#ruffwear

I'm trying to decide which to get. These are my needs:

For dock diving for a dog who struggles with tipping upwards without a jacket

Not for boating, or use in more dangerous water. Super buoyancy is not the biggest concern.

I want comfort and lightweight. I worry the Float Coat is stiff and bulky. But I've also seen people say the Confluence is possibly uncomfortable? Does the y-front actually rub on the dog's leg?

I don't want to hinder the dog's natural swimming ability. Or the ability to jump, since he will be dock jumping.

Dog is 28lb Cocker Spaniel, so a smaller dog. I have seen differing opinions on which model works better for smaller dogs.

Taravali got a short shave today.

Mandana is home safe & sound. She did really well coming out of anesthesia. She had a few traumatic experiences with sedation when she was younger and it caused a lot of behavioral fallout. I’m happy to report she has made a huge turnaround thanks to a few vet clinics who have generously allowed me to stay with her so we could work through these issues.

Besides being super brave & polite during the whole process she also did an incredible medical alert while she was coming out of anesthesia. I had been sitting with her while she was zonked out in the kennel. I checked in with her a few times with our consent hand signals and she made it clear she didn’t want to leave the kennel yet and she didn’t want to be coddled. When she was ready to move around she let me know and I stood up to support her while I put on her harness. That’s when she looked down for her medical alert badge (which she hasn’t worn in a long time because technically she’s retired) and finding none she initiated a nose boop alert on my leg which is her backup alert method. I would never ask her to work while sick or injured but it’s amazing to watch how serious she takes her medical alerts. Reminds me of the time she did a cardiac alert with a torn cornea on the way to the emergency vet.

Ruffwear Appreciation

After the incident a month ago where she was stumbling around the yard, I ordered the Ruffwear Doubleback Harness. We suspected she might be getting a TPLO surgery so I wanted to get started on conditioning the harness for when we needed it. I’m so glad we did because it made it possible for me (a disabled adult on the smaller side) to single-handedly support her from the vet office to the car and then up two sets of stairs into our house. She has been unsteady on her back legs on a good day so the anesthesia really made it impossible for her to walk unassisted. Her Flagline is good but I really like how the Doubleback handle sticks up for quick grabs, the second handle is well positioned for assistance and the straps don’t have a buckle on them so it’s easy to slide it off her while she’s laying on her side without plastic buckles pulling at her skin. I will say it’s definitely a harness you & your dog need time to get used to. It uses a different type of buckle/strap than their other harnesses and requires a lot of trial & error to learn how to put it on quickly & adjust for a comfortable fit. I still haven’t quite mastered adjusting it for laying down. She’s a big girl and having the front maxed out is still too tight when she in down but having the leg straps looser seems to help with that a little. We’re still learning but I would recommend it if you need a really reliable harness and you don’t have problems with fine motor skills.

is anyone in the market for an xs webmaster in purple rain and/or an xs swamp cooler zip in salmon pink?

i got them at a discount and figured i’d try to pass the discount to someone else before returning them, as they didn’t work for us.

$45 + S&H for the webmaster (reg. $70)

$40 + S&H for the swamp cooler (reg. $60)