Pet Apparel

How to Put a Sweater on a Dog

It takes a handful of moves, with a treat in your free hand. Gather the sweater into a ring from hem to neck, slip the neck opening over the head while the dog is standing, then guide one front paw at a time through the leg openings, bending the elbow forward instead of pulling the leg out sideways. Smooth the body of the knit down along the back last. Give the treat at the exact moment the head comes through, and within days most dogs push their nose into the collar on their own. For a wriggler, kneel behind the dog rather than in front of it, so there is nowhere to back out to.

Turtleneck, Roll Collar or Hood

The neck is where cable knits differ most, and it is the part a dog feels first. A low roll collar sits soft and flat, the easy start for a dog that dislikes anything close to its throat. A ribbed turtleneck rises toward the jaw and folds down into a double layer, which suits wind on an exposed street. A hooded knit adds a layer over the back of the skull and the shoulders, and it still warms the shoulders when the hood is down. Start a nervous dog in a roll collar and move up to a turtleneck once the sweater routine feels ordinary. Cats do best in a roll collar knit in the smallest sizes, where nothing rises past the neck.

Why a Spare Sweater Earns Its Place

A wool blend knit usually asks for the same care: washed by hand in cold, soapy water and left to air dry. Wool blend yarn holds water, so a knit washed in the morning can still be damp at dinner, and a dog walked twice a day through a wet winter comes home damp or muddy more often than that. A pair of sweaters, one on the dog and the other drying, is the setup that gets a dog through a whole winter without a damp knit going back on. Make the pair a lighter knit and a chunky one and they cover dry cold and wet cold as well. Party dresses and costumes sit outside the rotation, since they are made for an hour at a party rather than a day on the sidewalk.

A knit changes how a harness sits whichever one goes on top, so recheck the straps on the first walk and compare sizes in Pet Harnesses & Leashes, and for trips where your dog rides instead of walks, look through Pet Carriers.