Choosing a dog coat for your dachshund: custom-fit vs. standardised sizing
Yes, there are lots of great-looking well made coats out there for dachshunds. But we’ve discovered that none of them would fit Sunny, our standard black and tan dachshund. Some dachshunds and their owners are lucky, but it’s clearly something of a lottery trying to find a well-fitting dog coat, as our clients tell us.
What started as a shopping quest for our own dachshund is now the Barkmatic brand, and our commitment to custom-fit coats as the solution for dachshund outdoor clothing. Why not try a custom-fit Barkmatic coat for the same price as an off-the-peg dachshund coat from other brands?
Dachshunds come in a multitude of sizes
How do we know that standard sizing for dog coats just doesn’t work for dachshunds? We’ve done our homework. We’ve looked everywhere for the right fit since we got our own sausage dog, Sunny. Sunny’s a UK Kennel Club registered dog within the breed size guidelines, so has about as regular proportions as you can get, but no good quality dachshund dog coat brands would fit him. If the back length is correct, the neck measurement is too big, or the chest is too tight.
Of course we’ve checked the sizing of our dachshund coat competitors, but they wouldn’t fit either. We now have the same problem with our second dachshund Pixel, who’s shaping up to be somewhere between a mini and a standard at her full size.
Some are technically mini dachshunds but have grown a little too big for that category (like my first ever dachshund, a mini called Max). Some dogs are at the top of the weight range, and other dachshunds are a bit of a mix with another breed, which has the effect of altering their proportions. Some reports note that British dachshunds are bred to have shorter legs and longer backs than their East European counterparts, in other words their sausage shape is more extreme. In Italy and Spain we’ve met a lot of very slinky standard dachshunds that are very slimline compared to their UK counterparts.
The solution isn’t to keep wasting money on dog coats for a dachshund that kind of, sort of, almost fit so long as you ignore the fact that they're too short along the back, or too big around little legs.
Custom-fit is the solution
During the start-up phase of Barkmatic we decided to go down the custom-fit route for all our dachshund coats. That decision proved to be correct. The wide variety of dachshund sizes and proportions is reflected in the Barkmatic client size log. After two years of trading, it turns out that no one furry client is the same size as another.
We make a new pattern for each new client, with the measurements you give us. To keep things interesting we release new coat designs every few months, and we’re thrilled to have lots of repeat customers.
If you haven’t been able to find a dachshund dog coat that fits well until now, welcome to the world of Barkmatic and our custom-fit dachshund dog coats.
The full range of Barkmatic dachshund dog coats and accessories is only available online. We ship almost everywhere.