantined next to the fan.
Especially since our pups are getting older, we have been cutting back on some of our adventures during the warm weather, especially seeing how living in the concrete jungle can make everything that much hotter.
We have always been curious about Ruffwear's Swamp Cooler Cooling Vests and we were especially excited when Ruffwear offered to have the pups try them out.
While we got a lot of strange looks and questions about why our pooches were wearing "coats" on such a hot day, these 3-layer vests actually use evaporative cooling technology to mimic sweating and cool down your pooch. The vests are activated by soaking them in cold water and wringing them out. We found that it is really important to wring them out well, as our first attempt at putting on the vests before we left for our walk left us with puddles of water on our floor. The vests are lightweight for easy movement and they use adjustable buckles to more accurately fit your dog. Our pups are both wearing size Medium.
Wearing the vests the pups seemed to be panting less and we were able to be out longer. They also recovered more quickly after our walk. We also liked how the light-colored vest reflected heat instead of absorbing it. While Miss M's dark hair will cause her to be warmer, when we checked underneath her vest her back was definitely cooler.
We also found it important to monitor the vest and make sure it stays wet to continue the evaporation process (otherwise it would be like wearing a coat on a warm day!). During one walk it did evaporate fairly quickly, in about 20-30 minutes, and we had to reactivate it by pouring water on the top with our water bottle.
Even with the vests we made sure not to overdo it, but we found it really did make a difference with the heat, and it seems like it is especially good for dark-haired dogs prone to absorbing sunlight.
We were beyond excited that Ruffwear has generously offered to give away one Swamp Cooler Cooling Vest.
What would you be able to do with your pup this summer if you could keep them cool in a Ruffwear Swamp Cooler Cooling Vest?
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
We used a random number generator to chose the winner of our Ruffwear Swamp Cooler Giveaway:
Congratulations to Kendra Perkins who said: Bruno would love this! He is a dark chocolate pittie mix who loves to run. However, with us living in Corpus Christi, Texas, it doesn't take long for him to get hot and panting like crazy. Plus the fact that he LOVES water.
Please email or message us on Facebook so we can get you your vest!
Also:
What we will do with our vests.
