Be prepared for dark walks with your dog

Autumn has arrived, which means that the cold season is slowly approaching us. Therefore the time has come to prepare yourself and your dog for soggier, colder and darker walks outside.
To get prepared for the winter season in the best way possible, we talked to our dear dog ambassador’s, who shared some good advice with us on how they prepare themselves for wintertime.

First and foremost: Remember your Safety Light

As its getting dark faster outside, it is important that you are making yourself and your dog visible, when taking a walk in the dark. Especially when you are walking on streets with no street lights and a lot of traffic, you have to make sure, that road users will see you from a distance.
However, it can be difficult to remember the Safety Light on your way out, especially when you are in a hurry. Therefore we asked our ambassadors how they remember their Safety Light before leaving the house.
Here are 3 great tips on how you’ll remember your Safety Light every time before leaving the house:

1. Leave them in the pocket of your jacket

One of our ambassadors told us that she always remembers her safety light by keeping it in her “dog-jacket”, that she’s wearing every time she’s taking a walk with her dog.
By having them in her pocket, she’s never leaving her home without her Safety Light.
This only works, when the same jacket is being used for walking with the dog.

2. Keep them close to the door and visible

If you’re not wearing the same jacket when walking the dog, you can remember the safety light by leaving it close to the door. You can also leave the safety light close to the leash, harness or collar.
Most of our ambassadors are wearing more than one safety light. Therefore they might have a safety light fastened on the leash, while they always fasten another safety light on themselves before walking out the door.

3. Mount the Safety Light on your dog’s leash, harness or collar and let it stay there

Some of our ambassadors are mounting their Safety Lights on their dog’s harness, leash or collar as soon as it’s necessary to wear a light.
By using the same gear when walking your dog, you can just let it stay on your dog’s gear all season. In that way, you’ll always have the Safety Light with you and can switch it on, as soon as it’s necessary.
The Orbiloc Safety Light can be used in all kinds of weathers. Therefore you can even leave it on when it’s raining and freezing outside.

Our ambassadors also recommend wearing a safety vest when walking close to traffic. A great way to remember the safety vest is by hanging it next to your dog’s leash.

Some of our ambassadors also wear head lamps when walking their dog in surroundings, where it’s almost pitch black and the eyesight, therefore, is weakened. The head lamp is making it possible to see what’s in front of you.

Remember your Dogs paws

As it is getting colder outside a lot of streets and sidewalks are being strewed with salt or/and sand. This means that your dog’s paws are getting salt and sand on them while walking. When your dog has dry and chapped paws, the salt might sting.

What our ambassadors, therefore, advise you to do is to clean your dog’s paws, after you’ve been outside for a walk.

One of our ambassadors told us, that she puts her dogs in a bathtub, where she lets them walk around in the water. Afterwards, she dries their paws until they once again are good to go.
By keeping the paws clean you not only ensure that your dog doesn’t get any infections but you also keep your house clean and make sure, that your dog does not drag in all kinds of dirt.

After you’ve cleaned your dog’s paws our ambassadors recommend rubbing balm on them to protect them from getting dry and chapped in the frosty cold weather.

Also, our ambassadors recommend that you remove the fur around the paws once a week to avoid lumps of ice, when walking. This will improve your dogs walk as nothing will hurt while walking.

Keep your dog warm and dry

As the sunny days become less and the cold days are increasing it is also very important not only for you to remember warm clothing and slip-resistant shoes, but also to keep your dog warm.

Dogs come in all sizes and with all kinds of fur. Some have thick and warm fur, while others have very thin fur. It is therefore very important to keep the muscles and the rest of your dog’s body warm to avoid injuries.

Our ambassadors recommend drying the dog after a walk in rainy weather. It can be difficult to keep the dog still while drying him/her. Therefore, some of our ambassadors are using dog biscuits to keep them still. Also, you can use a fast drying dog coat to dry your dog.

By following these tips from our ambassadors, almost nothing can go wrong when walking with your dog in the dark and cold winter weather. If you want to know more about our ambassadors, you can get to know each one of them here. 

The Orbiloc Team wishes you a great and safe time out in the dark. 

Credits to @almadalma for a great picture. 

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