Mutt warmer

This is a common shape of a sleeping pet:

But this is the first dogball Rocco has made since he’s been with us since May.

I figured he’s getting chilly – he’s from South Carolina and perhaps has never seen snow, or been through the annoying shoulder seasons when it’s colder indoors than out.

So I tossed on a felted/fulled thrift sweater on him for shits and he seemed to really like it. So I half-assedly started to make a dog sweater thinking he’d likely try to eviscerate it as soon as it was finished and I didn’t want to pour too much time and energy into it.

The sweater must have been a more recent (yes, from April or early May as seen here) acquisition since it was at the top of the wad on the floor and I know I liked the zipper and its reharvestable potential, and while the color isn’t my favorite, it goes well with greens and whatnot, so I think I was planning to make mittens and fingerless gloves out of the rest (I didn’t want to touch felted wool for most of the summer, so I haven’t thought about it much or dug out the rest of the felted stash to check for coordinates).

Rocco continues to be very difficult for us at times – I used to solidly stand by the statement that “there’s no such thing as a bad dog, just bad owners,” and while I still believe that is sometimes true, reactive “bad” dogs are very challenging and oh-so-slow to become “good” despite good constant and consistent training, expensive behaviorists, and medication.

But he’s made remarkable progress with obedience and communication and general fond companionship in the house (let’s not talk about the counter surfing though). I’ve just allowed him in my tiny upstairs workroom on supervised visits and he’s the dog friend I’d hoped to have – calmly lying in the only open space on the floor as I spin or dick around with fibery things. He also doesn’t mind the noise of the sewing machine (though the food processor and blender are still monsterly).

The back piece of the sweater seemed to be just about the same size as his back, so I cut it along the seams, and then cut a few pieces to use as straps. He was being unusually patient and non-wiggly throughout the whole fitting process so I risked safety-pinning it together and having him wear it for a few minutes and he seemed game and the fit was good enough.

I trimmed up the pieces to fit his contours a bit better, sewed both ends of the chest strap so it could go over his head, and sewed a piece of the grabby side of velcro to the body strap – it attaches to the felt easily so there was no need to use the other velcro half. (I also made sure there weren’t any pokey edges on the stiff velcro.)

And in a few minutes, he was happily wearing his new sweater.

And I think it’s got a bit of a thundershirt effect on him as well – he was noticeably a bit more relaxed wearing it – though it could have just been the novelty and coziness factor. I’ll wait and see how this one holds up or doesn’t get chewed before I knit one or sew something with better fit and coverage – he’s going to need it if we have a repeat of last year…

(We got his DNA results back recently and found as we expected, he’s a Heinz mutt, but he’s got a Husky grandparent, so hopefully he can tap into that when the cold comes – and it’s likely the source of his markings, or else his black and tan came from a Cocker Spaniel grandparent… Definitely not the “Shepherd mix” the rescue claimed, nor the “Rottie mix” his original shelter claimed and the rescue whitewashed… so we’ll just settle on “Spaniel mix” since he’s got the most of it.)