Lightweight dog coat which covers stomach for a Labrador

[WeeMadArthur]

Can anyone recommend a lightweight stomach covering coat for a lab? She is coming in from walks filthy and Although I can give her legs a quick rinse from the outside tap it’s impossible to do her belly without covering myself in cold water and freezing her to death.

I’ve looked online but really don’t know what to go for, Equafleece seem good but I used their online size calculator and it couldn’t come up with a size! Weatherbeeta have a fleece zip coat but depending on whether you listen to the manufacturers or the reviews I don’t know whether to size up or down for her.

Give Equafleece a call, I had similar with the sizing on their website not working. My dogs are very deep chested but short in the back so the calculator couldn't cope! They asked me to measure each dog and send the results to them, they then sent me 2 sizes of each coat to try on and I then returned ones I didn't need. I wanted the coats for the same reason you said.

Be careful that anything you put her in doesn’t overheat her - labs have been bred for much worse winter weather than anything we get in the UK and if you cover her tummy she won’t be able to regulate her temperature when she’s running around. If you drive to and from walks you could always pop her in a dog drying bag like this one which gets rid of the worst of it, obviously a bit trickier if she’s walking home but I find that most of the mud drops off my Toller by the time we’ve got back and a quick rub down with a towel is fine. Baths and showers are reserved for very special occasions

I am worried about her being too hot, she wasn’t fazed by the snow at all and will still try to go swimming. Her coat really does hold on to the mud though, and as we don’t go in the car she is coming straight in to the house just covered, she is really squirmy too so getting into her books and crannies is like a wrestling match. I’m tempted to put her in one of DHs T-shirt’s and just knot it at the back and see if it works!

We have an equafleece and it is excellent, I’d definitely try that.

Valid points about overheating. If I walk the dogs without going in the car and they very muddy/wet (always!) I put their coats on when I get home to dry and demud (?) them, seems to work. Maybe you could take the coat with you and put it on to walk back home?

Just lost everything I typed!

I never thought of putting a coat on at the end to demud and dry, that could be the very thing. I did look at the dry bag that noitsnotteatimeyet linked to but she is a bit skittish (panics whenever she encounters anything new) that she would probably have a fit when I tried to get her in one.

My dog has equafleece jumpers for when it’s really cold , been on once this winter in the SE , and goes in a dog dry bag when he gets home . Ours is the original doggy bag and cost considerably more than the one linked to upthread and I do think it’s soemthing where it’s worth paying for better quality as someone I know bought a cheap version and it was useless .

You may find a coat does not help. You then have to wash the dog and the coat. I tend to let my dogs run with no coats on but then put on an equafleece or spring thing coat to dry off afterwards when they come indoors.

Springthings have waterproof coats that are thin and also fleeces for drying off afterwards here

Floralnomad which is the original make of the doggy bag?

I’m tempted now to try and cobble something together from a travel towel myself!

Just bought my two spaniel coats from ruff and tumble, just to be put on after wet walks, not to wear all the time. They are great.
One went in the river yesterday and was damp by the time he got home, (15 min car drive) the other dog was damp and was dry by the time he got home.
Expensive but would recommend

It’s called the doggy -bag.co.uk , it’s very good quality micro fibre and even at his hairiest and wettest is dry in 30 minutes , that said he often doesn’t want to come out of the bag so I unzip him and he gets out when he’s ready .

So... I DEcided use one of our old towels and see what I could make myself. It has a bleach stain on one side so I had been thinking about binning it anyway. It’s turned out better than I expected, although I need to get some sew on Velcro to finish it off.

DDog wasn’t best pleased with the many fittings required so I had to bribe her with treats!

Very fetching , not sure how long it would take to dry or how effective it will be though . This is a bad picture of mine in his bag .

arthur I absolutely love that coat. It looks fabulous and made me laugh!