Dog Supplies
Buy and sell dog supplies in Panama.
A hard plastic kennel bought for one flight into Tocumen tends to spend the following years in a storeroom, and a puppy’s first harness is too small before the puppy has learned its name. Dog gear outlasts the stage it was bought for, so most of it is worth passing on. Kennels, beds and harnesses are the pieces most worth getting right, new or pre-owned, and clippers from groomers updating their kit and unopened food from owners who switched brands change hands too. A dog that needs a new home is not gear: it goes to adoption.
Harnesses and leads, sized by the chest:
wrap a tape round the ribcage just behind the front legs and buy to that girth, because the S, M or L on the tag means something different at every brand. A back-clip harness suits a dog that already walks nicely. A front-clip, no-pull harness turns a dog that drags you back towards you, and flat-faced breeds such as pugs and French bulldogs breathe easier pulling into a harness than against a collar. A dog that reverses out of its collar needs a martingale or an escape-proof harness, a cheaper fix than a notice in animals lost and found.
Wire crates, plastic kennels and soft carriers:
they look alike in photos and do different jobs. A folding wire crate stays in the house as a den or for house-training a puppy. A hard plastic kennel of the Petmate Vari Kennel type goes in the car or on a plane; the ones built for air travel have a metal door, halves joined with metal nuts and bolts rather than plastic clips, and vents on every side. A soft carrier only suits a small dog, and the same bags turn up under cat supplies. Ignore the size names and go by internal measurements: the dog should stand without ducking, turn round and lie stretched out. Anyone about to adopt a dog needs this sorted before the ride home.
Raised cots against foam beds on a tiled floor:
a raised mesh cot, the Coolaroo kind, keeps air moving under the dog in a hot house and dries quickly after a wet walk. A bolster or orthopaedic foam bed is kinder to an old dog with stiff hips, but foam soaks up humidity and smell and goes flat long before the cover looks tired.
Airline kennels, where the money sits:
a new plastic kennel runs from about $25 for a small one to around $200 for an extra-large size built for a giant breed, and that top end is what makes a used one worth hunting for. Families moving to or from Panama buy a large travel kennel for a single trip, and once the dog has landed it has no further job, so big kennels come up complete and barely scratched. Price a used one on its hardware rather than its age: lost bolts or a cracked hinge turn a travel kennel into a car kennel, and it should be priced like one.
A used kennel, bed, lead or clipper, piece by piece:
on a plastic kennel, count the bolts round the seam, check that the door hangs square and the latch springs back, and look for hairline cracks around the bolt holes. A wire crate needs every weld intact. Unzip a foam bed and press the core with your fist; if the dent stays, the bed is done. Run an extending lead such as a Flexi out to full length, look for fraying near the end and check that the brake holds. An Andis or Wahl clipper is worth what its blade and motor are worth, so switch it on, listen for a rattle and ask when the blade was last sharpened. Julius-K9 is the most copied harness: fakes carry the brand name and look identical in photos, but the webbing is coarser and the buckles feel light, so handle one before paying a branded price. Food and flea treatments are only worth taking sealed, with the expiry date readable.
Listing a kennel or harness someone will drive across for:
give a kennel’s internal length, width and height, the dog it fitted and whether it splits into halves, because a buyer coming in from La Chorrera or Las Tablas will want to know it fits in the boot of a sedan. Say whether the bolts, door and water dish are all there. For a harness, give the brand and the girth range on the label, not just the letter. Photograph the latch, the bolt holes, the buckle stitching and the inside of any bed. A chewed corner mentioned in the listing beats one discovered in a car park with the kennel half loaded.