Pets are important to us, and some people would love to take their pet for a beautiful summer canoeing experience. However, not all pets can stand water or even stay at the sight of large water. Some pets panic so much that they eventually fall into the water.
Some might also enter the water on purpose due to their curiosity. Either way, it is safe to have a life jacket for pets handy to ensure that your pet is safe regardless of the situation.
HOW SAFE IS A LIFE JACKET?
A life jacket does not assure you that your pet would survive any precarious scenario caused by water. All you should know is that it keeps your pet floating, and reduces the chance of sinking with time.
It is designed to cause flotation and buoyancy of the person or animal wearing it. Therefore, knowledge of how to swim is essential and is required when using a life jacket. So you are required to have made your pet familiar with the water environment before putting it on a boat with a life jacket.
If your pet has no experience with water, it would be hazardous to put it on a boat even while wearing a life jacket. Are you wondering why?
Pets are not human, and they do their best survive using instinct. A human that has a life jacket on but no experience swimming would be hard to rescue because there is a higher tendency that the person would struggle to stay afloat than being patient and letting the life jacket cause you to float. If humans can be this way, what do you expect from an animal? One has to be careful, to not lose your pet.
Does this debunk the level of safety of a life jacket? Certainly not! A struggling pet with a life jacket on is better than a struggling pet without a life jacket. The life jacket keeps the pet floating long enough for a rescue to be made.
Let us use dog life jackets as a reference for this discussion.
IMPORTANCE OF A LIFE JACKET FOR DOGS
The importance of dog life jackets cannot be overemphasized because not all dogs can swim. Even the few that can run into some challenges that might be life-threatening. One of the common causes of dogs falling into the water, although accidentally, is that they get distracted easily by the happenings in their surroundings.
There is no cure for distraction, and one has to accept them for who they are. One thing that should not bother you is that dogs should wear life jackets just as professional swimmers wear life jackets when on a boat.
They need it, even more than we do to a certain extent. One should make sure there is a dog life jacket around whenever the dog is near water.
HOW TO CHOOSE A DOG LIFE JACKET
A lot of things are considered when choosing a dog life jacket, and these things are what ensure that the life jacket is safe for the dog, affordable and long-lasting. Here are a few tips to consider when choosing a dog life jacket.
Quality of the Material: materials that are ideal for dogs are materials that are resistant to rips and are of high density. These types of materials tend to last longer, irrespective of the weather conditions.
Simplicity: one of the major turn-offs for some people is putting on wears for animals, not to mention putting on something quite complicated for the animal. Life jackets worn for dogs should be comfortable to put on and remove.
There might be a need to put on the life jacket for the dog in a hurry. And a complicated life jacket would only make things worse. That is why most people prefer life jackets that are easy and fast to put on and remove.
However, it is essential that you practice how to put on and remove the life jacket on your dog to ensure safety. You and the dog feel comfortable using the vest before you get on the water.
Handle:
one of the features of a good dog life jacket is the presence of at least one handle. The handle should be sturdy because it is used to get your dog out of the water in cases of emergencies.
The handle is added because dogs might not correctly respond to their owners in times of panic and danger. All they would focus on is how to wriggle, flail or move in different ways to get themselves out of that precarious situation.
The sturdy handle lets you pick up the dog in times like this to avoid getting an adverse reaction from carrying the dog by its waist.
Fitting: a good dog life jacket is expected to fit the dog for which it is intended for, to avoid being undersized or oversized. However, finding the life jacket that fits your dog perfectly is very stressful.
One can make do with the dog life jackets. It come with adjustments to ensure it fits the dog to a certain degree, if not precisely. One of the features of adjustable dog life jackets is the telescoping neck. It ensures that the life jacket fits the dog securely. And it will adjust to changes made due to the growth of the dog.
Buckles and Straps: Buckles and straps on a dog life jacket are safer if they are on the interior than the exterior. Exterior straps and buckles are likely to get hooked to something around. And the way dogs wander carelessly makes it even harder to prevent.
Concluding Words
Once you have decided that you want your pet around you whenever you are at the waterside. Then it is better to get a life jacket for pets. There are a lot of life jackets in the market today for pets. And heeding to the considerations mentioned above in choosing a life jacket for your pet. We think this article would help you in purchasing only the best for your pet.
