Our Memorial Day hike with Oscar has piqued my interest in other outdoorsy/hiking opportunities in and around New York City.  It has also inspired a huge Internet shopping splurge for dog-related hiking/camping paraphernalia, which Oscar will clearly hate…starting with a new life jacket!

I’ve been meaning to replace Oscar’s life jacket for a while now.  It was purchased when he was still a puppy and we had no idea that he would blow by the 10 lb weight limit and end up at almost 20 lbs!  We love to take Oscar canoeing, but I’ve been nervous the last few times because I’m convinced that he’s going to go overboard and sink like a rock.  Contrary to popular belief, all dogs are not natural swimmers.  And we have confirmed that Oscar can NOT swim, but that’s another story…

 In addition to the K-9 Float Coat by Ruff Wear…

I also splurged on an Approach Pack and some Grip Trex Bark’n Boots.

The X-small back pack is on backorder, so we don’t have that yet, but Oscar is RIDICULOUSLY cute in his boots.  He hasn’t quite figured out how to walk in them yet - check out this video as he makes his first attempts to walk in his boots - in my opinion, possibly the best 7 second video on YouTube!!

If you like that one, check out the longer (45 sec) version we lure him around the kitchen with T-R-E-A-T-S to try to get him used to walking in the boots…

Okay, maybe we won’t be using these for hiking…but they will definitely be an improvement on the disposable booties we’ve been using in the winter after it snows.  And no….the boots are not for the snow - they’re for the massive amounts of salt and chemicals that everyone throws in front of their buildings to avoid lawsuits…