Safety Reflective Jackets
As the nights draw in and summer is a distance memory, people start to adapt to the shorter days and as we have had some requests for hivis jackets we thought we had better get the dogs on the case and try a few out.
After a lot of night-time walking and cutting back on carrots, (we didn't want our eyesight improved in any way!) this is what we thought of the ones we tried out.
Kurgo Reflect and Protect Active Dog Vest
On first impressions it didn't excite us, it appeared very lightweight and didn't cover all of Cocoa's body and although the colour of the vest is orange, it isn't that bright. The fabric is rain proof, however the quality of it doesn't seem as high as the Ruffwear Track Jacket™.
But after a night-time walk we changed our opinion, as this was certainly the most reflective of the three. It has the reflective strips down the sides and also at the front, (which after doing further research we realised not many other high vis jackets have anything at the front) and these could be seen clearly in the dark.
The LED lights on the vest back show up very well and if you don't want the appearance of a flashing Christmas tree, you can set the lights so they are continually on, which in our opinion was the better option!
Ruffwear Track Jacket
This is by far the brightest in colour and you can tell just by looking at it that the quality is very good.
It fits Luca well, he looks good in it, even though he does say so himself. However the reflective strips do not show up that clearly in the dark and we would recommend adding the Ruffwear Beacon™ light to the jacket to improve the visibility.
We added one of our Flashing LED Collars and that helped greatly.
In Comparison :–
As you can see from this photo the Kurgo Reflect and Protect Active Dog Vest on the right clearly shows up better from head-on due to the reflective tape on the front strap, and that for us is a great selling point, as we said before, it is quite unusual to find a Safety Reflective Jacket with reflective tape on the front.
We also really like the Ruffwear Track Jacket due to the great quality, the bright colour and the fact it covers more of the body, however we would recommend Flashing LED Collars to be worn in conjunction with it.
We will continue to search for the best high visibility jackets but we suspect there will always be a compromise, either not enough reflection, not good enough quality to withstand the day-to-day rigours, not warm enough, not waterproof enough, etc. etc.
We have added an alternative for those that need warmth and waterproof properties over the reflective qualities but still having some ability to reflect.
EzyDog Elements Jacket
This is the third option and it offers a little bit more than just a reflective jacket. It has a wind and shower outer shell and then lined with non-pilling fleece for extra comfort and warmth and retains the reflective piping along the sides (but not at the front). It also has a waterproof zipper access if your dog wishes to wear his harness underneath the jacket.
So to sum up, in our opinion, it's dark and it doesn't really matter what your dog looks like, but if you want to protect them as much as possible in the dark nights, we would suggest the Kurgo Reflect and Protect Active Dog Vest, no it's not that pretty but it does reflect and show up in the dark more than most, especially with the lights and here's the sweetest thing, it is also the cheapest option!