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There are a lot of good reasons to put a life jacket on your dog when out on the water. I’ve had dogs that are very strong swimmers and others that can hardly swim at all. No matter how good of a swimmer a dog is, just as is true for a human, a life jacket will provide an extra degree of safety. Here are two quick examples of why a life jacket is important, even for dogs that are excellent swimmers.

First, if a dog swims off after a stick, ball, or bird and keeps on going it may get disoriented or confused, swimming far out into a lake or pond. It is possible that even as a strong swimmer the dog will eventually get exhausted and begin to struggle. In this case, a life jacket can be a lifesaver.

Second, accidents happen to all of us. If you’re in a canoe, kayak, paddleboard, or even motorboat it’s possible the boat could capsize or the dog falls overboard. In the process, they may become injured such that they aren’t physically able to swim or are unconscious. Again, having a life jacket on can be a lifesaver.

Four Things to Look for in a Dog Life Jacket

1. Secure Fit

The most important aspect of any life jacket, dog or human, is that the fit is secure. This means that it should be physically impossible to get out of or slip out of the life jacket when properly secured. This is one reason I love Ruffwear’s Float Coat. It securely fastens around the abdomen and around the neck. The newer models eliminated the buckle on the neck strap, instead of using an even more secure cinch strap. There is no way for a dog to slip out of this life jacket if it is secured properly. If you are looking at other life jackets and they don’t secure both around the abdomen and neck I suggest you keep looking.

2. Wrap Around Flotation

This is a big one. You want to see floatation not just on the back and sides of the life jacket but also around the bottom and under the neck. If your dog becomes fatigued or unconscious you want them to float with its head out of the water. Cheaper life jackets typically have flotation only along the sides and back. This will most likely result in your dog floating with its face in the water, which is not what you want. The Ruffwear Float Coat goes one step further in that there is a little bit of flotation all around the neck strap, further assisting in keeping your dogs head out of the water.

3. Heavy Duty Handle

If I were to pick one feature on a dog life jacket that I use most often, it’s the handle. You want to make sure the handle is capable of bearing all of your dog’s weight. This makes it super easy to pull a dog back into a boat or up on a dock. The Ruffwear Float Coat handles are super heavy duty and after hundreds of uses, I’ve never seen any signs of the stitching giving out. Additionally, you want to make sure the handle is positioned such that when you pick the dog up by it they are reasonably comfortable.

4. Leash Attachment

It can really help to have a leash attachment somewhere on the life jacket. There is one main reason I prefer to attach a leash to the life jacket instead of a collar. Many years ago I saw a dog fall between a dock and a boat that was tied up. The dog was leashed by the collar and the leash snagged on a cleat. The dog was in a really bad spot for a number of reasons and the only way to help was to literally pull him back up onto the dock by his neck. Had the leash been attached to a life jacket the dog wouldn’t have been choked when he fell and could be safely pulled back on the dock. There are plenty of other circumstances one can imagine where having the dog tethered safely by their life jacket could save their lives.

Why I Love the Ruffwear Float Coat

I first bought a Ruffwear Float Coat for my dog Khyber because he was going to be doing scientific fieldwork with me in Northwest Ontario for several weeks. This work involved an extended period out on the water with heavy pieces of equipment. If he got hit with a piece of metal conduit or god forbid our boat or raft capsized I wanted to make sure he would be ok. It is standard practice for everyone to wear a life jacket when doing this work so it only made sense Khyber should wear one too. Khyber was a very strong swimmer, so strong that I taught him to swim to shore if someone grabbed onto his life jacket. He could pull an adult over a half-mile (probably farther) back to shore without any assistance from them. I would never have trusted him to do this if he wasn’t wearing a life jacket.

Khyber had his Ruffwear Float Coat for 10 years and besides being a little faded it is still going strong. When we welcomed our current dog Nico into our lives, we made sure he was outfitted with them as well. After more than a decade of using these lifejackets, I’ve never once had anything break on them or questioned their ability to keep my dogs safe.