Product Review: Gooby Fleece Vest

The Gooby Fleece Vest is the perfect lightweight solution for active tiny dogs that need to stay warm in mild winters. It has a leash ring on the back, so you don't have to worry about layering a harness over or under a jacket. The vest is breathable, and moves with your dog. It is available in sixteen different colors, and five sizes to fit dogs with chests 8.5-20" around.

Photo by Erin Koski

During the dog boutique fad of the 2000's, I considered Gooby to be a high-end brand. Their little Freedom harnesses were ridiculously expensive, and they sold adorable little dog sneakers that were considered pricey compared to MuttLucks.

Since then, Gooby has gone downhill in my esteem, they're now a big box store brand rather than an upscale boutique trend. Also their quality appears to have tanked. My Gooby Epiks literally fell apart while stored in a drawer in a climate-controlled house after being worn twice. I tried contacting the company and never got any response.

At any rate, Gooby does make affordable dog clothes cut to fit moderate body types. Ru can wear both the small and the medium versions of this vest. I like putting it on him for hikes because he doesn't have to wear a harness, and the material doesn't pick up stickers or bits of grass.

Pros: Not designed for short-backed, wide dogs. Breathable, stretchy, and sporty. Durable. Doubles as a harness for wimpy dogs.

Cons: Doesn't come in larger sizes, though these would definitely need to omit the leash ring.

Bottom Line: I'm no longer in love with the company, but they still make decent dog clothes. I use this fleece vest a lot.

Product Review: Gooby New Freedom Harness

The Gooby New Freedom Harness is a mesh vest harness for small dogs. This is an updated version of the original Gooby Freedom Harness, it is not the Freedom Harness II. Does that make sense? No? That's ok. This current iteration comes in nine colors and five sizes to fit dogs with chests 10-24" around. Ours is a small.

Photo by Erin Koski

Gooby made the first mesh harnesses that I saw in stores, way back when Brisbane was a little baby. I have one of their original Freedom harnesses, and it looks like they've made some improvements.

The first thing I noticed about this harness was the buckle. Like Planet Dog, Gooby most likely discovered that metal side-squeeze buckles don't last. The springs inside them degrade too quickly. The updated Freedom Harness has a standard plastic quick-release buckle.

Photo by Erin Koski

The big rubber logo on the original harness is also conspicuous by its absence. Instead there is a much sleeker patch on the back. I'm not positive about it, but I suspect that the area at the front has also been narrowed a bit where it goes between the front legs.

This is a very comfortable harness, I can leave on Ru all day and it doesn't rub marks on his almost-naked skin.

Pros: Soft and light. Does not choke, distributes pressure evenly across tiny chests. Allows great freedom of movement when properly fitted.

Cons: Not adjustable in neck, may not fit some funny-shaped dogs. Lighter colors get dirty quickly. May cause hair to mat when worn for extended periods by dogs with actual hair.

Bottom Line: This is the best-fitting mesh harness I've used, and Ru is exactly the sort of dog the Gooby Freedom Harness is intended for. We'd use it a lot more if it worked better over clothes, the Midnight Pet Pet Lite and E-Z Harness is still the best for my tiny fashionista.

Product Review: Gooby Epiks

Gooby Epiks are high-tech dog boots with memory foam insoles and different shoes for front and rear feet. They appear to have been discontinued, but were made in blue, red, black, and pink. Epiks came in sizes to fit dogs with itty bitty through gigantic feet, and can still be found on eBay occasionally.

Photo by Erin Koski

I had high hopes for these shoes when I ordered them. Brisbane has extremely sensitive feet and is prone to a variety of injuries ranging from cuts to friction injuries to broken toenails. His Ruffwear Grip Trex work pretty well, but he is unhappy wearing them unless there is lure coursing to think about. I had hoped to find shoes that stayed on as well, but made him less emotional. Briz hates shoes in general, and the Epiks did nothing to change this opinion.

Photo by Erin Koski

These stylish sneakers are made out of something resembling suede, with contrasting-colored vents and snazzy little zippers up the front. I loved the idea of having different shoes for the front and back feet, since most dog shoes come as a set of four identical ones that are either too big for the back feet or too small for the front. Neo-Paws probably has the right idea, selling pairs so people can purchase separate sizes for the front and back.

My experience with dog shoes tells me that they won't stay on with just elastic. This is why none of the dog socks we have ever tried have been a success. The Epiks lack any kind of custom fit, they have elastic around the ankles, and a front zipper, and nothing to make the boots fit tighter on skinny legs and looser on big fat legs. This means they fly off as soon as Brisbane does anything more extreme than trot in a straight line.

Pros: Super cute! These are the prettiest dog shoes I have seen, the lack of a tightenable ankle strap leaves them looking very clean. Cushy inner soles and shoes marked specifically for the front and back feet really make these seem really well-designed.

Cons: The zippers were impossible to operate without lubricating them. Guess who got zipper lube all over the shoes? Even all greased up, they are very difficult to zip even when I'm not cramming a dog foot inside them. Also they don't stay on very well.

Bottom Line: I can expect to find them on Brisbane's feet at the end of a slow hike, but he is less than enthusiastic about wearing them for low-key adventures and they don't stay on well enough for anything worth doing.

Product Review: Gooby Freedom Harness

The Gooby Freedom Harness is a Roman-style mesh harness with synthetic lambskin straps. It comes in nine colors and five sizes to fit dogs with chests 10" to 24" around.

Photo by Erin Koski

I believe Gooby was the first company to make mesh dog harnesses, I started seeing ones by Puppia and other companies in the big box stores years after the first Gooby harnesses hit the market. This isn't the most adjustable harness in the world, the neck doesn't change size and the belly straps can get an inch or two bigger.

Most harnesses of this type don't fit Ru, normally the head hole is a tight squeeze while the belly strap is too loose. This is a size Medium Freedom harness, the Small barely fit over his head and seemed to be strangling him. The straps on the Medium are too big.

I don't like the way the synthetic lambskin on this harness ages, either. The straps are nice and soft, but they start looking dirty really quickly. Ru's harness has spent the last four years in a dark cupboard and the suede has somehow faded to a completely different color than the mesh portion of the harness.

Pros: The first mesh harness on the market, distributes force evenly, provides shock absorption. Breathable fabric.

Cons: Minimal size adjustment, it either fits or a it doesn't. The suede straps are difficult to clean and the color fades over time.

Bottom Line: If it fit Ru, he would probably wear it in the summer. Gooby has made some minor improvements to the Freedom harness over the last few years, and also have the Freedom II harness now. The new ones all have plastic buckles instead of metal, and the straps on the Freedom II are microseude. No idea if they clean up any better though.