What do you think on pet fashion. Is it right or wrong to dress up your pet in coats and hats etc... Is there even really a need for it? Have any of you dressed your pet in clothes. I know some people see there pets as thier child and would find nothing wrong with it. Just wondered what everyone thought

I tired to put a harness on my cat when she was a kitten - never again.

I am guessing she'd feel the same way about clothes

I know some breeds of dog require a little extra warmth in winter but I do not agree with dressing up pets as a rule...

I adore my cat, but I know that she is a cat, not a baby!

Anthropomorphism (applying human traits to animals), is weird, wrong and bugs me, never more so than when morons dress up their pets. I'm going to argue the same as the dieing debate, they would never choose to wear clothes so why the hell should we force this on them!?

You are joking. No need to do it at all, that's why they have fur coats. Any owner who dresses their cats or dogs up need smacking, especially cats.

The one thing I have seen and its cute is a little bow tie that slips on a cat collar (if you cat wears one) nice for christmas day but no way especially cats should they be dressed up, they get stressed out enough let alone being done up!

I've mentioned it on here before but my last dog wore special doggy shoes in the last couple of years of his life. It wasn't for fashion.... he looked bloody ridiculous! But he was born with deformed back legs and as he got older he started twisting his back feet as he walked, which meant he was forever cutting the pads of his paws open. Our vet suggested buying boots for him for when we took him out and it made a huge difference to his quality of life. It was worth the funny (and often dissaproving) looks.

I wouldn't put any clothes on my healthy dog, he'd hate it anyway, but sometimes there are good reasons for it.

Ahhhh poor darling.

I have had dogs over the years who have needed clothes current little one is allergic to grass so has t-shirts/coats/socks etc. And as mine aged they all needed coats/jumpers of some sort in the winter. The blondes had hats or head scarves for the summer to avoid getting burned ears. In my experience even dogs you would imagine would hate clothes do understand on some level it is for their own good and prefer a jumper/coat to shivering in the cold.
Now dressing a dog for fashion is slightly different but as long as the dog is OK with it I can't find it in my heart to judge or condemn people from enjoying their pets.

Anthropomorphism ? Well I chat to my dogs, they are my children really so yes I am guilty of it but does it harm anyone ? I don't think it does.

A coat is okay. I am trying to find a coat that is suitable for my dog at the moment as he is starting to feel the cold and some breeds such as Chi's and Chinese Crested obviously need coats but clothes as in jumpers, booties, dresses and whatver are fullfiling a need in the owner in my view. The dog isnt getting any pleasure from owner going clothes shopping for it I am sure it would prefer a pigs nose to chew on instead. The dog may be overheated and uncomfortable, it isnt a baby or a doll.It really annoys me when I see stars with dogs with hoodies etc on and carried in their handbag, how silly.

Jumpers work better than coats on some breeds chis being one we could never get a coat to fit and stay properly but a jumper just hugged her nicely. As for prefering a pigs nose that may be true but if the owner is providing a good diet with extras and still wants to dress the dog what harm is that doing ?

When one of mine was a pup he was put in a shopping bag so I couls socialise him with out fear of infection, and we had a papouse for our chi as she became elderly and couldn't keep up with the rest. Looking now at pushchairs as our Mollie has a bad hip and recently hurt her back so may be needing assistance to go for walks and with her size I can't see me carrying her home too often !

Practical raincoats I don't have a problem with but clothes, i do. I work with dogs and get a lot of catalogues from america selling all sorts of crap, one dress had 'SEXY' across the back. A dog is not sexy! They have all sorts of styles of dog shoes and even baseball caps, ridiculous!

Some dogs benefit from wearing t shirts as a kind of t touch body wrap, but apart from medical or practical reasons, dogs shouldn't be in clothes.

There was this old woman on the bus with some small dog in her lap with a jumper on on Monday. She said she was going to buy Tricksy some wellingtons.

Well perhaps her dog feels the cold or has problems with it's feet - don't jump to conclusions when you see/hear things.

I saw a Rotwiller with a baseball cap (in the hot weather) on that read 'chew on this' and it wore it with a sort of swagger. Looked better than on some people.

I have to agree with this, like I said in my post, we used to get a lot of dissaproving looks and one person outright telling us we were cruel owners when we had Taz out in his shoes. I suppose the fact he walked funny anyway probably didn't help, because it may have looked like he was struggling to walk in his boots, but it was pretty hurtful all the same when we were just trying to to what we could to help him and indeed following the advice of our vet!

I bet people thought I was trying to be the next Paris Hilton, although I would at least have got him pretty pink, diamond studded boots with bows on if that were the case

Surely it wasnt on *back to front* though was it.....

My mum's elderly Jack Russell likes wearing a t shirt. I got one for a joke a few years ago, and she was happy enough to let us put it on her - and then got distressed when we took it off. And then she regularly sat near it and pointed her nose at it and kept looking at us, until we picked it up, when she'd get all excited and waggy, and then lift up her feet while we put it on her. I think she liked the warmth and the tightness - when she was a puppy her favourite thing was getting up inside someone's jumper and being wrapped tightly in their clothes.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inniesmart.jpg
(the bows were for Christmas, she doesn't normally wear those!)

I would never ever put clothes on my cat though. I think she'd kill me. (Although my mum's cat will tolerate a comedy hat for long enough to take a photo of her.)

Haha I have to admit when I see photos of cats in clothes I always wonder how the hell their owners manage it. Both my cats would literally rip me to shreds if I even put a t-shirt or hat near them! They're vengeful little brats too so they'd probably kill me while I slept afterwards!

My dog won't even tolerate a raincoat. He runs and hides under the table. I force him to wear it in the snow but if it's raining, I let him get wet, which he seems to prefer.

I was thinking about this some more and really, when you think about it, anthropomorphism happens the moment you get a pet. You:

Give it a human name.
Teach it react to human words.
Live to human values (about going to the toilet in the 'right' place and not to beg, pester or make a row).
Live by humans timesale (walkies, feeding, outings).

So, whether they like it or not, they already have to do what we want. Clothes are just another stage when you think about it (not that I would buy any for a pet myself).

When people dress Dogs up for fashion it makes me cringe but my cat has an army vest that my mum brought home as a joke, he has only worn it once or twice.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...1337.567300511

We have a Jack Russell puppy and her fur is really fine even though she's rough coated. It's so fine that when we bath her she looks bald, and even when she's dry you can see the coloured patches on her skin.

When it's cold she shivers and whimpers (She's a right wuss really ) and beause she's so small her belly is only just above the level of the grass so when it's wet her belly gets wet which makes her shiver even more!

We've bought her a simple red jumper from pets at home and it seems to have done the trick. She doesn't mind having it put on, doesn't pull at it to try and remove it, and lets me take it off no trouble.

We've had some funny looks but I don't care, at least she's warm and dry, and doesn't need as many baths because the jumper takes the dirt rather than her fur!