Product Review-Puppy Bumper

Since my parents gave my husband and I Tubby as a wedding present 14 years ago, we have been small dog owners.   However, until Tuvok joined our home after Tubby's passing, we had never been tiny dog owners, and there is a difference. Pugs are small, but they have formidable necks.  

Exhibit A: Bulbous Pug neck

In fact it often seems that pugs are mostly made up of neck.   This is not the case with toy poodles, who have tiny delicate necks to match their tiny frames.

Exhibit B: Toy Poodle with Correspondingly Teensy neck

Now my husband and I have a  small, but well fenced, outdoor space in the back of our house.  It can't properly be called a yard because like many home in our urban area its where we park our car and to accommodate this there is no grass.  It is however, a large space for the city and plenty big enough for our dogs to run and play in.  We paid a pretty penny to have it securely fenced and gated years before Tuvok joined our home.  We showed the men who installed our fence the dogs we had at that time and they built the fence to accommodate them.  Well it doesn't do as well at accommodating Mr. Tuvok.  

Now, we never leave our dogs outside alone, but one day as I was going back in to get our senior lady Ping and carry her down the deck stairs I heard a shout from my neighbor.  While my back was turn Tuvok had squeezed out of an infinitesimal space near the front gate.   When my neighbor shouted Tuvok immediately went back in, but the cat, or rather the toy poodle, was out of the bag.  I knew we had to do something to make the yard safer for Tuvok. 

  We really couldn't afford to have the whole yard re-fenced just a few years after getting it done the first time.  Plus the space by the gate was so small I doubted it could even be made smaller and still allow the gate to function.  I distantly remembered seeing an add for something called puppy bumpers in Bark magazine.  I went online and did some research and found the solution to our problem.   Puppy Bumpers are light weight donut shaped pillow type collars.  They were developed by Ann Price to solve the problem of her 6 lb maltese squeezing through a baby gate.    Basically, the way puppy bumpers work is you put them on your small necked dog and instantly they have a neck width to rival a chunky pug.

Puppy Bumpers come in sizes to fit dogs from 4-20 lbs and a wide range of colors and fabrics, including tough fabric and glow in  the dark fabric.   Since the Holliday's are approaching we got Tuvok a Christmas one.  

I guess after the Holidays are over we may be shopping for a different bumper.

Tuvok is very good about wearing his Puppy Bumper, in fact he doesn't seem to mind it at all.  Puppy Bumpers, are very easy to put on, they can have a collar slipped through them for extra security, or you can just use the snap like I do.  Tuvok has never tried to get his off and I've checked that its quite secure.   Tuvok is a very velcro-ey type dog and generally never leaves my side, in fact since the original incident I've never even seen him by the gate.   I'm cautious by nature though and so now he wears his puppy bumper if I can't give him mytotal undivided attention in the yard.    I still would never leave him outside alone, but I feel much safer knowing he can't try to squeeze out the fence while my back is turned.   Puppy Bumpers sell for about twenty dollars and are available on the Puppy Bumpers website and on  Amazon, even better if you have Amazon prime they  ship for free.