DISCLAIMER: I received these life jackets free of charge from Hurtta North America in exchange for my honest review. The following review is based solely on my honest opinions and experiences with this product.
It’s getting hot out again down South, which means one thing in this house… PADDLE SEASON!
As the temps start to rise, I spend more and more time at the lake with the pups, trying to keep them (and myself) cool. To make sure the pups are safe on the water, they’re sporting the new Hurtta Life Savior dog life jackets.
Sure, my dogs can swim and they’re no strangers to water sports, but things happen. They can slip into the water unexpectedly and get caught off-guard. Ringo can retaliate for the last time that someone *ahem* Roxie pushed him in. The bottom line is, you just never know. Which is why it’s of utmost importance that my furry children have QUALITY life jackets.
Over the years, we have tried a variety of different brands and styles of life jackets, so we know exactly what we like, and what we don’t, about most jackets out on the market. We have long been HUGE fans of all things Hurtta and their new Life Savior is no exception! This is the fourth life jacket brand that we’ve used and I can easily say that this is by far our absolute favorite life jacket to date.
Hurtta Life Savior – THE life Jacket for active, water-loving pups!
Time to hit the water and get to testing! (Aka the fun part!)
FUNCTION
The first and most important job of a life jacket is to protect your dog from drowning, to help them stay buoyant and keep their head above water. While most life jackets accomplish this goal in some regard, they are definitely not all created equally. I can confidently say that the Life Savior from Hurtta is the best jacket we’ve tried to date. Not only is it impressively buoyant, but it’s also low-profile and flexible, allowing your dog to run, swim, and play uninhibited.
The secret sauce of the Life Savior is the core of the jacket. Most brands seem to choose one of two directions when it comes to the “guts” of their jackets. They either use a big piece of foam, which provides a lot of buoyancy but also makes the jacket much more bulky and reduces your dog’s natural range of motion, or they use a thinner piece of foam, which gives your dog better mobility but also makes the jacket significantly less buoyant. Until now…

Hurtta has a new, SMARTER approach to the dog life jacket.
In order to give your dog the best of both worlds, superior buoyancy AND range of motion, they broke their foam core into separate, flexible sections. The panel on each side of the jacket are broken down into 3 pieces, running parallel to your dog’s body and allowing for a more comfortable, flexible fit. The jacket fits more closely to their body, instead of sticking out awkwardly and getting in the way. The internal sections have more give and move WITH your dog, instead of against them. Instead of standing rigidly and moving with difficulty, our dogs can run, jump off my paddle board, chase each other on the beach, and swim naturally and fluidly to their hearts’ content.

DESIGN
Not only are the “guts” of the Life Savior well designed, so is every other element of this jacket. I can’t stress enough how impressed I always am with the thought and planning that obviously goes in to each and every Hurtta product. This Life Savior is no exception. Every seam, every strap, every inch of the jacket is well researched, well made, and high functioning. Like their harnesses and trail pack, all of the straps are infinite loops. This means no extra strap hanging loose to get stuck on things. The material of the jacket is thick yet flexible and is sure to hold up to years of use and abuse. PLUS the bright yellow color is not only appealing to the eye, but also great for visibility on the water.
They also included what I consider to be two of the most often overlooked, yet most important elements that every dog life jacket should have. The sturdy handle and a place to attach a leash or safety line. If you dog falls in the water, the handle allows you to quickly and safely lift them back onto your board or boat. The leash ring is not only great for control of your dog on land, but it also gives you the option of adding a literal lifeline for extra protection in rough, choppy waters. It allows you to catch your dog even if they start to float away. If heaven forbid your dog falls overboard into fast-moving water, the handle will help you get them back to the safety of your boat.
QUALITY
Yep, ANOTHER 5 stars. We aren’t joking, this jacket is the bees knees. What can I say? The Hurtta Life Savior is built to last. Not only is it designed better than anything else on the market, it’s also built better. Ringo and Roxie will be sporting these jackets for years to come. You can count on that!
Would we recommend this to a friend?
I’m pretty sure you know this by now, but YES! Without a doubt, we would highly recommend this streamlined, quality life jacket to anyone and everyone with a dog. This is the FIRST PRODUCT that we have ever given a perfect 15/15 review. EVER. The Hurtta Life Savior is the safest, most streamlined, best made life jacket on the market. Paws down.
Not only is it perfect for those who SUP, kayak or canoe, but it’s great for boating, sailing, or just hanging out at the beach. Use it to teach your dog to swim, to help them with recovery during hydrotherapy. Use it any time you are near the water and be confident that your dog is safe. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your dog enjoying the water, without the worry.
Overall Rating:
For sizing information and more info on the Hurtta Life Savior, go to https://www.hurtta247.com/lifesavior
Have questions or comments? Feel free to leave a comment or shoot us an email at [email protected]
Thanks for reading!
30 Comments
This is a nice in depth review. I don’t own a dog however will share on social with my dog loving friends. This is great someone though of life vests for pets. You make such a good point about “accidental” slips into the water. Better to be safe than sorry later. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for checking out our review AND for sharing with your dog friends. We absolutely love these jackets and last time we were on the water they BOTH fell in! lol. They’re a bit too confident on the board and run around without thinking. It’s nice knowing they’re safe, even if they get stunned for a minute. 🙂
This is absolutely perfect timing! Ruby is not a huge fan of water, but she will be joining us on a summer trip east and hopefully, if she doesn’t get too stressed on some short canoe trips.
Your pups look so comfortable in water – I sure hope Ruby gets there some day. Were they always so comfortable or did they take awhile to get used to the water?
Canoe trips sound great! 🙂 They get used to it with time. Ringo HATED water when we first got him. He actually fell in our pool the first day we had him as a foster and sank RIGHT to the bottom. I had to jump in and save him. So I went to the local sporting goods store and bought his first life vest that day and we started acclimating him to water and I even did some “swimming lessons” with him at the lake. It doesn’t bother me if my dogs don’t like water, but I needed to know he could swim well enough to save himself should he ever need to.
They both took to paddling really well. Neither are huge swimmers, but they don’t like being left on the shore, so they’ll swim out to me if I take a dip. They LOVE being on the board though, it’s funny. They’ll run around on shore for a while during a break and then will put themselves back on the board and just stare at me until I get on too!
Definitely recommend checking out Hurtta for a life jacket for Ruby for your summer adventures. Can’t recommend these highly enough!
We’ve heard wonderful things about Hurtta. This looks like a great life vest!
It’s definitely our new ABSOLUTE favorite. I can’t stress enough how much we genuinely love every piece of Hurtta gear that we’ve tried. We rock their gear basically every day in some form. Highly recommend these should you ever be in the market for a life jacket for your pups! 🙂 Thanks for reading!
This sounds like a great life jacket! I have two adventure cats that enjoy kayaking and canoeing, and I’m not totally satisfied with our current life jackets. I need to do some research to find the perfect one for them, and this looks like a good contender! I’m going to go check them out and see if they come in extra small sizes!
We are absolutely in love with these life jackets! I love that your cats canoe.. that’s the cutest! Hurtta’s smallest size is a 0-20 lb jacket, which is the one Roxie is wearing but it is SUPER adjustable, so it may work for you. We used to have an Outward Hound jacket, which I didn’t love, but it’s one of the few that I’ve found that comes in TINY sizes. Roxie wore hers when she was like 7 lbs.
Those look like great life jackets! Even if a dog can swim, just like people, when you’re out boating, you want a life vest. A head injury or strong current can take out the strongest swimmers.
They’re the best we’ve tried yet. So happy with them! And you’re absolutely right, it just takes a moment and one bizarre accident. It’s crazy how many dogs you see out without them. You just never know. I don’t want to take any chances with my dogs’ lives. Knowing they are safe makes it so much more of a relaxing experience. 🙂
These look like great life jackets. Kilo the Pug has only ever paddled and I can not imagine he will swim easily so he will definitely need a life jacket this summer up north at our friend’s cottage. He may even try paddling.
A trip to our friend’s cottage sounds like a perfect summer vacation plan! I hope Kilo has an absolute blast and takes to the water well. A good life jacket like this one will go a long way in easing any worries you have about him being on or near the water. I can’t wait to see pics from your trip. Thanks for checking out our review!
I worry about over heating in them. I know that when we kayak Monte likes to have his cooling vest on. I am always torn between cooling him off and making him ‘floatable”.
I worried about that when we got our first jackets, but honestly, they don’t seem to make a difference temperature-wise. When it’s really hot, I make sure we stop a lot for the dogs to play in the water. They jackets absorb a certain amount of water and actually help them say cool. I feel like there are things I can do to help them regulate temperature on the water, but there’s no way for me to ensure their safety without a life jacket. If you do decide to look into them, highly recommend you look into Hurtta.
Great jackets! I have two for my Huskies, although we don’t go in the water anymore now that we sold our boat (but they have a pool!). This is a terrific review and I love the pics! They sure look like they are having a blast!_
Ooooh, pool sounds fun! We had a pool years ago and NONE of our dogs would swim in it! SO strange because our hound dog Boomer, especially, is a total fish in any natural body of water. Thanks for checking out our review! Just love these jackets
Those are nice life jackets! We have one for our Memphis and we hope to try kayaking with her this year!
They are by far the best life jackets that we have tried to date. Ooh, that would be awesome if you got to try kayaking! Our dogs LOVE kayaking, well, all water sports really. I bet Memphis will have a blast 🙂 Good job keeping your dog safe with a life jacket. It’s so important! Thanks for reading our review.
What a great review on the Hurtta Life Savior Dog Jacket. One of the many things I liked is how you said it keeps the dogs head out the water, how it is low profile, and flexible so they can run around and do anything while wearing the vest. Ringo and Roxie sure look happy wearing them and will be safe for their water sports activities. What lucky pups!
Thanks Jennifer! I’m so glad you enjoyed our review. The flexibility and low profile build of the vests are definitely huge selling points for me. It’s nice to see the pups run around uninhibited! They love playing in the water and it’s great to have that extra peace of mind that they’re safe no matter what! 🙂
This is great, I’ll need to grab one for my pooches! Will it withstand a lot of abuse? My pooch is cray cray
Like all of the gear that we’ve used from Hurtta, these jackets will definitely stand up to a LOT of use and abuse. I’m sure it’ll work great for your pup, despite him/her being just the right amount of “cray cray” 🙂
[…] For the last year, we have been using Alcott Mariner Life Jackets,which are a super affordable option at only $26.99. You can read our review here. We have recently upgraded to the new Hurtta Life Savior, which is a more premium jacket and our new current favorite. Check out our full Hurtta Life Savior Review here. […]
Glad this life jacket is working for your dogs. I had friends who lived on the lake and their dogs always wore life jackets when they were outside the fence.
So awesome to hear about people who take water safety seriously. You just never know. And yes, LOVING these life jackets. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
I know the name and its reputation. It looks versatile and practical and I love you can use it for so many different things. THIS makes it worth the money!
It really does. I have no problem paying the extra money for a QUALITY piece of dog gear that I know the pups will get a lot of use out of AND that I know will stand the test of time. Awesome company all around, and this life jacket is no exception!
Mr. N could use a new life jacket. The strap on his current one fits oddly. Does it come in small sizes?
Yes! It comes in 5 different sizes for dogs from “1-160 lbs” The jackets are really adjustable and the fit for both of our oddly-shaped little pups is great. Roxie is wearing the 10-20 lbs jacket and Ringo is in the next size up, the 20-40 lbs size. Highly recommend checking out Hurtta when you’re looking for a new jacket for Mr. N. Check out their website at https://www.hurtta247.com/lifesavior
This Hurtta jacket sounds perfect for water adventures. I especially like the handle and the sturdy appearance. Great review!
Thanks Barbara! We are over the moon about these jackets. They are super well made and our absolute favorite life jackets to date.