Prestige Cool Coat for Dogs, L, Blue

We bought this coat for our golden retriever. We spend most of the summer walking in the alps where the temperatures can get well into the 20s. This coat was great. Our dog is 4 years old and he is fit and loves long walks off the lead. He was definitely comfortable with very little panting and seemed to enjoy his walks as much in the hotter weather as in the cold. The coat is well made and effective and will last a long time. Highly recommended.ProsWell made: We used this coat 2 or 3 times a week for 3 months and it still looks like new.Effective: Our golden was very happy to wear the coat and he could walk in quite hot conditions without any undue panting and he seemed as perky as usual. We continued to top up the coat by pouring water over it if it was seeming to dry out.Long lasting: The coat stayed moist and cool for 3 to four hours.Good fitting: The coat is easy to fit and is fairly secure. It may slip down a little but it is easy to adjust.Washes well: The coat does get dirty but it washes well if you follow the instructions.ConsDifficult to pack when dry: When dry the coat becomes rigid and can be difficult to fold.

I brought this to keep my rescued German Shepherd in Goa, India cool. The first test was two hour-long taxi journeys to the vets, plus a 5 hour wait, in 35 degree heat, a journey made many times before (His nose was bitten off by a leopard and he has been having operations to fix it, he's on Facebook at Give A Dog A Nose if you want to read more about his story).He panted far less on the journey with the cool coat, and seemed more comfortable - he actually sat down in the taxi for a change rather than always standing panting by the open window.The product is good and looks good. The fabric (which feels a bit like very thin wet-suit material), stitching, finishing is good. The evaporative cooling effect lasts a long time, even in this heat. The coat has never dried out, even overnight. There is a handy stitch-hemmed slit at the top of the shoulders for the lead to come through from the collar/harness.However, there are some limitations.Firstly, the fabric is pale sky blue, to make it reflective to heat. But it stains very easily. You can expect your coat to get grubby looking if your dog is out, about and active. But stains don't affect functionality. Also, I expect that here in the tropics black mould spots will appear on it over time. But if you don't mind "cosmetic issues" this isn't a problem. Within one day of use the coat has several stains on it from mud and soil.Secondly, the velcro strips on the chest and tummy straps are too thin. They do not hold together well. They tend to curl back at the ends and come undone. My German Shepherd is quite small and the chest strap droops too low and interferes with his forward front-leg movement which annoys him, even though the coat is correctly sized for him.Similarly, the tummy strap comes loose easily, or starts to undo or move.I find the best way to solve this is to put a harness on over it, as in the photo below. The harness holds it in place much better.The problems with the velcro straps could be easily solved if the velcro was wider, stronger/stickier, heavier and better quality.In my case I will probably bring the coat to a tailor and have the chest straps moved up and restitched and put a click-snap connector on them. And I will put a buckle or click-snap connector on the tummy strap too.I cannot imagine being able to walk or run far with my dog in this without it sliding around and becoming loose and inhibiting his movement.So I feel that I've brought a product that works well but is not finished - I need to customise it to the fit of my dog and to improve the fastenings.I do recommend it for cooling effectiveness, but the practical functionality for keeping it in place is lacking. I cannot imagine walking or running far with my dog without it starting to slip sideways or come loose. If I could get the fabric myself in future, I would buy the raw fabric and get a custom one made with my choice of fitting and connectors.So really you're buying the great water-retaining fabric here.Some very small changes in its design and production would make this an excellent product.

I bought this coat for my elderly golden retriever, she really suffers in the hot weather and as she's gotten older has been less able to enjoy her walks in the hotter months. She also has a heart condition, and the extra strain from the heat wasn't helping.This coat is amazing! I wasn't sure how well it would work but thought I'd give it a try, and it's well surpassed any expectations I had.The coat has kept her at a nice comfortable temperature; no more heavy panting or wanting to lay in every shady patch she sees. She's been much more relaxed on her walks, more energetic and able to enjoy herself.Even after being out sunbathing on the beach for three hours the coat had not dried out and she was very happy.The coat itself is lovely, it's amazing how soft it feels when damp. It took a few tries to find how much to ring it out, at first we rang it out too much and it dried out quicker, but we soon found what worked best. It folds up nice and small so we can damp the coat at home then just wrap it up in a plastic bag to take with us. And if we're out for a very long time we can just take a bottle of water with us to dampen it down again if needed.So glad I bought this coat, and I'm sure my dog is too!

This cooling coat is worth it's weight in gold, the best product we have ever bought we was absolutley dreading our caravan (they are very hot in a heat wave) holiday in south Devon with a heat wave predicted we wanted to be prepared so bought this along with taking fans etc we bought the large for our collie whos 95% black, and it's bigger than expected when went it gets wet it's alot looser on the body etc, it's also true if you pop your hand underneath the coat in 28°c heat your dog is cool. The only problem we had was keeping his pads cool but walked in the shade where possible and the sea was 10 minutes away for us it lasted loads longer than 4hrs, we did a re -wet after 5-6hrs. He had it on for 10-12hrs a day really did the trick absolutley amazing as we was so worried how he would cope but actually he coped really well, we on the other hand didn't was a huge talking point and some rather funny looks. Amazing and will buy again if needed 100%

Got this for my 37kg retired greyhound who really suffers in the warmer weather (anything over 15 degrees c!). So far it has been really effective, walks are a lot more comfortable in the sunshine and he is noticeably cooler and panting less. He is in a size large, an XL might have worked but Size L is good for him - he is a 26" normally in coats. Very happy and half the price of some other brands.