Care & materials
What everything is made of, how to wash it, and the few things that will actually wreck it.
Materials
| Harness shell | 900D woven nylon, heat-sealed edges |
|---|---|
| Padding | 8 mm closed-cell EVA foam (6 mm on the Bonecut), brushed tricot lining |
| Cooling panels | 3D spacer mesh on the Chalk harness in place of foam |
| Webbing | 25 mm nylon, bar-tacked and box-stitched at load points |
| Hardware | Brushed steel D-rings, acetal side-release buckles |
| Reflective | Sewn-in reflective piping, not printed film |
| Boots | Breathable mesh upper, moulded anti-slip rubber sole, rechargeable LED strip |
| Bowls | 304 stainless steel bowls, powder-coated steel frame |
Washing
- Harnesses, sets and the carrier shell: machine wash at 30 °C in a mesh laundry bag, line dry.
- Do not tumble dry. Heat shrinks the webbing slightly and dulls the reflective piping.
- Do not iron printed panels.
- Do not use bleach or fabric softener. Softener coats the webbing and makes buckles slip.
- Ear muffs: hand wash in cool water and dry flat. A machine crushes the acoustic cups and they do not come back.
After a beach or a salted path
Rinse in fresh water the same day. Salt crystallises inside spacer mesh and inside boot soles, and once it is in there it abrades the fabric from the inside every time the dog moves. This is the single most common cause of early wear we see.
Electronics
- The play ball, the cat toy and the boot LED strips are USB-C rechargeable and are not waterproof — wipe them, never submerge them.
- Charge before they are flat rather than after. Lithium cells left flat for months lose capacity.
- The play ball is not chew-proof. Supervise the first few sessions and take it away from a determined chewer.
Checking a harness
Once a month, with the harness off the dog:
- Pull firmly on each D-ring and watch the stitching around it. Any loose or broken thread means retire it.
- Click each buckle and pull. It should not creep open.
- Look at the webbing where it passes through the adjusters — that is where abrasion shows first.
A harness is a consumable. A hard-pulling dog will wear one out in two or three years and that is normal.
Safety
Never leave a harness on an unsupervised dog, and never leave ear muffs on a sleeping one. Do not attach a lead to the boots or the muffs. Do not use a harness as a lifting sling unless it has a top handle rated for it — in this range, everything except the Bonecut does.