Buy Outward Hound Shade Shelter, X-Large

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List Price: $59.99
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This is my fourth or fifth Outward Hound product I'm a huge fan of the brand and have always had great experiences with their products. Right up front, I want to urge readers to take the negative reviews of this product into consideration they are all fair (not the usual "this product suxxx") and should weigh equally as you decide on this product. I have not had any of the problems they mentioned (everything has held up nicely during use), but it does seem that quality control on this product was a little less than the usual stellar level I have come to expect from O.H. I would like to thank Boycott Boring and Kyjen for sending me a sample of this product to review they did so on the understanding that I would provide my HONEST feedback.

INTRO

Ok, so I definitely got some raised eyebrows from friends when I told them about the "doggy tent". I grew up with our family dogs being outdoor dogs, and though we provided them with a VERY nice wooden dog house, the idea of a special tent/shade just for them on family camping trips would have given my dad a laughter-induced heart attack! Still, this thing is pretty darn cool when set up, and serves an important purpose.

SET-UP

Mounting this shelter was incredibly easy it's about the same size as a children's play tent, and if you have set up a traditional tent before, you'll have no problems. Our first experiment was in the living room our first dog is a rescue and we wanted to introduce it in a comfortable environment. If you even SUSPECT that your dog might be weirded out by this product, I would highly suggest doing so. It took 20 minutes and plenty of treats, but she finally laid down and stayed in it. Our new pup (13 weeks old) of course loved how new and exciting it was! Moving it outside, each corner has holes for standard tent pegs, so now worries about this thing flying away with your pup in it!

MATERIALS AND QUALITY

Well, as with all Outward Hound products, the quality of fabric is very good. The ground sheet will stand up to your dogs claws, and is waterproof to protect from dew. The sides are not meant for rough and tumble, but match the quality of our family tent. The poles seem to be what everyone is having problems with. As I said at the beginning, I have had no issues after using this shade several times, but many other HAVE had issues. The good news? Replacement poles can be purchased to size from the better tent retailers, and not for crazy prices either. I absolutely agree that this shouldn't be necessary after paying for this product, but I wanted to highlight it as an option. Quality control lost this doggy tent a star, and I really would urge Outward Hound to go back to the drawing board on the poles, or at the very least change suppliers.

FUNCTIONALITY

Now as I said, this thing is a little extravagant. That said, when you're camping on a hot summer's day and your dog is on the ground trying to stay in the shade but getting bitten by passing critters, you'll wish you had something for them. This little shelter offers protection from the sun and heat, and serves to protect them from critters, dirt and yes, even wet ground. The slits in the tent are excellent for passing a rope through as long as you tie the leash higher up on a tree you won't put any undue strain on the slits. Now, this shelter is really only missing one GLARING feature...a way to enclose your dog. Now I know this isn't REALLY a tent, however for dogs that don't stay very well, a mesh closing with a zipper on the front would be so useful! It would take this shelter from being a place of shade to an all-night place of rest! I'm actually considering sewing zippered mesh on the front of the tent myself and seeing how they fare in it. I didn't take a star off because I received this product knowing there wouldn't be this feature, but I thought it worth mentioning.

OVERALL

Despite QC issues, I have had no problems with the shelter. It's super useful, big enough for our two pups to play in (25lbs apiece right now, but lanky) and definitely keeps the sun and critters to a minimum. One star was lost for quality control, and though I recommend this product, I do so with some hesitancy! It will be coming with us on our camping trip next month, but I might be making some modifications first! If decimal stars were allowed, I would rate this at 3.75 stars out of 5.

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I purchased this tent for our medium size dog and she absolutely loved it! The tent material was nice and thick and we were sure we found the answer to bringing our dog camping with us without spending over $100 for a dog tent. The company was very nice when we contacted them because after several usages the poles snapped. Also the tent is starting to come apart at the seems. I certainly could resew it, however, the company stopped making this product so cannot even get replacement poles :( They told me that they had quality issues and have stopped making this product. All they can do is give you an equivelant product pricewise. Since they do not have any other dog tents, this is very frustrating.

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First of all, you must realize that this is not a pop up tent, like I had originally thought it was. You have to put all of the poles into flimsy material , and while you do that, you have to be very careful not to break the poles. One of the poles bent and broke upon putting it together, which made the whole tent unusable. It would also be very time consuming to have to put this together and take it all down every time you needed to take it with you in the car. The whole purpose of this tent was to give our dogs shade during training or different outdoor trial events. This would not work with this tent, since it was not a pop up and way too flimsy.

Honest reviews on Outward Hound Shade Shelter, X-Large

the poles for this tent broke on the first weekend we used it. the tent has many nice features, but the poles were so cheaply made the tent fell down.

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The Kyjen dog tent is great. It is easy to set up and has great features like zipper closures and screen sides when you want to let air through for your dog. When you're done, it packs down to a really small size, making it easy to store. It's really cool. We will be taking it on outings so our dogs can just kick back in comfort.