Cairn terrier and border terrier coat sizes

Here is a page that mostly tells you not to buy a sweater. The cairn and the border terrier were bred to work in the rain on Scottish hillsides and along the Northumbrian border, and the harsh double coat they carry is the result: wind goes around it, light rain runs off it, and the dog underneath is fine. What the coat is bad at is drying, and what the dog is bad at is coming home clean. That leaves exactly two things worth owning.

Numbers

Measured-dog charts from coat makers, with the usual inch of disagreement; a border terrier is the leggier, narrower dog, a cairn the lower, wider one, and both land in the same sizes.

Our sizes

Worked out from the size charts on the product pages for the measurement range above. Your dog's own tape measurement is what decides it.

Jacket M for most of both breeds, S for a small cairn under a 15 in chest. Vest S. Heritage Turtleneck M, or L when the neck reads over 12.6 in, which a stocky cairn's does. The Fireside Cable-Knit fits only the smallest cairn (XL ends at 16.5 in); the trench is a toy-breed coat and sits past both breeds' necks.

The two cases for a coat

Rain, on a long walk. A soaked harsh coat holds water in the undercoat for hours and smells like it. The All-Weather Jacket keeps the back and sides dry under a rain-shedding shell; it opens flat, zips up the chest and clips the leash to a harness built into the chest, which on a terrier that goes rigid at the sight of a cat keeps the pull off the throat. It is lined, so it is a cold-rain coat; on a mild wet day the Quilted Vest S, with a belly strap that takes up the difference between a freshly stripped coat and a grown-out one, is the lighter choice. The back of both is cut short to free the hind legs, which on these square little dogs is close to the tail.

A clipped or stripped coat in winter, or an old dog. A cairn that has been clippered rather than hand-stripped loses the harsh outer layer and the weather resistance with it; so does an elderly border whose coat has thinned. Then a knit for cold walks is right, and the Heritage Turtleneck in M or L stretches on, with a fold-down collar that sits under the beard.

What not to buy

A sweater for a cairn or border in full coat on an ordinary cold day. The dog will be too warm within a block, and the coat under it will be flattened for nothing.

Shipping and returns

Free US shipping; ships in 1 to 2 business days and usually arrives 4 to 9 business days after that; 60 days to send back a wrong size (Shipping & Returns). The measuring guide is short; on a harsh coat, measure as it lies, not pressed in.

Questions

Cairn, 14 lb, jacket S or M?

Chest. The S is 15 in and most cairns are past it; M.

Does the jacket crush a hand-stripped coat?

On the back, for a walk. It springs back. A stripped coat is tougher than it looks.

Border terrier in a vest or a jacket?

Vest for drizzle, jacket for steady cold rain. A border in full coat on a dry cold day, neither.