The Pineapple Express is ripping through California right now so that means lots of walks with Lola in the rain. It’s dangerous enough walking the streets around our house, as they are super windy and narrow, but throw in some bad weather and low visibility and they become downright treacherous.
To up the chance that we will both be seen when out for our daily walks, I’ve started throwing high-visibility gear on Lola in addition to what I wear myself. Proviz sent her a Reflect360 Waterproof Dog Coat to test out in addition to a cycling vest for myself (review to come later) and my friend Maija bought her a NiteHowl LED Safety Necklace from Nite Ize to match the collar she uses on her own two dogs.
The NiteHowl LED Safety Necklace uses two colored LEDs to ensure your dog can be seen from any angle and up to 1000 feet away. The collar runs off of two replaceable 1154 batteries that deliver up to 60 hours of run time.
A simple button lets you toggle between always on, flashing mode, or off. The collar comes as a universal size — you simply cut the flexible polymer tube to fit the exact size of your dogs neck. Be sure to leave it big enough that you can slip the collar on and off over your dog’s head.
The Proviz Reflect360 Waterproof Dog Coat is made from a special material that has millions of tiny reflective glass beads embedded within it. When a car’s headlights hit the coat, the millions of beads reflect back the light to the light source, i.e. the driver, meaning Lola becomes a bright white beacon on the road ahead of the vehicle (see the photo above). And as it is waterproof, the high-visibility coat doubles as a raincoat.
The nice thing about the dog coat is that there is no trying to wrangle it on over your dogs head or push her paws through leg holes. The coat opens flat, and secures via an adjustable Velcro neck strap as well as a similar chest/belly strap. My only complaint is that back of the coat tends to fly up in the wind which freaks Lola out a bit.
I like the combination of using both the collar and the coat, as the LED collar enables me to see Lola all the time, while the coat makes her more visible to cars. Bonus: This high-visibility gear is perfect for camping with your dog so you can see them at night. On a recent camping trip in Tomales Bay, my friend’s dogs wore the NiteHowl LED Safety Necklaces and even in the pitch black moonless night, we were able to see the fur kids at all times.
The Proviz Reflect360 Waterproof Dog Coat comes in four sizes to fit all kinds of dogs and retails for $40. The NiteIze NiteHowl LED Safety Necklace comes in four different colors and retails for $12.50 — both available now.