I had a very startling realization this morning.
I have a 2.5 yr old boxer who has a decent amount of drive, a good nose, and a good obedience foundation. All in all, I really have few complaints.
Until this morning. Every morning once I am up, my LESSER half has been bringing the dog under the covers for the last few minutes before getting up. Obviously, I knew, and would mention it from time to time that I really don't want that...
So this morning it's pretty cold out. (35 is COLD in SC!) I open the door and call her.
She comes running down (normal) then skids to a halt at the door jam and runs back upstairs to jump back in bed (not normal)
After I stopped laughing (the look on her face was priceless) I realized I am supposed to be doing something leader-ly, and I took care of the initial problem.
My realization is that I think I need to find a good working coat for her. Any suggestions? It would really need to be warm, but also hold up well to nature. I've been looking all morning with little success.

Does she shiver when she is outside?

yeah.;-) prolly should have mentioned that earlier. She has a pretty thin coat. This winter I was laid up with a knee injury so I didn't train much outside at all. Last winter I had a coat for her that was destroyed pretty quickly.

luc doesn't handle being stopped in cold well.

i have a ruffwear jacket for him that i really like:
http://www.ruffwear.com/Cloud-Chaser-Soft-Shell-Jacket?sc=2&category=12

fits well and is a nice design.

cool. I like this... does it fit well?

i find it does. luc's actually wearing it (with a ruffwear harness) in my sig picture. it's comfy enough i can leave it on him for long periods and he's perfectly happy in it.

i also like the construction and materials, but then i tend to being a bit of a minor gearhead in human hiking/backpacking/canoeing, so....it transfers over.

I had an older version of this, many many years ago. The stitching gave out on it so I stopped using ruffwear for a few years. I speak gearhead well, so I fully understand what you mean! My next question is... do you know of a company that makes rappelling harnesses for dogs... ;-) Eventually, I will need one. I've used tubular webbing, but that just isn't comfortable!

no....by rappelling, you want to lower him?

luc and i are going to be running a trail at the end of june which is in some very old (and short ) mountains - i've backpacked the trail before and know there are some points where i will have to lower him.

i have passed luc across a stream (second day i had him; he's scared of water, though now learning to swim and capable of crossing streams under his own power) using a ruffwear harness (from the backpack, but same difference as the one he's wearing in the picture).

the harness i run him in now is a 2" wide tracking harness with a nice strong clip and i plan to use that to lower him in the few places necessary. but i don't think it'd be great for longer-lasting rappelling.

jennifer coulter might have some good suggestions - she does avalanche patrol (if i'm remembering right) w/her dog.

cool! yeah, that is what I mean. I've done some harness work just getting her used to the idea of being harnessed to me and being lowered, but I haven't done much due to the harness issue. I've hung ONCE in a hand tied harness on a dare... NEVER again! And I'm not willing to make my dog deal with that either!

I have had my own thread here looking for good rappelling harness for my dog! You ready for a novel!?

What is available depends on what you want it for.

Do you just need to pick the dog up with a harness....

Do you just want the harness for repelling only and the dog will only wear it for that purpose and then you will remove it...

or do you want a harness that the dog can wear all day/work in and be rapell ready?

Will it be short distances, protection in case of a fall, or hanging under a helicopter....

Some of the harnesses the dog can wear and rapell with are NOT supportive enough in the back end for heavier dogs or long rapells IME. Short ones would be fine. This is an example of one of those:
http://www.allk-9.com/search-and-rescue-131/harnesses-211/tactical-insertion-harness-73.html

I ended up having one made for me by a friend. My dog is too small for the commercially available ones. Nothing available for dogs under 50 lbs. It is not the kind you would wear all the time, but one that I would use in emergencies if my dog and I got stuck on a chairlift for example.

For something like glacier travel where the dog must be roped up in a harness in case of a fall in a crevass, I have seen this ruffwear harness modified in the following way:
http://www.ruffwear.com/Web-Master-Harness?sc=2&category=1131


Fastex and all plastic buckles replaced with fall rated clips/hardware. Plastic d ring removed. All attachment points bar tacked or riveted for extra security. Dog can be tied in at two attachment points up top.

The benefit of this harness and the tactical insersion harness over others is that it is very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. A small extra peice that sits in a pouch on the harness can be added so that in dangerous areas the added part can be put over the dog's hind end, where the harness does not have support.

Here is a more cumbersome harness, it has the added rear end peice if needed.:
http://cmcrescue.com/product.php?dept_id=20662

A friend is doing some experimenting in fabricating some items that fit our needs well. He makes some nice stuff. He also made me a harness that is an id harness that has all metal hardware and then has an peice that can be added to if the dog needs to search on belay or be on a glacier. He is making some adjustments to it to fit my dog better.

Here are a couple of pics that show some, mostly home made jobs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/farwesttoller/Harnesses?authkey=jhtKC-wkF_0



The kind used to long line dogs under the helicopter are more lik a big sling with leg holes..very supportive, multiple points to clip in to balance the dog...

Hope something here helps.