The Schnauzer Forum

Hi all

With the nights starting to draw in and the good old British weather we've been thinking about lower temperatures with Brontë. She is 10 weeks now, but will obviously still be small as the winter arrives and we start to extend her walk. We are also going away with her for new years. (we like to think ahead and be prepared!)

Does anyone use the walking coats on their dogs? Do they need them? She will be being shown at 6 months hopefully, in our first vogue in to the show ring. Does this change the need for a coat?

And last, but not least - if she will need one, does anyone recommend any of them from personal experience?

Thank you!

Last winter we bought Hurtta coats for both Renae and Susie-Belle, pricey but very nice coats, there's good coverage of tummies which helps keep the worst of the muck and wet off minis. Susie-Belle wore hers loads but she had a very thin fur at that time and didn't run about at all, would often just be standing around whilst we were out and I thought she needed the extra comfort, Renae only wore hers in the very cold, I don't really think she needs one, she's so active and keeps herself warm enough, it's more for me and cleaning them up afterwards.

http://www.muddypaws.co.uk/hurtta-winte ... rers_id=12

I also bought them one of these for the days I thought the Hurtta was too much, these are great, again keep tummies warm and dry and clean.
http://www.equafleece.co.uk/store/dog_tankies.html

Check out the Petplanet sale for Hurtta stuff: http://www.petplanet.co.uk/category.asp ... erb=Hurtta" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lots of other things in the sale too

A stripped coat is naturally pretty weather proof anyway - Cara (clipped) gets much wetter faster and so feels the cold more than Mo who has a good wire coat on her as the wire hairs keep out the wind and rain well. Most of the time my two don't need coats, especially Mo with her natural anorak. The only times they wear one is when they are stripped bald to keep the chill off and they wear a coat out on walks then. I've tried putting a t-shirt on in the house but Mo removes them and they don't normally survive as she uses her teeth!

You may want a lightweight waterproof in case of really heavy rain but I tend to delay walks in such weather if I can so they are not essential.

Brill. Thank you for the info all. We intend having her with a stripped coat, so I will have a look at those suggested above with a view to getting something for when she has her coat stripped during the colder weather.

I strip my girls and they have very hard coats that dry in no time, their leg hair is a bit softer so I often have to give that a wash in winter but I have never bothered with a coat not even when they have been stripped right out for a coming show. Maybe I'm a meanie! ;)

I was told by my breeder JC they didn't need to wear a coat as they would be warm enough anyway...?

carmel wrote:I was told by my breeder JC they didn't need to wear a coat as they would be warm enough anyway...?

We share a breeder then (or more to the point our dogs do).