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After new testing, we think the WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Premier Free Parka Deluxe Dog Coat is the best coat for most dogs, and we also have several other new picks to choose from. Tiny Dog Clothes
The coat rack by my back door features three dedicated hooks: one for me, one for my wife, and one for our dog, Dave. When the mercury starts to drop, Dave, despite being covered with a wiry layer of fur, shivers and refuses to go outside unless he’s all bundled up.
He may be spoiled, but he’s no prima donna—plenty of pups might need an extra layer to stay comfy in foul conditions, depending on their breed, age, health, and conditioning. And in milder, wet weather, a light raincoat can keep most of a dog’s body dry and help minimize wet-dog smell after a walk—a relief for the entire household.
After researching and testing dozens of coats for dogs of all shapes and sizes, we found five well-designed options to help any dog brave the elements.
With an exterior made from the same material as some horse blankets, this coat is strong enough to keep chills at bay and survive vigorous play. It’s simple to wear, easy to clean, and available in 12 sizes, so it can fit a wide range of bodies.
This uninsulated waterproof coat will keep your dog’s torso dry, but it isn’t meant for overly cold weather. It comes in six sizes that fit dogs with a chest girth from 13 to 42 inches.
This coat’s silvery reflective exterior offers high visibility at night, with the bonus of making your dog look like a little astronaut. It’s water resistant, warm, and available in a dozen sizes but only one color.
With adjustment points on the collar, shoulders, and rear, this coat adapts to an array of dog shapes and sizes. It offers more body coverage than our other picks and is the easiest to put on and take off, but it’s expensive, and it doesn’t fare as well with spot cleaning.
This lightweight winter coat is stylish, easy to put on, and designed with a convenient loop for hanging—a surprisingly rare feature among the coats we tested. It has buckles that keep the straps locked in place, too. But like our other upgrade pick, it’s expensive.
With an exterior made from the same material as some horse blankets, this coat is strong enough to keep chills at bay and survive vigorous play. It’s simple to wear, easy to clean, and available in 12 sizes, so it can fit a wide range of bodies.
The WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Premier Free Parka Deluxe Dog Coat Medium can keep your dog warm and dry when temperatures plummet. Made from the same material that the company uses for its horse blankets, the 1,200-denier exterior is durable enough to withstand teeth large and small. Its snug, gusseted front panel hugs the dog’s chest yet still allows them to move freely, and its hook-and-loop fasteners are a cinch to use.
This uninsulated waterproof coat will keep your dog’s torso dry, but it isn’t meant for overly cold weather. It comes in six sizes that fit dogs with a chest girth from 13 to 42 inches.
The durable and lightweight Ruffwear Sun Shower Dog Raincoat keeps a dog mostly dry on rainy days, but since it is uninsulated, we don’t recommend using it in temperatures below 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on your dog’s needs and preferences.
This coat’s silvery reflective exterior offers high visibility at night, with the bonus of making your dog look like a little astronaut. It’s water resistant, warm, and available in a dozen sizes but only one color.
If you’re concerned about visibility after the sun goes down, the WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Reflective Dog Coat Medium makes a dog easier to spot by bouncing light from headlights, flashlights, and streetlights. It has the same fitted cut as our top warm-coat pick, the company’s Premier Free Parka, and it cleans up easier than most of our other picks.
With adjustment points on the collar, shoulders, and rear, this coat adapts to an array of dog shapes and sizes. It offers more body coverage than our other picks and is the easiest to put on and take off, but it’s expensive, and it doesn’t fare as well with spot cleaning.
The Hurtta Expedition Parka comes in more sizes than all of our other picks. It also provides the most body coverage, as it can extend from the top of a dog’s neck just behind the ears all the way to the very back of the rump, while still allowing space for their tail to move and wag. It offers several adjustment points, which further help you ensure a good fit.
This lightweight winter coat is stylish, easy to put on, and designed with a convenient loop for hanging—a surprisingly rare feature among the coats we tested. It has buckles that keep the straps locked in place, too. But like our other upgrade pick, it’s expensive.
The Ruffwear Vert Dog Jacket offers several impressive features, including a hanging loop and a lightweight waterproof material, but the real standout is its fastener system. The two side buckles are designed to prevent the straps from coming loose, and they’re hidden under what the company calls a “shingle,” essentially a little pocket that protects them from roving dog jaws.
I’m a staff writer on Wirecutter’s pets team and a devoted animal friend. I’ve lived with cats, dogs, a parakeet, and several stray stowaways over the years. I currently have a sweet mutt named Dave, who often helps with testing.
For our latest update of this guide, we researched 18 new coats and tested nine by soiling, soaking, washing, and clawing at each of them to see how they held up under duress. We also interviewed three veterinarians who teach and practice at veterinary schools in Indiana, New York, and Wisconsin to understand more about what types of dogs might need coats the most, and what the benefits and dangers are of wearing apparel. We also spoke with representatives from several manufacturers to understand their priorities in researching and developing their dog coats.
During the winter, the temperature at which a dog might need a jacket varies greatly depending on their breed, age, size, fur thickness, and health status. But all the vets we spoke with recommend keeping an eye on your dog’s behavior and comfort level when the temperature drops to about 40 or 45 degrees Fahrenheit and to pay extra attention when it hits freezing or below.
“What I will tell people is, typically anything that’s going to be too cold for them has the potential to be a problem for their pet,” said Paula Johnson, a veterinarian and professor at Purdue University.
Above 40 °F or so, an insulated dog jacket may be overkill, and vigorous exercise in a warm coat at above-freezing temperatures can eventually overheat your dog. “The coat’s purpose is really to extend the duration of time that a dog can comfortably be outside,” said Amy Nichelason, a veterinarian and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But, she added, even considering all the physical and health variables, “it really comes down to the individual dog” as to whether they need a coat or can even tolerate one.
Not all dogs need an extra layer, even in freezing temps. Nordic breeds, such as huskies, that have adapted to arctic temperatures might be happier in the cold without a coat, but more than one vet told us that it depends on what they’re used to. So if your dog is shivering, lifting their paws, or behaving in a way that is not normal for their daily walks, it’s probably a good time to either bring them inside or provide a warm layer.
If it’s raining but not cold, an uninsulated raincoat can help keep most of your dog’s torso dry. But it’s important to confirm that it doesn’t make your dog too hot. Nichelason explained that, because a lot of raincoat material isn’t breathable, a dog may not be able to dissipate heat the way their body needs to. Keep an eye out for excessive panting and other signs that your dog might be overheating.
Size guides vary among companies, so you need to measure your dog according to the brand’s specifications. But even then, the fit might be off—for some of our testers, we had to exchange sizes from nearly every brand. And be warned: Some dogs act as if measuring their body is a violation of the Geneva Convention, so if you do decide to order a new coat, first verify whether you can return it if it doesn’t fit.
If you don’t know whether your dog needs a jacket for your climate, ask your vet. And always supervise your dog while it’s wearing a jacket or coat.
We tested five pairs of dog boots over four weeks with three dogs and found the Original All-Weather Muttluks will best protect your dog’s paws come winter.
We looked at coats that were designed to keep dogs warm in cold weather, dry in wet weather, and both during longer outdoor activities. We focused on coats with the following features:
We also scoured online reviews to find the biggest complaints about dog coats, and we dismissed models that had multiple recent complaints about sizing, durability, quality of construction, and chafing.
For the latest update, we focused on winter coats, taking advantage of a massive deep freeze and snowstorms that spread across much of the country, including Nebraska, where we were testing. We stand by our current raincoat pick, but we will conduct more tests this spring on some new wet-weather options.
We considered 18 highly rated winter jackets, testing nine of them over the course of two winter months. Our staff dog tester, Dave, sported each coat on multiple walks in a variety of cold and wet conditions, including subzero temperatures, 8-plus inches of snow, and lacerating winds. We also had help from Argos, a 115-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback, Arthur, an 11-pound mystery mutt, and Gladys, a 51-pound Australian shepherd, cattle dog, beagle, and terrier mix.
We evaluated each coat based on its performance in the following categories:
Construction and appearance: We followed each manufacturer’s sizing instructions and judged how well each coat fit, taking note of the amount of coverage on the neck, back, belly, rump, and legs. We also checked the location of each coat’s leash hole, evaluating how well it lined up with a few of our dog harness picks. After several walks, we took note of any changes in the coat’s appearance, such as dirty spots, loose threads, pilling, discoloration, or other blemishes.
Ease of use: If a coat is too hard to get on or off, your dog might resist wearing it—and you might be inclined to skip it. We dressed Dave in each coat multiple times, taking note of how long the process took and how easy or difficult it was.
Durability: To imitate thorns, dog claws, and sharp puppy teeth, we scratched the exterior of each coat 50 times with a set of Wolverine-like meat shredders. We also yanked on all buckles, zippers, and hook-and-loop strips to see how well each coat’s fasteners held up.
Water and wind resistance: We saturated a spot on the exterior of each coat, hitting it for 30 seconds with water from a hose hooked up to a shower pipe. We did this before putting each coat through three rounds in a washing machine, and then again afterward, to see if the wash cycles eroded any water-resistant coatings. We also re-created windy conditions by placing a hair dryer at full blast on one side of each coat and checking whether the air could move a ball of dryer lint and a few tiny feathers on the other side; all of our picks passed this test.
Cleanability: We wiped a thick glob of mud on each coat and let it sit for about an hour. Then we scooped up the still-damp mud chunks and tackled the drier, caked-on mud beneath with paper towels dipped in soapy water. We observed how clean or dirty each spot looked. Next, we ran each coat through a washing machine three times on a cold, delicate cycle, and per the instructions for all, we let them air dry between washes. We then examined the seams, threads, and construction, and we looked for any remaining signs of dirt or discoloration.
Insulation and heat retention: We filled 5-gallon camp showers with tap water at roughly 105 °F and wrapped the jackets around them. We then left them in a garage for four hours in single-digit temperatures. We took readings every 15 minutes from Govee Bluetooth thermometers inside the jackets to calculate heat loss over time. Since a dog produces its own heat (and tends to not be water-bag shaped), and because we didn’t perform this test in a lab, we put less weight on these results than on the other criteria mentioned above, but it still gave us a rough sense of insulation performance.
With an exterior made from the same material as some horse blankets, this coat is strong enough to keep chills at bay and survive vigorous play. It’s simple to wear, easy to clean, and available in 12 sizes, so it can fit a wide range of bodies.
The WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Premier Free Parka Deluxe Dog Coat Medium has a no-nonsense design that prioritizes function over fashion. With insulation made from a warm 220-gram polyfill, it offers durability, a tailored fit, and a broad range of sizes for an affordable price, all of which combine to make it an excellent choice for everyday winter activities. (Note that the “Medium” in this coat’s name refers to the fill weight, not its size.)
It’s durable enough for dogs (and horses). WeatherBeeta initially started producing dog coats by using the leftover scraps from its horse products. The Premier Free Parka’s outer shell is constructed from the same waterproof 1,200-denier fabric that the company uses for some of its horse blankets. It was “designed to go on horses who are out with other horses biting and chewing,” said Elaine Dunn, account director at WeatherBeeta.
The exterior shell is thicker and stronger than the 300-denier fabric of our former top pick, the WeatherBeeta ComfiTec Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe Dog Coat, and it stood up to our best shredding efforts, showing no trace of damage. During our water tests, the interior remained perfectly dry.
The fitted design still allows freedom of movement. Elastic shoulder and chest gussets are new features in WeatherBeeta’s dog-coat lineup. They allow the Premier Free Parka to provide a snugger fit than the Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe offers, while also permitting shoulder mobility when the dog is running and playing. “The older style fits a little roomier than the new style,” Dunn told us. “Like if you’re buying a dress shirt, it’s fitted versus a regular cut.” We found that the fitted style of the Premier Free Parka (and the company’s ComFiTec Reflective Dog Coat Medium, one of our also-great picks) hugged Dave’s chest and belly, exposing less surface area to the frigid winter air than the Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe.
It’s easy to use. The Premier Free Parka’s hook straps line up with their loop counterparts on each side of the body of the coat. Ensuring that the coat fits symmetrically can take a bit of adjusting on each side, but once you’ve done that, the fasteners hold tight. This coat’s elastic rear-leg loops are thicker than those on our upgrade picks, and we think they’re less likely to stretch out over time.
The material is stiff. The Premier Free Parka doesn’t drape like our upgrade picks do, so in our tests it often lifted up off Dave’s body when he bent down to sniff things, defeating the purpose of his having a coat on to begin with. This problem was mitigated by the rear-leg loops—which we used on all of our picks to help keep the coats in place—but using those loops might not be an option if your dog won’t cooperate when you’re trying to lift their hind legs.
The leash portal on this coat is perpendicular to the buckle of many harnesses. Because of this design, accessing a harness’s leash attachment beneath takes some fiddling. This orientation also requires you to leave the leash hole spread open, exposing a small patch underneath to the elements. WeatherBeeta representatives told us that the company is looking into updating this alignment in the future. Of all our harness picks, the Kurgo Tru-Fit Smart Dog Walking Harness worked best with this coat because its leash clip slides forward and backward on a strap that you can pull through the hole.
We noticed some loose threads scattered around the coat. Some of the hemming was a little rough around the edges, most notably near the elastic gussets. The stitching never loosened or unraveled even after we put the coat through multiple wears and washes, but we’ll keep an eye on it in our long-term testing.
This uninsulated waterproof coat will keep your dog’s torso dry, but it isn’t meant for overly cold weather. It comes in six sizes that fit dogs with a chest girth from 13 to 42 inches.
The Ruffwear Sun Shower Dog Raincoat has been our raincoat pick since 2017, and it continues to be a great option to keep a dog dry on warm, rainy days. In recent years the company made some key updates to the coat’s design, including adding a leash opening and rear-leg loops. It also extended the coat to cover more of the neck, rump, and thighs. This coat is not insulated and is much lighter than our winter-jacket picks, so we don’t recommend using it in cold temperatures below roughly 40 °F to 45 °F.
It’ll keep your dog mostly dry. In our tests, the Sun Shower coat fit snugly over the back of several differently shaped dogs and kept the covered area of each pup dry. It’s waterproof inside and out: The jacket’s lining has no padding and won’t absorb any water that happens to sneak underneath.
Its clever buckle design keeps the straps in place. The Sun Shower coat attaches via two buckles on each side of the dog’s torso; once you adjust them the first time, you shouldn’t need to mess with them again, unless your dog changes in weight. The buckles’ receptacle ends are hidden under what Ruffwear founder Patrick Kruse calls “shingling,” which protects them from water and abrasion. The buckles are a Waveloc design that helps keep the straps from loosening up during use. “When dogs are wearing coats, the first few times they wear them, they will shake like they’ve just come out of a rainstorm,” said Kruse. “When they shake, they induce this whip, and that whip will actually loosen up the webbing through the hardware,” he explained.
It’s a cinch to clean. After we used the Sun Shower coat on several walks, it accumulated some dirt on both the interior and exterior that wiped off immediately with a wet paper towel. The coat also held up well in the washing machine and dried quickly at room temperature on a hanger.
The buckles can be hard to access for some people. Though the buckle system is one of this coat’s best features, the fasteners can be harder to reach and to work with than Velcro for people with limited hand dexterity, especially while the dog is squirming to get out the door.
This coat’s silvery reflective exterior offers high visibility at night, with the bonus of making your dog look like a little astronaut. It’s water resistant, warm, and available in a dozen sizes but only one color.
The WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Reflective Dog Coat Medium is very similar to the company’s ComFiTec Premier Free Parka Deluxe Dog Coat Medium, with the same insulation and tailored fit, but this model’s exterior shell is fully reflective, giving your dog high visibility on night walks.
It turns a dog into a disco ball. Every jacket we tested had reflective accents or strips placed in strategic areas around the coat, but the Reflective Dog Coat takes the idea to another level, with its entire exterior consisting of a luminous material. During the day, the silver color might look as if your dog is setting off for the moon, but when lights bounce off it at night, this coat truly shines.
It’s a champion in the never-ending battle to keep things clean. The Reflective Dog Coat was the easiest to spot-clean of all the coats we tested. Mud sloughed right off the jacket’s slick surface, and after a few wipes with a wet paper towel, not a visible trace of dirt remained. After three wash cycles, this jacket still looked pristine, and it dried faster than most of the other winter jackets we tested.
It keeps your dog as dry as a bone. Though WeatherBeeta lists the Reflective Dog Coat as “showerproof” (as opposed to the “waterproof” rating of the company’s Premier Free Parka), this model repelled water as well as the rest of our picks did, with no moisture penetrating to the inside of the jacket in our testing.
It shares many flaws with our top pick. Like WeatherBeeta’s Premier Free Parka, the Reflective Dog Coat has a harness hole that is perpendicular to most rear harness buckles. We also noticed loose threads near the elastic gussets, similar to those that we found on the Premier Free Parka. And this coat is stiff too, so you need to use the leg straps to keep it a snug fit on your dog’s body.
It’s available in only one color. This coat is designed to reflect light, so if you’re not a fan of silver, go with one of our other picks. If bright colors are more your thing, our former top pick, the WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe Dog Coat, is available in highlighter yellow or orange.
We don’t know what the exterior is made of. Unlike with many of its other models, WeatherBeeta doesn’t specify what fabric or weave it uses for this coat’s exterior. Though the material held up well in our meat-shredder testing, without knowing more details, we can’t be as certain of this model’s long-term durability as we are with our other picks.
With adjustment points on the collar, shoulders, and rear, this coat adapts to an array of dog shapes and sizes. It offers more body coverage than our other picks and is the easiest to put on and take off, but it’s expensive, and it doesn’t fare as well with spot cleaning.
The Hurtta Expedition Parka has multiple adjustment points that make it the most adaptable of our picks to a wide range of dog shapes and sizes. It’s also the easiest coat to put on and take off among those we tested, and it covers more of a dog’s body than the rest of our picks.
It provides coverage from neck to rump. This coat has an extended collar that functions like a turtleneck, keeping your dog’s neck warm and dry, while its large rump flaps keep most of your dog’s butt covered without getting in the way of their tail—or their daily business. The fabric also covers the front of their shoulders, incorporating elastic gussets to allow for extra mobility and range of motion, similar to the design of our WeatherBeeta picks. This coat draped nicely and retained the most heat in our insulation test. Hurtta (a Finnish brand) rates the jacket for temperatures from 30 °F to -20 °F and uses a 140-gram polyfill in all but its two smallest sizes, which use 120-gram polyfill.
There’s a good chance you’ll find a great fit. The Expedition Parka is our only pick that allows you to adjust the length as well as the width; with its elastic shock cord and lock, you can cinch the back shorter by up to 2 inches. “If it doesn’t fit right, it will be really uncomfortable, and the dog’s not going to be happy,” said Ann-Sofi Maycher, sales director for Hurtta North America. The coat has two other elastic adjustment points—one on the neck and one at the top of the shoulders—that help keep wind out and your dog’s body heat in. In addition to its unparalleled adjustability, the Expedition Parka is available in more sizes than any other coat we tested.
Putting it on and taking it off is a snap. A strap extends from the belly panel and attaches to itself with a single buckle that lands near the dog’s spine. Since the buckle doesn’t need to match up to a fixed landing point on the surface of the coat, it allows for a snug fit on a wide range of sizes. Unless your dog gains or loses weight, the buckle should remain set to fit after the initial adjustment.
It doesn’t clean up as well as our other picks. Though most of the mud in our spot-cleaning test came off easily and quickly, a faint dirt patch remained after the area dried. That stain mostly came out in the wash, but we could still see a bit of barely noticeable discoloration under bright, direct lighting.
We noticed a couple of durability issues. The Expedition Parka has the softest inner lining of the coats we tested, but it’s vulnerable to rubbing. We noticed two spots of pilling in the areas where the buckles of a Ruffwear Front Range Harness rubbed against it after several walks. Also disappointing: The elastic rear-leg straps stretched out more on this coat than their counterparts did on our other picks, and as a result they were less effective at holding this coat in place.
This lightweight winter coat is stylish, easy to put on, and designed with a convenient loop for hanging—a surprisingly rare feature among the coats we tested. It has buckles that keep the straps locked in place, too. But like our other upgrade pick, it’s expensive.
The Ruffwear Vert Dog Jacket fastens with hidden buckles to keep them away from a dog’s curious chompers. This durable, waterproof, and lightweight winter jacket also drapes well over a dog’s body, covering most of the neck and rump.
It’s designed to keep your dog’s tail wagging. Like our other upgrade pick, the Hurtta Expedition Parka, the Vert coat has a cutout to allow the tail to wag freely, while still covering more of a dog’s body than our WeatherBeeta picks. “If it’s too long, they can poop on it,” said Ruffwear founder Patrick Kruse. “So you have to contour it and make it wrap their rump.” And the rear-leg loops help keep everything in place. The Vert coat is made from 120-gram recycled polyester—a lighter fill than in our other picks—but this model retained warmth just as well as our other picks did in our tests.
You need to adjust the straps only once. The Vert coat has the same attachment system as the company’s Sun Shower raincoat, with two Waveloc buckles attached at the sides under a protective shingle, so the straps won’t slide out of place when your dog moves around or shakes. In our tests, the Vert coat was easier to get on and off than nearly all the other winter coats we tried (with the exception of the Hurtta Expedition Parka), because once you set the length of the straps, you don’t have to do it again unless your dog changes in size.
It has a simple design with convenient details. The Vert coat is the only one of our picks that has a loop inside the collar so that you can hang it up with your human coats. It also has an external attachment loop where you can clip a light for greater visibility at night.
The high-touch points can start to look dirty. After several walks with the Vert coat, we noticed that the area around the harness hole started to look dingy. A lot of this discoloration—but not all of it—faded after we put the coat through three rounds in the washing machine.
The buckles require some hand dexterity. As with the company’s Sun Shower raincoat, the Vert coat’s hidden buckle receptacles might be difficult to reach and clip into if you’re wearing gloves or have limited hand mobility.
The WeatherBeeta ComFiTec Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe Dog Coat was our main pick in this guide for many years, and it’s still a great cold-weather dog coat, but in our latest round of testing, the newer, fitted WeatherBeeta styles performed better. The Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe didn’t clean up as well, and its looser, baggier cut left more surface area exposed, but since dog body types vary, that looser cut might not be an issue for you. The Reflective Parka 300D Deluxe is just as waterproof, durable, and easy to put on as our new top pick, and it comes in two high-visibility colors, so it’s still a great choice if that’s a priority for you.
Though the Carhartt Dog Chore Coat looks great, it isn’t a suitable winter coat for most dogs. The coat is thin, yet it’s so stiff that it popped up whenever our dog tester bent down to sniff the ground. It has no rear-leg loops to keep it in place, and it lacks a leash hole to accommodate a harness. It’s easy to get on and off, but it has an attachment system similar to that of the GF Pet Elasto-fit Camplife Dog Puffer, and we found that the chest panel limited the dog’s shoulder mobility.
GF Pet’s Elasto-fit Camplife Dog Puffer is adorable and has an easy hook-and-loop attachment system that doesn’t require you to pull the coat over the dog’s head. But we found that the fit was awkward: The chest panel limited the dog’s forward shoulder movement, despite the elastic in that area, and the end of the coat fell far short of our tester’s rump. The leash hole was positioned out of line with the harnesses we tested, and our meat shredders caused minor but noticeable damage.
Hurtta’s Extreme Overall was by far the hardest coat to put on and remove. This coat has four legs, but getting all four paws through their respective leg holes took several long, unhappy minutes before each walk in our tests. Other than that, this coat performed well. It covers more of a dog’s body than any other coat we tested, and it’s as adjustable as the company’s Expedition Parka. It’s also the only coat we tested that comes with a gaiter that you can pull up to cover your dog’s ears, if they’ll let you. If you’re regularly going out in subzero temperatures, this model may be a good choice if your dog will tolerate the dressing and undressing process.
The Kurgo Loft Dog Jacket had decent waterproofing, yet for a winter jacket it didn’t do much to keep most of our dog tester warm. Its sizing, especially compared with that of the company’s North Country Dog Coat, was oddly small and missed covering about half the dog. This model also attaches with Velcro on the outside of the stomach piece; as a result, the dog is likely to drag the attachments through mud and grass, wearing them down.
The Kurgo North Country Dog Coat can be forgiven for its poor insulation by virtue of being a raincoat, but since it failed at almost everything else in our tests too, it isn’t worth your time. Its worst offense was sliding around on our dog tester even with a snug fit, especially during walks. It could possibly keep water off half your dog if your pup stands in the rain and holds perfectly still.
The Ruffwear Cloud Chaser Dog Jacket was a much lighter jacket than we anticipated when we picked it for testing in 2018. It can keep a dog warm in cool weather, but we don’t recommend it for very cold temperatures. In our tests, its waterproofing didn’t hold up against anything stronger than a light mist.
The Ruffwear Furness Dog Jacket performed well in nearly all of our tests, but it was the second-most difficult model to put on in our test group. Two front neoprene-like leg sleeves help keep more coat material in contact with the dog’s underside, but we found that the task of lifting the dog’s paws and getting them through the stretchy material was a chore. This model is also one of the most expensive dog coats we looked at, but if you don’t mind the high price and think that you and your dog can tolerate the leg work, the Furness coat is an excellent option to keep your dog warm and dry.
The Ruffwear Powder Hound Dog Jacket isn’t a bad coat, but in our 2018 testing it failed to match our picks in insulation and waterproofing prowess. It started to absorb water after just a short period in wet weather. Because it secures via a zipper and has no adjustable connections, broader dogs may need to size up from what the measurements recommend for a comfortable fit.
The Zach & Zoey Nor’easter Blanket Coat offers acceptable insulation, but its design is bad for wet weather. It attaches to a dog via Velcro around both the neck and chest, leaving its fleece-lined interior exposed on the edges to any moisture you’re trying to avoid. Plus, with Velcro in two spots on this coat, our dog testers were able to remove it in seconds.
We’re currently testing new raincoats, including the Frisco Lightweight Reversible Packable Travel Dog Raincoat and Hurtta Monsoon Coat ECO. And next winter, we’ll be looking at a few highly recommended coats from small brands, such as Doggie Design’s Alpine Extreme Weather Puffer Coat and Goldpaw’s WinterPaw, as well as Finnish brand Rukka’s Stormy Coat and Warmup 2.0 Coat, both of which are available on the company’s new online store for US-based customers.
Rebekah Valentine wrote an earlier version of this guide, first published in 2017. This article was edited by Joshua Lyon and Harry Sawyers.
Aly Cohen, DVM, extension veterinarian at the Riney Canine Health Center, clinical instructor at Cornell’s Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, phone interview, January 26, 2024
Amy Nichelason, DVM, DABVP in canine and feline practice, clinical assistant professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, phone interview, January 25, 2024
Paula Johnson, DVM, DACVECC, clinical associate professor in emergency and critical care medicine, Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, phone interview, January 16, 2024
Patrick Kruse, founder, Ruffwear, video interview, December 5, 2023
Elaine Dunn, account director, WeatherBeeta, video interview, December 4, 2023
Ann-Sofi Maycher, sales director, Hurtta North America, video interview, December 4, 2023
Kayla Fratt, head trainer, Journey Dog Training, email interview, November 4, 2017
Dr. Lori Bierbrier, medical director, ASPCA Community Medicine department, email interview, October 30, 2017
Mel Plaut is a staff writer covering pets at Wirecutter. They developed a special affinity for animals at an early age, when every stray cat and runaway dog ended up at their family’s doorstep. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Daily News, USA Today, HuffPost, NPR’s All Things Considered, and others.
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If you can’t get your dog to leave the house in the snow or the rain, these tips are for you.
We tested 10 collars on big and small dogs and found that Orvis's Personalized Collar is best. It’s tough, reflective, and customized with your contact info.
Dog Carrier For Hiking Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).