

Soft elastic straps hold the coat down in the back, but users are divided over whether those back straps help or get in the way. "It's so easy to put on and adjust the girth, and he absolutely loves it," reports the dog's Brooklyn-based owner.

Meanwhile, the collar can pull up and keep your dog's neck warm.Ī Lab named Ronan tested the 20-inch size. We like that it has a hole that lets you attach a leash to a harness that's underneath the jacket. Online reviews from families in states such as Colorado, Maine and Alaska say that this makes winter life with their dogs better. The Finnish manufacturer of this dog parka grades it as appropriate for walking in temperatures from freezing to 20 degrees below. It's a lightweight coat perfect for chilly-to-freezing walks, but if you live somewhere that is regularly below freezing, you might want something a bit warmer than this. This dog jacket's popularity on Amazon (more than 30,000 five-star ratings!) is also impressive.
DOG BUBBLE COATS PLUS
A huge plus of this coat that it is reversible: Flip it so the solid color shows, and it's water-resistant. "I like that it uses cotton against the body for softness, and that it has a down alternative fill for more insulation," says Lexie Sachs, Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Executive Director.

We appreciate that there's a bit of a neck warmer and that it comes in so many fun plaid colors. There's a button hole at the neck that you can use to attach the dog's leash to their collar or harness. (Though we still got it wrong: We ordered a small for Rocky, a 26-pound Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and he needed a medium.) The coat wraps around and holds tight with hook and loop closures. Since this conforms with elastic and has some stretch, it's one of the few dog jackets that fits most breeds well. We narrowed it down to the best dog jackets for cold and rain. (Which is good for ease, but note that those strips do attract and hold on to dog hair, too.) We looked for coats that come in a wide variety of sizes or that are highly adjustable, and put a premium on coats that work easily with a harness. They prefer coats that wrap on and hold with hook-and-loop closures. We discovered that many owners don't want to slip their dog's legs through jacket holes - that can make putting on a coat a chore. To rank the best dog outerwear, we also took into account factors like how easy a jacket was to put on a dog, and we enlisted tester families to try them. In our Good Housekeeping Institute Pet Lab we evaluated a dozen dog jackets to look for materials that can deliver on the promise of being warm, waterproof or both. On the other hand, if you're out in freezing temperatures with no precipitation, you might want your dog in a genuinely warm coat." A regular dog coat that wasn't waterproof would not benefit her if she still got soaked to the bone. "For example, my dog has a raincoat if we choose to walk on a rainy day. "Outerwear should fit the activity you're doing," says Megan Conrad, MBBS, a veterinarian at (a HearstLab company) who lives in Portland with her Terrier-Chihuahua mix. (Your Husky or Chow Chow does not need winter clothing.) According to the American Kennel Club, that includes small breeds, like Chihuahuas and French Bulldogs, who don't generate much body heat low-to-the-ground dogs, like Corgis, who might brush their belly on snowdrifts or through slush dogs whose hair is clipped short, like Poodles and lean-bodied, short-hair dogs like Greyhounds and Whippets, who might get chillier than hairy breeds like Huskies. But small dog breeds are not as hearty as their large dog breed relatives, which is why you might want to dress your dog in a jacket. They have fur, and rain isn't going to make them melt. Dogs are generally able to withstand some bad weather.
