Do dogs benefit from wearing clothes?

For the most part, no, it's not a good idea to put clothes on your pet for several reasons. There are a couple of good reasons and I will cover those.

Clothes aren't good for your pet for several reasons. One reason is that they will chafe your pet. Where a human can scratch an itch under their clothes or adjust them, a dog can't. Imagine if you're underwear were wedgified all day and you couldn't adjust them. Would you be okay? Yes. Would you be comfortable? No.

The other reason is more about psychology. I'm not going to categorically lump everyone who puts clothing on their dogs in this group, but I think a vast majority of people who dress their dogs up, do it because they see them as a child substitute. Granted they require similar care to a young child as far as not being able to feed themselves or go to the bathroom by themselves, but I think people are mentally substituting them for a baby they didn't or couldn't have, or for kids that have left home. Sometimes it happens when a child is in the house because the dog isn't argumentative. I phrased it that way, instead of saying the dog isn't bad, because a lot of them are. People feel like a talking teenager should know better. The dog should know better as well, but because they can't talk and they're dependent, it's easier to see them as a child and forgive bad behavior. It's also the reason people like cats and dogs like pugs and boston terriers. They have large eyes in proportion to their heads and this makes them seem child like.

So even though people objectively know that they're dogs, subconsciously they treat them like babies or dolls. This leads to dressing them up, painting their nails, carrying them around, making excuses for bad behavior, etc...

It's not a good psychological state for the person or the dog. On the persons side, they're transferring feeling onto an inappropriate object and they're harming their dog by not treating it like a dog. On the dog's part, they're not being taught what proper behaviors are when dealing with others. Because typically it's small dogs being dressed up, they're often forgiven for behaviors that you physically can't with a big dogs, such as biting or jumping on you. They are also carried like babies and never allowed a proper amount of exercise. These things all lead to a dog that is aggressive, territorial, and anti-social. It's all lumped in with the mindset that goes along with dressing up a dog like a person. I strongly disagree with this practice.

There are a few occasions I would find it acceptable to put clothing on a dog for short periods of time. These include a Halloween costume (though I've never put one on my dogs), a diaper when a female dog is in heat, a shirt of some kind if they have a wound you want to keep them from rubbing, a rain jacket if you don't want them to get soaked when you're taking them to the bathroom, snow boots if it gets packed in between their toes, guard vests on labs fetching in frozen lakes, and the only piece of clothing I have, which is a light jacket I put on my jack Russell in the mornings when it's still pretty cold. She has very thin hair and I put her outside when I go to work. I'll put the light hoody on her and it'll help her retain heat till the day warms up. When she heats up, she wiggles out of it and leaves it by the door.

So there are good reasons and to put clothing on dogs and bad reasons as well. If you have the correct mindset about it, the clothing serves a purpose, and you aren't projecting maternal/paternal feeling onto your dog, then clothing is fine. Otherwise, lets leave it off. Hope this answers your question.

Kaupungistumisen myötä koiralla oli edessään liuta uusia haasteita, kuten liikenne, ahtaat kaupunkiasunnot sekä rajattu liikkuminen sisään ja ulos. Sopeutuminen uusiin olosuhteisiin oli kiinni yksilön kyvystä sopeutua. Koiran kohdalla sitä edesauttoi kesyyntymisen myötä kehittynyt miellyttämisen tarve sekä kenneleiden jalostustyö, jolla tähdättiin helposti käsiteltävään ja yhteistyöhaluiseen lemmikkiin.

Vaikka olosuhteet muuttuivat, roduille tyypilliset piirteet kuten ruumiinrakenne sekä turkin laatu ja paksuus pyrittiin säilyttämään alkuperäisen kaltaisina asuinpaikasta ja elinolosuhteista riippumatta. Vinttikoira on edelleen nopearakenteinen, lihaksikas ja hoikka juoksija, jonka turkki on kehitetty Välimeren alueen ilmastoon. Meksikosta kotoisin oleva chihuahua on edelleen pieni ja pohjavillaton rotu, joka jäähtyy ja kylmettyy isompia ja rotevampia koiria nopeammin etenkin täällä pohjoisessa. Husky on edelleen aktiivinen, kookas ja säänkestävällä turkilla varustettu rotu, kaupungistuneesta asuinympäristöstään huolimatta.

Koiranvaatteet ja -varusteet ovat alunperin syntyneet helpottamaan koiran kykyä sopeutua rodulleen epätyypillisiin elinympäristöihin ja olosuhteisiin. Samalla on huomioitu koiranomistajien ja -kasvattajien arkipäiväisiä käytännön toiveita.