Gear Review: Alcott Essential Visibility Dog Vest

Robin is a product ambassador for Alcott, so we received this vest at a significant discount.  It retails for $18.99 to $21.99 in sizes Small through Large.

Robin's medium brown color blends perfectly with the reddish dirt and dry foliage of Southern California, so I like to put him in a bright bandana or vest to make it easier to keep track of him and make him visible to others. This particular vest by Alcott is a brilliant fluorescent orange that leans a tiny bit pinkish, and has reflective trim and piping for nighttime visibility.  It also comes in highlighter yellow. 

Fit: 4/5. The vest has a flat nylon body and fastens with elastic chest and belly straps and lightweight black buckles. Robin at 18.5" girth is about the maximum size for the Small. The vest itself is cut to end about 3/4 of the way down the back but comes most of the way down his sides, which I find to be a good compromise between visibility and mobility. Robin isn't bothered by the vest, but even so I'd prefer that it had more of a Y-shape chest harness (no buckle needed) rather than a strap straight across the front legs.  

Robin leaping through the mountain scrub, totally unhindered by his vest

Design: 5/5. The body of the vest is made of three flat sections of flexible medium weight nylon, separated by reflective piping and edged in reflective trim. The elastic straps and plastic buckles make it quick to put on, and I appreciate the absence of velcro. It's lined in orange mesh and has a reflective Alcott character logo on each shoulder. Overall, the styling of the body is very nice with a sporty, slim cut. It's my favorite design out of all the major-brand visibility vests I've considered- Ruffwear was long and a bit heavy duty for a small dog, Kurgo while amazingly lightweight was unflatteringly baggy around the ribcage, his mesh Petco vest had velcro and tended to flop to the side, and Hurtta abruptly cuts the body in half.

Robin staying visible at dusk

Finishing: 3/5.  Unfortunately, the vest isn't finished with quite as much polish as it deserves.  The harness hole and the strap/vest attachment points at the chest have unfinished edges on the inside. The seam on the right-shoulder reflective piping is missing a few stitches and will probably need to be resewn eventually. And I was immediately disappointed by the fact that the packaging put pinprick holes in the back of the vest. However, from the outside the vest is well-finished and looks nice.  The straps are sewn on sturdily, the piping is even, and the reflective trim creates a nice finished edge.  

Underside

Durability: 4/5. Aside slight pilling on the mesh liner, the vest looks virtually new after a summer of use with zero wear to the reflectors or the nylon shell.  Neither the unfinished edges on the inside nor the holes from the packaging have frayed or gotten larger.  I suspect that the body of the vest will outlast the elastic belly band, since it's getting a little wavy on the edges as it loses some elasticity.

Out on the town in the Alcott vest

Overall: 4/5. I really like the cut and color of the vest and I would likely buy another if this one got lost.  It's very flattering on Robin, highly visible, and doesn't get in his way. I do hope that Alcott steps up their finishing a notch and also finds a better packaging solution to keep the vests intact!

Takeaways: 
Good for: Hiking, biking, neighborhood walks, nighttime and daytime visibility
Not ideal for: Extremely hot weather (find a mesh vest instead). 

Gear Review: Alcott Cooling Bandana

I'm thrilled to announce that Robin is now a product ambassador for Alcott! I chose several products out of their selection and received them at a significant discount.  This cooling bandana retails for $9.99 to $12.99 in sizes Small through Large.

Note: Do NOT use any cooling garment to compensate for unsafe temperatures.  No cooling product can keep your dog safe in an unsafe environment.

This is our first summer with Robin, and I was surprised by how quickly he gets tired in the heat. Where previously he was tireless, he's now lethargic at the halfway point. Even at home, he's constantly panting and seeking out cool patches of floor in our west-facing house.

I was curious to see how well a cooling product would combat this SoCal summer. There are a number of cooling products made for dogs, from bandanas to full coats, but Alcott's bandana is the first product I've seen that uses cooling bead technology. Alcott's line is meant for the casual adventurer, so the bandana isn't intended to keep a dog cool on long full-sun hikes, but I put it to the test to find its best applications.

Robin got so hot on a mid-day, 80 degree hike that I had him lie in
this tributary to cool off.  I'd already emptied and soaked his pack.

Technology: Most cooling products (for dogs and humans) use evaporative cooling, which is sort of like artificial sweating- as water in the highly absorbent garment evaporates, its phase change borrows heat from the remaining water, lowering the overall temperature of the garment. Evaporative cooling garments need to be re-hydrated as they dry; the frequency depends on the temperature and humidity.

Alcott's bandana, on the other hand, uses cooling beads, which swell and release cold after being soaked in water. Alcott doesn't give any specifics on the beads aside from mentioning that they're non-toxic. A significant advantage of cooling beads over evaporative cooling is that they stay cool a LONG time- only around the 48 hour mark do they start to dry out and shrink back down. The second big advantage is that the bandana is not wet for most of its active time, unlike evaporative cooling garments which are damp to the touch. This also means that it doesn't register as wet to dampness-averse Robin, who adores clothes but balks when his cooling vest appears.

Based on a brief test, cooling beads do seem to increase in weight more than a soaked evaporative cooling garment- with a three minute soak, the Alcott bandana tripled in weight from 8g (0.28 oz) dry to 23.7g (0.84 oz) soaked and wrung out, while Robin's Ruffwear cooling vest weighs 158g (5.57 oz) dry, and 2.3 times that- 362g (12.77 oz)- wet and wrung out.  0.84 oz is negligible for pretty much any dog in a bandana form, but this suggests that the cooling bead technology may be too bulky and heavy for a full vest.

Fit and Design: 4/5. The size Small fits Robin exactly. The bandana is made of very lightweight gray fabric with a black lining, printed logo, and velcro closure, and fastens securely. I don't prefer velcro on dog clothing because it tears up Robin's nylon collar, but I can't deny its weight and adjustability pros, and since this bandana fits Robin with the velcro matched, it doesn't snag his collar.  Our bandana has a flaw in the stitching on the bottom of the pouch.  Dry out of the package, it seemed to contain very few cooling beads, but after a few minutes of soaking, the beads expanded to plump up the pouch at the throat. The bandana is a little goofy looking when the beads are swollen, especially when it's left soaking too long and the pouch is full to bursting. Looks-wise, I think the product would be improved if they added a triangle-shaped bandana flap over the top of the cooling pouch.

Bandana testing on a late afternoon hike.
The tentative foot means that he's trying to make a critical decision.  

Cooling Power: 3/5 The most stunning thing about the cooling beads is the sheer length of time they stay cold. 48 hours of wear time without a refresh is fantastic- I hung up his bandana at the end of the day and popped it back on the next morning without re-soaking. (The bandana's cool factor is about equal to that of a wet washcloth- cold, but not freezing or damaging.) Since neither the bandana nor beads are actually wet, I don't have any concerns about him lying on our wood floors or on my side of the bed. When lounging in his well-wrung cooling vest, by contrast, he leaves a trail of drips at first, then wet spots wherever he rests.

However, though the bandana definitely does cool the area it covers, I can't be positive that it's making a significant difference in Robin's comfort level. Since it covers a relatively small area, it can't possibly compete with a full vest for cooling power and even his full vest only seems to reduce his panting to a limited extent. The fur underneath the bandana is cool to the touch, but I don't notice a major difference in his demeanor.  

A happy Robin modeling the bandana.

Overall: 3/5 No matter the technology, no bandana can compare to a full cooling vest. Because Robin's fur remained cool under the bandana, I can definitively say that the technology works. However, I can't say for sure that it makes enough of a difference in overall body temperature to recommend the bandana for trail use. It could be a good option for around the house because it's dry when in use, and it definitely has the longest wear-time of the cooling technologies. A dog with thinner hair than Robin would also likely experience more cooling.

Takeaways: 

Good for: short hikes, walks, home alone, long-term wear without refreshing, thin coated dogs, dry option for indoors.

Not ideal for: hot weather, direct sun, dogs with thick/heavy fur at the neck.

Updates: 
09/27/15 added ratings for each category and some further explanation.