I have had this topic come come up in a couple recent conversations, so thought I would toss it up here for others to consider. A couple years ago when my dog was young a great friend gave me a little blue blinky light for his collar. By blinky light, I mean a little battery powered light that either blinks or shines and attaches to his collar. Over the past couple years I have ended up having experiences with several varieties of these lights on two different dogs and found they are NOT all the same. Thought I would share my experience for anyone else considering one of these little gems, which I would suggest for anyone taking a dog to the BWCA, or letting their dog outside almost anywhere offleash at night. When I first used on on an October BWCA trip, I was amazed how my black dog could seem invisible at 10 yards without the light, but clearly identifiable at 25 yards with the light in the woods ( and much, much further in open fields).

eGear Dome: This was my first and is absolutely my first choice hands down. The clip on the back of the light allows the light to attach to the back (top) of the dogs neck, and tends not to rotate the collar. The dome shape of the light allows the light to be seen from the top or side from most any angle - though this may depend on length of hair of the dog. Long lasting, and easy to turn on and off with gloves in cold weather - my clear first choice. Note: identical products seem available under a couple other names.

RuffWear: This light is good but not my first choice. This flat light attaches similarly to the eGear Dome, but falls short in two other areas. Firstly, this light if very flat, meaning it is visible when viewed straight on but harder to see from the side. If attached to the top/back of the dogs collar, it is much less visible from the side at 50 yards or so because the light seems to be going up more than out.. Secondly, while the multiple blink functions are a benefit, they are activated by a more difficult to find button on the side compared to the eGear Dome.

Snap on Pendant Style (eGear or several other brands): There are several styles of blinkly lights that have some sort of snap on mechanism (like attaching a leash) to make easier to put on and take off of the collar. I agree these are slightly easier to attach and remove, but in my experience uniformly swing the collar down to dangle below the dogs neck. In this position, the light is less visible or blocked completely if it is not facing you. If his back is toward you or he is walking away, it is hard to see at all at any distance.

Whatever this is: This is not a safety blinky light to help you see your dog at night. This is just inexpensive dog jewelry that can blink - not for helping see or track a dog outside.

Hope this helps.

Thanks JW. Looking at making a small investment to light up my dog as it makes great sense to me. I'm also going to purchase a life jacket and imagine your top pick could be affixed to it for easy identification. I assume the device is water proof.

Very helpful!

Thanks

Interesting, I never considered a light for the collar. I can see some sense in it.

I've always just relied on my ability to hear the tags on his collar jingle. When at the dog park I can track him well out of sight just by listening to his tags as he moves. I can even tell the difference between my dogs tags and the tags of some other dog.

For some reason I've gotten so used to listening for the dog that I'll wake up in the middle of the night when I hear his tags as he comes up the stairs to go sleep in the spare bed in the room 2 doors down.

That's helpful info, Jaywalker. We used one of the snap-on pendant-style lights (third item in your post) on our dog for after-dark walks up here on the Echo Trail for a while, but sometimes it was hard to see, depending on how the dog was standing. I can see how the eGear Dome light would be an improvement.

Still, I like our upgrade, which is an entire collar that lights up, which we got at Piragis. Product link (I'm not sure why they seem to show a lighted pendant in the link, the product is a glowing collar without pendant). Having a whole collar is an advantage in that it can be seen from lots of angles. The main disadvantage is that it goes through batteries pretty quick. But we generally only use it in the winter when the days are short, or on canoe trips in the late season after dark, so the battery life is not that big a deal. Just another option for people.

Just a quick update to an old thread:

Since my original post, I’ve had a good number of canoe trips, added a new dog, and had a sick dog that required me to take both dogs out multiple times at night, so I’ve gain3d a bit of experience.

My preference for the Egear model above has waned. Turning on and off requires two hands, if the light slips right or left it becomes less visible, and the batteries - which do last a long time - are harder to change because they come in a sealed pack.

Two years ago I made a packing mistake and was forced to buy the only dog light I could find on my way up - a Nite Ize pendant style light. This one has very much grown on me. The batteries are very easy to change, and it only takes one hand to turn on or off. At first I thought the pendant style less visible than one on the back of the collar, but with experience I’m thinking it matches or exceeds the back of the collar mount. This is the light I chose when an old one recently failed.