Issues with kilted dog-walking?

[uallas5]

Looked at this thread too quick, thought it said "kilted-dog walking" and couldn't think of a problem with that.

[Woodsman]

Tobus,
That's a grand looking bulldog you have there. I also used to have a Boston Terriier. He (Roosevelt) was the perfect size breed to walk whilst kilted. Nowadays I have 2 yippy Malteases and do not enjoy walking them as much.

The initial thought I had for you was a kilt apron, but I see your dilemma with that. How about fashioning your own apron from matching tartan. Something that would hang from your waist or perhaps lower if you could somehow pin it, assuming that you only need to have one side near your dog covered.

Good luck,
Marty

[The Q]

Whilst I sympathise with you, about the slobberwe occasionally get some, I am lucky that SWMBO insists the only breeds of Dog we can have ( and have had long before I got a kilt) are somewhat less droooly and are more appropriate for kilted walking.

They are the Rough Collies that have long since passed away, shown in the Avatar or The Border Collie "Ben" we have now..
Luckily Ben doesn't destroy Balls often, but the thrower is a must, trying to exercise a Border...

[Tobus]

Looked at this thread too quick, thought it said "kilted-dog walking" and couldn't think of a problem with that.

LOL! If I tried to put a kilt on my bulldogge, she would find a way to chew my face off in the middle of the night for revenge. I have a theory that one day dogs are going to revolt against humans, and the first ones to be eaten will be the animal abusers, followed by the ones who dress their dogs in costumes.

I bought a sweater for June, hoping that it would keep her warm when we walk in below-freezing weather. Maybe it does, but she sure hates it. This is the go-to-hell look she displays when I put it on her (or maybe it's an I'm-gonna-chew-your-face-off look, I dunno). She kinda looks like a body-builder with those muscle-ripped arms sticking out.

[Tobus]

The initial thought I had for you was a kilt apron, but I see your dilemma with that. How about fashioning your own apron from matching tartan. Something that would hang from your waist or perhaps lower if you could somehow pin it, assuming that you only need to have one side near your dog covered.

Hey, now that's not a bad idea! I do have plenty of extra tartan material from when I had my kilt made. I suppose I could take a small section of it and make an outer covering that just drapes over the right side of my kilt, hanging from my belt. Almost like using a dish towel stuffed through one's belt for an ersatz apron, but with a bit more thought and purpose. Perhaps some straps sewn to it that easily loop over my kilt belt and snap closed. It would match and hopefully not be very noticeable, and I could remove it for hand-washing as needed. The only down side I can think of is that it might slightly interfere with the swish of the pleats on that side, but that would be minor. Hmm, I'm going to give that some thought!

One other issue I hadn't thought of is that she LOVES LOVES LOVES to grab and pull on anything that looks like a towel. When we bathe her and try to dry her off with bath towels, she's like a snapping turtle. She wants nothing more than to gather a big mouthful of towel and chew on it. And when she drinks water out of her bowl, we have to wipe her jowls off so she doesn't drip those long strings of watery drool all over the house, and she thinks it's a game of trying to grab the towel. I hope that she doesn't see the swishing pleats of a kilt as a temptation to grab with her mouth!

As I was walking her over the weekend, I was paying a bit more attention to this drooling issue. For the most part, I think she does walk just far enough away from my side that the kilt won't be a problem as it swishes. It's mainly just when she turns her head and bumps it into me, which she does frequently because she's not exactly graceful in her movements (she seems incapable of walking in a straight line when she's looking to one side). And I'd say 90% of the time, her wet jowls contact my knee or lower. So probably my bare knee and kilt hose would take the brunt of the slobber. Probably what I'll do is start with my Utilikilt and my WWII canvas leggings and see what kind of drool accumulation I get. Those are easily washable. And I'll experiment with a removable side-apron.

[Lady Grey]

I think June is upset her coat isn’t Tartan!
Maybe a drool rag AND a Tartan coat from the leftover fabric?
and please post pictures (of drool & out walking) I love a dog with attitude and she’s got attitude!

[Madadh]

I hear those dogs are pretty destructive. True?

Do they slobber much? Or cause other issues when walking them in a kilt?

Not much, just paw prints on the shoulders

[RichardtheLarge]

I would wear the Utilikilt and launder it if it’s been slimed. Kilts are a hassle to dry clean! I do my best to keep my woolen kilts brushed/spot cleaned and try to keep them from getting too dirty.

That said, if you have your heart set on walking the dog in a woolen kilt, you may be able to hang dry it and then clean stains with a garment brush a few hours later. I might be concerned, however, about leaving digestive enzymes on the wool. YMMV.

[RichardtheLarge]

Not much, just paw prints on the shoulders

Magnificent.

[Tobus]

Well, I thought I'd go ahead and update this thread.

It looks like the issue of walking the dog whilst kilted will no longer be an option. Sadly, it appears that she is, in fact, a victim of one of the major issues which plague the bulldog breed: hip dysplasia. It all started about a month ago when she was playing rough with my stepdaughter's Boxer, and she suddenly hiked up one of her rear legs and couldn't walk on it for a few moments. I thought she just pulled a muscle or something, but the problem persisted over the next week. We took her to the vet and he said she had medial luxation of the patella in both rear legs, with the left side being much worse than the right. Basically, her kneecaps and attached muscles/ligaments tend to slip out of place towards the inside of her leg. At first she was able to kick her rear leg back straight and reset her kneecap with a jerk, but then it degenerated to where I had to manually push it back over with my hand when she'd go lame. For the past week or so, she's been lame more often than not, hopping around on three legs, and resetting it only works for a few seconds. I haven't been able to walk her at all. I can tell that she hurts and it has been getting harder for her to move around.

The vet suggested surgery by a specialist in San Antonio (a 70-mile drive for us). So we scheduled that for yesterday, thinking it was a simple procedure to correct the luxated patella in her left leg with a 6-8 week recovery time. Then all would be well. However, once the vet did the pre-op X-rays, he gave us the really bad news. The kneecaps are slipping out of place because her leg bones are way out of alignment, with her femurs being severely curved instead of straight. Her ligaments attach in the wrong place to the tibia below the knee, making them twist, which pulls the kneecaps out of their grooves. And worst of all, she has severe hip dysplasia in both hips with bone spurs and arthritis already starting. Her left hip looks like the knob on the femur isn't even seated in the socket. It's pretty rare to see it this bad in a dog that's only 11 months old. This is not a simple injury, it's a genetic malformation.

He's checking with yet another specialist to see if there's any hope for replacing both hips and fixing both knees (they have to cut and reset the portion of the tibia where the ligament attaches). But even if they could fix all that - assuming we could afford it - there's still the issue that her leg bones are curved. She will never be in proper alignment, and she is pretty much guaranteed a lifetime of pain, problems walking, and degenerative arthritis punctuated by multiple surgeries and recoveries. I'm not sure we want to subject her to all of that suffering and surgery if it will never truly be fixed, and she'll never get to run and play and go on long walks/hikes again. Our other option is euthanasia. We're not quite ready to go there yet, but it's something we have to think about.

We're crushed. This is the exact sort of thing we thought we had hoped to avoid by selecting a healthier breed of bulldog. And of course now that we've had her for 6 months, she is a beloved member of our family. I can't stand to see her suffering, poor girl.