This is a little outside the realm of what I normally write about on here, but I want to discuss dog backpacks in this article. When someone talks to me about clothes for dogs, I’m usually thinking shirts, sweaters, and coats for dogs, not backpacks; but go with me here and I’ll tell you why I see backpacks as an important tool in my chihuahua’s wardrobe, and in each one of my dogs’ wardrobe, in fact.
So what the hell is a dog backpack? Well it’s just that: it’s a little backpack your pooch carries on his back to intensify the walk and make it more of a workout for him.
I do a lot of training work with dogs and their owners, and when it comes to the clothes owners buy for their dogs, I see two main kinds of customers: people looking to dress up their dog all cute and cuddly and make him adorable, and people who find their dog is a little too cold and want to find a sweater or a coat for their dog to keep him warm.
Costumes, sweaters, and coats for dogs accomplish accommodate those two types of cases quite well, but combining them with a dog backpack takes each of those one step further. For starters, they look so ridiculously cute on your dog that even if you’re walking by the neighborhood Grinch, you’re bound to get a high pitched, squeaky voice “OoOOooh! How cute!!” out of the person. But second of all, it keeps your little teacup chihuahua or your big german shepherd warmer by making the walk a more intense workout for him. And by making the walk more of a workout, your dog heats up faster from the more intense exercise, and so it actually helps keep your pooch warm from the inside out, in addition to him wearing a shirt or dog sweater underneath. If you live in a super cold place in the winter, this really helps; I’m from Canada and it is bloody freezing up there in the winter, and even with a sweater and shirt on, my dogs still shiver. But I add a dog backpack onto each of them, in addition to their clothes for dogs, and the shivering stops and they do great on the walk.
You can put whatever you want in the backpack. Personally, I fill my dogs’ backpacks with bottles of water or bean bags, depending the dog I have. I do a lot of fostering for different rescued dogs, so I adjust the weight for the particular dog I’m working with. With the pitbull mix I currently have, I load him up with 2 litres of water in his backpack, which intensifies the walk for him and makes a half hour walk seem more like a one hour walk for him, which is great because he’s got a lot of energy and needs a ton of exercise to stay balanced. For my chihuahua, though, I just put a beanbag in each side of the backpack and make her carry those on the walk, much less weight for her far smaller size, so I don’t strain here smaller muscles too much. The backpacks work great on our early morning walks, when it’s cold out and the dogs are cold and they’re also ready to tear a hole in the side of the planet with all their energy after just waking up!
So I highly recommend using a dog backpack if you live in a colder climate and want to help keep your k-9 companion a little bit warmer on the cool days of this brutal winter, or if you have a higher level energy dog who requires a lot of exercise each day. Along with your pooch’s other clothes for dogs, I’m sure he’d welcome a little backpack into his K-9 wardrobe, haha! So surprise him with a little backpack on his next birthday. You can find a lot of great ones online and actually some excellent ones in traditional pet stores. Check them out!
