All-Weather Olive Dog Coat

Most dogs do not need a coat. Thin-coated breeds, small dogs, old dogs and wet dogs going straight back into a cold car do. This is built for those cases: a 5,000mm water-resistant shell over a light fleece lining, warm enough for an hour out and quick enough to dry that it is usable again the next evening.

The cut is the part people get wrong. This one stops short of the front legs and clears the belly entirely, so the dog can extend into a trot without the coat riding up into its armpits. It fastens with a chest strap and a belly strap, both adjustable, both with reflective webbing.

Reflective piping runs along both flanks, across the chest and along the tail edge, so a car sees the dog from any angle rather than only in profile. On unlit country roads that is worth more than any amount of fabric technology.

Measure along the spine from the base of the neck to the base of the tail and buy to that number. Chest girth is the second check. If the girth is at the top of a size and the back length at the bottom, size up and take the straps in. Hose it clean, never machine wash: the wash strips the coating and then it is just a wet jacket.