Walking Dogs in the Dark - How do you keep track of them?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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As title really. I've started walking the dogs in the dark and would like some way of being able to keep track of them. We walk round a 100 acre orchard so there are no lights at all!

I've got them a couple of cheap flashing collars which did help when I walked them tonight but they are only really viewable from certain angles, I still 'lost' them at times!

Can you get flashing harnesses? Or any other options?
 
You can get flashing harnesses, I wear a head torch and my little one wears a reflective coat and flashing collar so can't really miss her. And where ever she is big one isn't too far ahead!
 
Depends of they go out of sight or not, cos no amount of flashing collars or bells would have helped when my youngsters went missing for 8 hours last week in acres of woods!
 
I have a collar similar to the one linked above but it just isn't viewable all the time, especially on the terrier as it gets a bit lost in his scruff!
 
I put flashing bike lights on a spare collar on both mine, red on right and white on left, this was so I could see them from either side and knew which way they were going. Worked well especially on paths where there were other people or bikes, did look a tad UFO ish when they were bouncing about though and certainly made anyone about aware there was something up ahead!
 
We use the flashing collars and a fluro/reflective jacket on ours. A torch flashed on them shows them from most angles. I've used those clip on flashers too.
 
My dog's unreliable off lead in unenclosed areas so only ever let him off in fenced off areas but he likes to play "hide and seek" by standing dead still behind bushes and tunnels and fences until you come near him - if I hadn't have seen it for myself I wouldn't have believed it. I just clip a tiny LED keyring torch to his collar. If I can't see him directly, I see the light bouncing back off trees and other things he's hiding near.
He's also got a yellow hi vis little coat that he sometimes wears so when we have our torches, we can see him reflecting back.
 
The simple answer is I don't keep track of Amy! I would say that for 90% of the walk I have no idea where she is when we walk after work in the dark. Occasionally she appears out of nowhere and rejoins us, occasionally I will call her to me if I haven't seen her for a while. Fortunately her recall is 100% at all times.

I have just bought a falconry bell for her collar, but it only arrived today so I'm not sure if it will work!
 
When I go out to hay and skip out before bed my lurcher wears extra loud bear bells and a Flash Dogs LED collar that's so blindingly bright it shines through his hair and lights up the ground around him.

If he goes after a fox in the dark I can see him a few fields away but the loud bells tend to stop him hunting anyway.
 
I would suggest a bell as well as the visual stuff - mine doesn't go offlead in the dark because he can't see me well enough to be able to recall (deaf/partially sighted), but he often wears bells when we are out during the day so I can hear where he is if he goes out of sight or is behind me - saves me checking back all the time, he knows when he is being watched!
 
Where i am there nowhere to really walk her in the dark so in the winter she has boring walks around the streets :(

And i dont let her off! and she has a new dog coat which she really isn't keen on... but keeps her warm which was the plan! but i would get a Hi- Viz jacket and stick it on her with a flashing collar if i had somewhere to walk her (park shuts at dusk :( )
 
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