Reflective dog gear - keeping yourself and your pets safe with high visibility collars and reflective accessories

With winter approaching and daylight hours getting shorter walking our hounds in the dark hours becomes inevitable fact of daily life for many. However few people realise that they are often breaking the law when walking their dogs!

Did you know that in the UK The Highway Code (and traffic regulations in many other countries) requires all road users to wear something reflective in the dark hours of the day so that other road users can see you in the dark? Were you aware that you are legally required to wear reflective items to increase your visibility to other road users?

Rule 3 of The Highway Code reads:

Therefore, it is essential that your winter dog walking clothes or shoes use reflective materials and / or have reflective accessories attached to them. Using high visibility light reflecting clothes and products increases your visibility to drivers and oncoming traffic from 100m to 300m.

With a great variety of products available on the market which incorporate reflective materials, there is no excuse not to Be bright! Be seen! Be safe! Short of investing in new clothes with reflective fabric and tape, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to add reflective touch to your outfit and increase your visibility and safety at night time or in low light conditions.

Reflective armbands, vests, bracelets, shoe laces, zip pulls and clip on danglers can are all readily available on-line and are an affordable way to quickly and easily add reflective high visibility touches to your outfit.

It is important not to forget your pets and invest in reflective pet gear, such as high visibility reflective collars, jackets, bandanas, collar tags, coats and leads, which will keep man's best friend visibly safe in low or no light. You can also buy pet products with glow in the dark or battery operated neon light collars and collar tags.

Reflective dangler tags

Our own personal favourites are reflective dog tags. These lightweight inexpensive clip on reflective accessories come in many shapes and forms, are fully reflective on both sides, water resistant and hard wearing and usually made of high visibility prismatic PVC or plastic. They require no batteries and can be used for years, easy to attach to your dog's collar and lead, as well as your own clothes, zips, handbags, backpacks, buggies and shoes to be more visible on the road.

Reflective dog collars

Here at Dog Moda we stock our own exclusive range of reflective dog safety collars especially designed and cut for sighthound breeds. These safety whippet shaped collars combine highly reflective material with leather without compromising on quality or function. We have created sighthound shaped reflective leather collars, which are fully padded and lined with leather for your hound's ultimate comfort. Choose between black & silver reflective collar, brown & orange reflective collar and recently added new hearts style with orange reflective hearts on brown leather and silver reflective hearts on black leather.

Of course, there are many more reflective dog collars available, whatever your choice it is important to remember to have your pet wear one in the dark!

Be bright! Be seen! Be safe! Be legal!

Walk on the correct side of the road

Finally, your personal safety will increase significantly if you try to use roads with pavements or wide verges and always walk on the side of the road closest to the oncoming traffic. This will allow you to see the dangerous situation evolving and to react faster to any potentially dangerous situations.

Please do not hesitate to call +44 (0) 20 3582 4532 or contact us if you need help in choosing the correct size reflective collar for your dogs or need further advice on how to increase your safety with reflective pet gear. We are here to help!