Neoprene dog hunting vest
- Thread starter Ed Auman
- Start date
John Robinson
Well-known member
When I was hunting my first Golden, a big, tall, macho dog, I let my ego get in the way and considered hunting vest to be like little sweaters for poodles, a sissyfication of my dog. What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that we are hunting for hours in water temps barely above freezing with air temps sometimes a lot below freezing, and these dogs have more drive than brains when it comes to retrieving birds. It's up to us to look out for them the way a parent looks out for a small child. I don't care how good your dog's coat is, and some like Chessies are a lot better than others, but physics is physics, and emersion in cold water for even short periods of time will pull down a dog's core temp. The first clue I had of this was seeing my dog shivering in the blind, and it wasn't in anticipation of arriving birds.
My first year training with and old timer, he's finished eighteen Nationals and is into every detail of retriever training, anyway he lectured me about what I just wrote above, and he told me he always trains his dogs in cold water with a vest on. It turns out he had heard O'Neill Wetsuits made dog vest on a custom basis occasionally. As it turns out, my wife who was born and raised in Santa Cruz CA went to school with the O'Neill boys who remembered her, so we were able to measure our two dogs, and order custom vest for us and our dog training buddies. They were fairly expensive, $75.00 back in 1995, but they are still going strong thirteen years later, though they need to be modified to perfectly fit my new dogs.
Fit is very important, they need to be tight, Dave's description of two men struggling to zip a tight vest on a dog at o-dark thirty is funny and right on with my experience. I think it would only be pure luck to have a production vest fit your dog exactly, but these vest are easily modified by taking tucks and gluing them. Take as many measurements as you can and talk to somebody who is willing to measure the vest and help you pick the closest fitting vest you can. Another area of concern is chafing around the edges of the leg openings, but this can easily fixed just by trimming with scissors. And, like somebody mentioned above, you get extra floatation as a bonus, the dog probably doesn't need it, but it sure doesn't hurt. For the guy with the Full size dog, maybe you could call O'Neill and ask about making a small run of custom dog vest. They required a minimum order of five vest, actually I would order one or two, that would make three, I'll bet we could get at least wto more vest just from the guys who post here.
Good luck, John
My first year training with and old timer, he's finished eighteen Nationals and is into every detail of retriever training, anyway he lectured me about what I just wrote above, and he told me he always trains his dogs in cold water with a vest on. It turns out he had heard O'Neill Wetsuits made dog vest on a custom basis occasionally. As it turns out, my wife who was born and raised in Santa Cruz CA went to school with the O'Neill boys who remembered her, so we were able to measure our two dogs, and order custom vest for us and our dog training buddies. They were fairly expensive, $75.00 back in 1995, but they are still going strong thirteen years later, though they need to be modified to perfectly fit my new dogs.
Fit is very important, they need to be tight, Dave's description of two men struggling to zip a tight vest on a dog at o-dark thirty is funny and right on with my experience. I think it would only be pure luck to have a production vest fit your dog exactly, but these vest are easily modified by taking tucks and gluing them. Take as many measurements as you can and talk to somebody who is willing to measure the vest and help you pick the closest fitting vest you can. Another area of concern is chafing around the edges of the leg openings, but this can easily fixed just by trimming with scissors. And, like somebody mentioned above, you get extra floatation as a bonus, the dog probably doesn't need it, but it sure doesn't hurt. For the guy with the Full size dog, maybe you could call O'Neill and ask about making a small run of custom dog vest. They required a minimum order of five vest, actually I would order one or two, that would make three, I'll bet we could get at least wto more vest just from the guys who post here.
Good luck, John
Eric Dellamater
Well-known member
Ed,
Early season I do not use one, but when the temps drop below about 50 I always use one. Look at my Avatar, there is a picture of Buck wearing his. I can assure you it helps to keep him warm, especially when he climbs back into the boat and just does what? lays on the bottom. How often do you have a completely dry or warm area for them? After 1-2 retrieves it is soaked so I feel this helps.
I don't have an issue putting it on him, normally once you pull it out, Buck gets all excited and starts wagging the tail like crazy. Lay it on the floor and he stands right over it and just waits. Minute I am done he does 2 laps around the house and then is ready to kennel.
Pete,
I am glad to hear a Chessie owner who is willing to put a vest on a dog. Last weekend I saw a guy with his Chessie out on the ice in about 20 degrees with no vest. Yes, it was sitting in the snow shivering.
Good luck hunting Ed.
Early season I do not use one, but when the temps drop below about 50 I always use one. Look at my Avatar, there is a picture of Buck wearing his. I can assure you it helps to keep him warm, especially when he climbs back into the boat and just does what? lays on the bottom. How often do you have a completely dry or warm area for them? After 1-2 retrieves it is soaked so I feel this helps.
I don't have an issue putting it on him, normally once you pull it out, Buck gets all excited and starts wagging the tail like crazy. Lay it on the floor and he stands right over it and just waits. Minute I am done he does 2 laps around the house and then is ready to kennel.
Pete,
I am glad to hear a Chessie owner who is willing to put a vest on a dog. Last weekend I saw a guy with his Chessie out on the ice in about 20 degrees with no vest. Yes, it was sitting in the snow shivering.
Good luck hunting Ed.
mike samilo
Member
I couldnt find a vest to fit my dog well,so i had a wesuit shop make one up in 6mm neoprene it was the best 90 dollars i ever spent 6.5 years later it still fits great and looks like it will outlast him,In case somebody wants a custom one made otterbay wetsuits in ca made it for me and they emailed me a measurment chart and fit like a glove,sent it ups to ny