It's "cold" season in Da Nang as well as the rest of Vietnam at the moment. Cold is a relative term and to me, someone who has lived as far North as northern Michigan in the winter, I would not describe 16 degrees C or 60 degrees F as "cold." But a lot of people and their dogs that have become accustomed to it being 90 degrees Fahrenheit on a daily basis treat this weather as if it was nighttime in Siberia. I will admit that I wear jeans and a jacket on some nights but I prefer to dress like that anyway so it is fine by me.
The other day I took Nadi to happy hour and she was on a chair near me and I noticed that she was shivering quite a lot. I don't ever want my doggy friend to be uncomfortable and someone asked me "why don't you get her a sweater" to which i responded "because she hates them." My response is true, but I am sure that she hates shivering even more so the other day in the pet shop I found a festive looking sweater that was something like $4 so I figured I would give it a try.
I took Nadi out to the same pub that I normally go to for happy hour with the intention of having my normal 3 beers and that is exactly how many beers I had. In that time the people that all know her there came by to give her plenty of attention and there was even an elderly Japanese woman who wandered by, spoke very little English, but just had a smile on her face the entire time while she was stroking Nadi. Nadi is not like other dogs so she quickly tires of being pet. If you ever meet her don't take this personally, she just oddly doesn't like being held or stroked for too long and will move on... Unless there is a thunderstorm, then she wants to be cuddled tightly.
If she looks to you like she is unhappy about her sweater just know that she kind of has "resting pouty face" all the time. This isn't a tactic she uses intentionally, but it is part of the reason why she gets treats at a rate that is probably a lot higher than she actually deserves them. She just looks perpetually sad.
The purchase was an easy one for me to make and I spent only about 4 minutes browsing the dog clothing section. It was red and it is near Xmas so that caught my eye, but also since it says "Cute Baby" on the back I knew I had found the correct sweater for my pup. In all likelihood I will not be buying her any more of these because I am not a 14 year old girl, nor am I Korean.
This last picture is a little out of focus but it is my favorite one of the bunch. She has a "hey, you lookin' at me?" sort of expression.
The best news about all of this is that she wasn't shivering the entire time we were there so that's a big win in my book.
If you have a dog that you put clothes on I would like to see it.
Nadi looks beautiful after wearing the sweater.
she looked beautiful before wearing it as well but I get your point :)
I thought it would be funny to put my sweatshirt on Jovi at one point. It was honestly hilarious, but she wasn't as entertained as I was by it! You can see her arms aren't actually in the holes right, they are down in front of her, so when she tried to walk she tripped all over. We quickly took it off her to avoid her being traumatized. I'm glad I got the photo though.
I once had a lab mix in college that her punishment was to have to wear a shirt. I don't think she hated it so much as she associated it with having done something wrong All dogs look so sad when they look at you like this.
That is a great photo though, for sure.
Haha, yeah, that is a good point, they always do kind of have that pouty face!
I am like you and ever even considered putting clothes on any of my dogs. I a sure dos do feel he cold plus you do get her groomed so maybe not as fluffy as she would be normally. Mine all have blankets for winter and it is amazing to watch them somehow climb under the blankets using their legs and paws.
I think next winter I will adjust our strategy so that she just has long hair and the showers will just take longer. She doesn't mind wearing the shirt but she doesn't love it either. She can't scratch most of her body while wearing it and that must drive her crazy.