About Voyagers K9 Apparel
Voyagers K9 Apparel came to life when the owners of greyhounds realized that nothing seems to fit their dogs correctly. They started their breed-specific clothing line, and today they have designs for more than 20 breeds and make a custom coat for others as well. Their quality products come in many colors, and they are made based on the need of your dog for the comfortable fit!
The details of the Voyagers K9 Apparel Rain Coat
First of all, we love that this coat has a unique design for each breed. For example, for dogs with long tails, they make it longer on the back to provide some protection for the tail as well. For dogs with short tails, they leave the coat shorter, so it is comfortable for them too.
The front of the coat has some access material to provide enough room for the legs when the dog is running around.
The material of this coat is Nylon-Taslan, which is waterproof but yet breathable. The soft mesh material lining on the inside of the jacket protects the dog’s fur and lets the air through.
We love the attention to detail with the design of this coat. The neck part is longer that you can use to pull over the ears and use it as a hood if they need extra protection in the wind. If your dog doesn’t like wearing it that high, it is still helpful to protect the dog from a heavy rain pouring under the coat through a low neck-opening. To make this part a custom fit, you can adjust the neck part with velcro under the neck.
The neck part has an opening for the collar attachment, and all their coats can be customized with a harness-opening as well.
The outer material is water-resistant, which makes the raindrops bead up on the coat.
The raincoat is held in place by two velcro straps under the belly, one on each side of the coat. These are elegant, thin straps with strong velcro on both sides that hold the jacket in place well.
Voyagers K9 Apparel Rain Coat Review
We have to mention the color of this coat because we are truly in love with it and get a lot of compliments from others. The raincoat comes in eight beautiful colors today, so you can surely find one that you will like ;)
This coat is lightweight and thin, but it feels durable and well-made. It is perfect for the spring or fall days, which are not too cold, but cold enough that you don’t want your dog to get soaked. If your dog gets cold quickly, you can put another layer under it and just put the coat over to protect it from rain and wind. One thing to mention is that the chest part is open; there isn’t coverage going back on the chest between the legs, so if you put a fleece under it, the chest and belly parts might get wet during the walk.
While we like this coat very much, we run into two issues worth mentioning.
The first is that strong wind can flip over the back of the coat since it doesn’t have anything going around the back legs to keep it down. We live in a very windy city, so this might be a more significant issue for us than others, but it’s a pain to keep adjusting the back of the coat in a massive storm.
Our other problem was with the DWR layer on the outer material. While the water was perfectly beading up on the coat over the first few weeks, after two months, most of the water-resistance was gone from the top layer. We haven’t washed the jacket yet and used only on rainy days - so that’s around ten walks probably. The coat is still not soaking through, the unique material of the jacket doesn’t let the water penetrating, but the coating itself absorbs some water and takes longer to dry after walks.
We contacted Voyagers K9 regarding this, and they stated that this is not how the coat typically behaves after this little use, so we are still investigating what the reason could be. The good news is that you can restore the waterproofness by applying a DWR treatment that you would use for human raincoats or camping gear. And again, this still doesn’t mean that the water is going through the coat, it still keeps Mia dry even though the top layer gets wet.
The coat is machine washable on a gentle cycle, and with lukewarm water, it can be even tumble dry on low. You have to keep in mind though that it’s normal for the waterproof layer to degrade over time and washing it frequently can speed up this process.
The coat is very comfortable for Mia, she can run around in it freely, it doesn’t restrict her movement, and it stays in place well even when she is off-leash. The coat has reflective piping around all edges, which makes it very visible in the dark.
Review Summary
We like that this is a lightweight coat that you can easily fold and store without taking up much room in a backpack. The colors and the design is beautiful and thought-through, while the material is also durable. Mia did run through bushes with it on, and the coat isn’t torn at all. There isn’t even a scratch on it so far.
Where to buy
You can find this raincoat among their other coats on their website. All of their products are stitched in the USA!
Mia’s measurements
Many of you asked Mia’s measurements to better understand the different products’ fit. Your best chance of finding a good fitting gear is always to measure (and remeasure) your dog. Even we grab the measuring tape before getting a new product - even though we tested a lot of them, and have a good feeling of her size by now.
I share her measurements below, but don’t go ahead and order the same size just because your dog is similar to Mia ;)
Shoulder height: 19.5 inches (50 cm)
Weight: 37-44 pounds (17-20 kg)
Widest chest circumference (where the most harness would have the chest strap): 25-26 inches (63-65 cm)
Neck circumference for collars: 15-16 inches (38-40 cm)
Back lengths: 22 inches (56 cm)