The headlamp was still on when I reached the start of the park connector in Punggol, and Ranger, my sandy-coloured Singapore Special, was already tugging toward the boardwalk. Early starts are the only sensible way to walk a dog in this climate, and the two of us have done this route so often that he knows every turn before I do.
Outdoor people have rituals for kit. You check the water bottle, the phone battery, the poop bags. Then you clip on the harness, which, for a dog who spends his weekends on trails and boardwalks, is the one piece of gear he wears for the whole outing.
Kit that tells people who he is
On busy weekend routes, Ranger meets cyclists, joggers, families and other dogs, and people ask his name all the time. His old harness was a black one bought in a hurry. It said nothing about him, and in the grey light before sunrise it made him look like every other dog on the path.
What I switched to
My replacement is a personalised dog harness that Little Red Cute made for him. Ranger’s face and name are on the chest, illustrated from a single balcony photo. When we stop at a water point, people read his name before I have a chance to say it.
The ordering was refreshingly low-effort for a gear purchase:
- Send one photo, well lit and in focus, his face visible and aimed roughly at the lens; mine came off my phone.
- Choose a style.
- See how the completed design looks on screen.
- Say yes to it; payment comes after. Nothing is made before your approval.
Spec sheet, trail-style
- Fabric: polyester mixed with neoprene and mesh.
- Fit: the strap adjusts; choose XS, S, M or L.
- Print: sublimation, heat fixing the artwork into the fabric.
- Made: in Singapore, once ordered.
As with any kit, measure before you order. Ranger is lanky with a narrow chest, so I measured around the widest part of his ribcage and checked it against the size options instead of guessing.
Sunrise at the far end
By the time we reached the far end of the boardwalk, the sky over the water had gone from navy to orange, and a jogger slowing down beside us said hello to Ranger by name. That is the small reward of this kind of gear: on a route full of strangers, your dog is never quite anonymous. Then we turned around and raced the heat home.