Mendota Skid Plate

I suppose that right now I should be relishing the amount of post topics that I have at my disposal. I have hunting stories, gear, dog biographies, etc. that I would like to write about…but I can only write about one at a time! I imagine that further down the road I will have to be creative in order to come up with relevant posts, but for now that’s not a problem
After hunting quail in the Texas Panhandle (I’ll write about the trip some other time), I decided that finding a quality chest protector for my dogs was in order. There are obviously certain types of terrain that don’t necessitate a chest protector, but the amount of cacti and barbed wire in the panhandle were hard on Macy. I was pulling thorns out of her chest for at least ten days after the hunt. I know there are also places in the midwest that have an abundance of barbed wire, so I will probably use the chest protectors when I got up there in a month.
When looking for a chest protector for my dogs, I had three criteria. First, it had to fit them. This is not always an easy task with Cockers. Second, it had to be “skimpy” enough that they wouldn’t overheat while working in the Texas heat. Third, it had to be durable enough to withstand multiple hunting trips. I found what I was looking for in the Mendota Skid Plate. It comes in a size small, which seems to be just small enough to fit my cockers, and it has straps that go across the back, rather than fabric, so it doesn’t overheat the dogs. It is also extremely durable. The straps are very heavy duty, and the Cordura fabric is very tough. The only grip that I have is that the straps that go around the neck could maybe bit a little shorter. They are adjustable, but even with the adjusted all the way down, it seems like the fabric is maybe not quite as tight across the chest as I would like. I am toying with the idea of cutting the straps and sewing them shorter, but my wife has informed me that her sewing machine will not handle sewing through the straps. So, I’m either going to have to do it by hand, or just tolerate having the fabric a little loose on the chest. I’m leaning toward the latter :) Rocky seems to fill it out across the chest better than Macy anyway, so I would think that any Cocker above 30lbs would probably fit this vest well.
At the time of this post, the best place I found to buy the Skid Plate was off of Gander Mountain’s website. They have it cheaper than anywhere else I could find ($24.99), and they offered free shipping on it.
You’ll find pictures of my Cockers sporting the vests in my two previous posts.
Here is the factory picture:
 
On a side note, I am currently operating the photo department of this blog with my wife’s camera, which is only occasionally available for my use (she’s pretty protective of it), and it is not the highest quality camera. I would love to be able to justify purchasing a nicer camera, but I first I need to know that this blog will be appreciated by a fair number of people. So, hang in there, better pictures should be on the way! For now, hopefully my words will captivate you:) Haha, ya right.