Product Review: Outward Hound Cooling Bandana

The Outward Hound Cooling Bandana is filled with absorbent gel that is intended to help keep the dog cool. It comes in three sizes for small, medium, and large dogs and closes with velcro.

While the rest of the country is supposedly buried in snow, we're having an 80+ degree heat wave on the beach. Ru never actually needs to be cooled down and rarely pants even in triple-digit weather, so I tested this bandana on myself.

The directions say to soak the bandana in cold water for 15 minutes. I followed the directions and stuck mine in a bowl of cold water, and was shocked to return 15 minutes later to find it bloated and enormous. It weighs more than a pound wet. While the dry Cooling Bandada fits Ru perfectly, I can't imagine putting something this heavy on a dog this tiny.

I have a Hurtta evaporative cooling coat for Brisbane, and had thought that the bandana would work the same way. Obviously the Outward Hound Cooling Bandana doesn't use evaporative cooling, because it is still hugely swollen two days later. It's been hanging up to dry in my kitchen, and I'm afraid to stick it in a drawer because I'm not sure if the gel inside will fully dry before it turns funky.

Pros: Easy to use, and can be frozen to enhance the effect.

Cons: Seems to only get as cold as the water in which it was soaked. Cold water from the tap only got me  a few minutes of cooling before the bandana got as hot as my neck. It's ridiculously heavy and so far impossible to dry.

Bottom Line: This does not use evaporative cooling and is significantly less effective that our Hurtta cooling coat.

Have you used any sort of cooling gear for your dog?