Ruffwear - tested, tried and tested again - why we put our trust in their gear

For us, your dog's harness, lead and collar the most important purchase - because it's at the forefront of their comfort and safety every time you leave the house.

For the last eight years we have personally used Ruffwear with Bob, and now with our pup Dolly. We have also visited Ruffwear in Oregon, USA to see how their gear is made.

Ruffwear has extrememly high standards. Their gear is designed to be durable, secure, and comfortable for your dog, and to enhance their adventures — never getting in the way. Every piece of material plays a critical role in creating a product that you can depend on, from collars to leads, harness and apparel.

Maintaining these standards of excellence means constantly evaluating how their gear performs — and it all starts with testing. Read on to learn more about their testing process and how it shapes the final products that your dog uses every day.

Step one: Third-party lab testing

Ruffwear send finished materials to an accredited third-party lab, where they undergo the highest level of scrutiny. By starting with materials — think buckles, webbing, and fabrics — we’re able to ensure that even the smallest parts of the whole are performing exactly as they’re supposed to.

Fabrics - Every one that is intended to use for harnesses, life jackets, collars, leashes, and more — is sent as a sample that undergoes multiple tests. One is abrasion testing, where the sample is mechanically rubbed against abrasive materials for prolonged periods. This determines the durability of the fabric’s weave and composition, ensuring that it can withstand brush, rocks, and other elements that your dog encounters on your adventures together.

Ruffwear fabrics also undergo tear testing, or measuring the force it would take to rip a given fabric sample, to ensure a high threshold. Finally, they’re subjected to colour stability tests to ensure that your gear’s bright hues won’t fade due to everyday factors like sunlight, washing, and rubbing.

Step two: In-house testing

After the third-party testing comes the fun part - Ruffwear headquarters in Bend, Oregon (where Gareth and I have witnesses this process) is fully outfitted with an in-house product testing facility, where they put finished products to the test. Or, as founder Patrick Kruse puts it, “We break things here.”

The same components that were just tested on an individual basis are reevaluated as a finished product. This can look like pull testing to determine the breaking point of a harness handle, by pulling at it from different angles until the tension causes a rupture. This gives us valuable insights like a design’s breaking points, puncture strength, and stretchability and elasticity. Next, drop testing allows us to ensure that that same harness handle will hold your dog’s weight if it’s dropped from a certain height. And cycle testing allows us to see the durability of parts like attachment points when they’re repeatedly bent or twisted at a given angle over a prolonged period.

The bottom line? Ruffwear gear undergoes rigorous in-house testing before it ever makes it onto an actual dog. And there’s still one final step to ensure the highest quality control before it ever hits the shelves.

Step three: Field testing

All Ruffwear products are rigorously field-tested — by real dogs getting after it. This is done through the Ruffwear partnerships with working dogs, including service dogs, guide dogs, avalanche rescue teams, and conservation detectors.

Ruffwear say they are lucky to partner with working canines because they know that they’ll put our gear through the paces. They work in demanding environments that require the highest caliber of performance gear, and sometimes, that means the gear they’re testing breaks. But when gear fails in the field, Ruffwear use those learnings to iterate and improve so that it doesn’t fail during everyday use. This testing partnership allows them to create a product that meets working dogs’ standards — one that we know is going to stand up to your dog’s needs, too.