Product Review: Fetching Dog Carrier, Purple Edition

The Fetching Dog Carrier is a purse-style dog carrier intended for small-breed dogs. It features bright purple patent leather accents, including a bone charm. There are two outer pockets for holding things other than dogs, and a tether inside the main compartment for keeping your dog inside the bag.

Photo by Erin Koski

When I tried to research my original Fetching grommet purse, this was the bag I kept finding. It's much more my style, and was clearly far more popular than the sea green leather one. This one is also much more obviously a dog carrier, whereas the grommet purse mostly just looks like a purse. From the bright purple mesh to the bone-shaped charm, this bag immediately declares itself as a dog carrier.

It's quite roomy for a dog carrier, too. This purse basically swallows Ru. He's about 6.5 pounds, and there is enough space for him to lose his balance and fall over. Standing up and turning around is no problem, and I could stick a comfy blanket in there if I wanted to.

Photo by Erin Koski

This bag could easily hold a much larger small dog, maybe one close to 20 pounds. I think the bag can hold more dog than I would like to carry in a purse. Ru could comfortably spend quite a lot of time in there. This would be a good choice of carrier if Ru and I had a long commute on public transportation, or if I intended to bring him with me to a desk job.

Unfortunately, this Fetching dog carrier would not make a great crate or home base for Ru, because the ends do not open. The only door is at the top, so Ru could not comfortably get himself in and out of the purse if I put it on the floor. It also does not close all the way, which sort of limits its usefulness for me.

I always keep a small dog carrier in my car because I never know when I will need one. I have used my assorted dog carriers to tote Ru around when he was sick, and once or twice to sneak him into a place where dogs were not allowed. More often than not, I end up putting something else in the carrier.

Photo by Erin Koski

The bag that lives in my car right now has contained a large alligator lizard, an injured kingsnake, a sick cormorant, an injured crow, a canary, and a hairless guinea pig. Obviously it is necessary that my emergency pet carrier close securely. While the grommet purse and my skull carrier both work, this pretty purple purse just doesn't make the cut.

There is a mesh panel that zips across the top of this bag, but it is only attached on the long sides. The short sides of the carrier remain completely open. There are elastic drawstrings and toggles to reduce the size of the opening, but this doesn't actually work very well. If anything it just makes the top gap open even further. Ru can wiggle himself out with minimal effort and the bag would be absolutely useless to contain a cat or anything other than a somewhat trained dog.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: Stylin' purple and black color scheme looks amazing even though this bag is several years old. Roomy enough for a dog approaching 20 pounds. Lots of ventilation.

Cons: Does not close securely, dog can easily escape. Totally not subtle about being a dog purse. Elastic end drawstrings have stretched out over time because elastic has a limited lifespan.

Bottom Line: This is yet another product of the dog boutique era of the turn of the century. The previous sentence just made me feel incredibly old.

Is your dog small enough to fit in a purse?