Now, I’m not one to dress up my dog in Juicy Couture and Ed Hardy, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fashion trends to take note of — especially for the modern pup. Beans and I got together to peruse the Interwebs and find some of the best Fall trends for the modern dog this year. Think of this as your Fall fashion issue of doggie Vogue.

Doesn’t he look excited? It might be because I said “Fall Fashion” or maybe it’s because I’m holding his favorite ball…

First up? Let’s talk about patterns.

This Fall we think that harlequin is the new houndstooth. It’s been popping up everywhere and this diamond-shape is a great transition from Summer to Fall. Remember the bed we posted from petLINENS? Here’s a fancy black and white harlequin collar from Doggie Stylish that Beans just loves. It’s lightweight, only $8, and it matches his coloring quite well

Puppia calls this collection “Argyle” but I call them harlequin!

Plaid! Yes, plaid is back, and we’re glad it didn’t bring grunge back with it. I love this Jack Plaid dog coat — I think it will keep your pup nice and warm on cool Fall evenings and make the transition to Winter perfectly.

Next up? This Cape Cod collar by The Urban Animal Scientist actually encompasses two of the Fall trends. First, the material is from an old silk tie. Silk is a fabric that makes a nice transition to Fall and on top of that, the use of something old to make something new such as an old tie-turned-collar is a growing trend. Additionally, the colors are a great combination that recall the preppy, cottagey feel of Cape Cod when the weather begins to turn. I love the quality of this collar — the stitching is just right and the heavy metal buckle makes it feel weighty and rich.

Beans gets very cold in the Winter but in early Fall the temperatures seem to be mild enough that he doesn’t need a coat or scarf. However, a bandanna is just the thing to get him ready for Winter. Beantown Handmade makes great quality bandannas that cleverly don’t need to be tied around your dog’s neck. Instead, you thread your collar through the bandanna. Here’s Beans sporting a brown and red fruit-themed bandanna from Beantown Handmade:

Beans isn’t crazy about posing for photos!

What else is on tap for Fall? A nice, thick rustic leather collar. These personalized collars from rolloverleatherworks on Etsy are beautifully handcrafted and look to be extremely durable.

Tomorrow, PupStyle doggie fashion expert Dara Foster gives us her top 3 style trends!

For over 25 years, family-owned business SallyeAnder has been creating handmade soaps and skin care products. The brand was originally developed when Gary and Karen Austin needed to find a solution for their son’s allergies to bath products, but soon expanded to sensitive skin and acne products, bug bite soothing products, and even grass stain removers. Now, they’ve moved into pet products. As you all know, my dogs have crazy allergies from bumps to flakes to hot spots to just about everything.

SallyeAnder kindly sent me a care package of their “Purrrfect Puppy” products to try out. There were two soaps in the kit, but they had to be discarded because Mr. Dog Milk is severely sensitive to smelly things. I can barely wear unscented deodorant! It’s quite the over-sensitive, allergy-ridden household we’ve got going on over here. Anyway, I was able to keep the Dry Dog Shampoo, the Bug Relief Cream, and the Hot Spot Cream.

I noticed that Beans had what appeared to be a little hot spot on his belly, so I photographed it and started to use the Hot Spot Cream. It smells a lot like Burt’s Bees Miracle Salve and also contains mostly beeswax, salts, oils and herbs.

According to the description, it helps relieve associated itching and that I should see improvement within 24 hours. And I did.

Here is the area on day 1, kind of red, raw and crusty.

On day 3, I noticed a significant improvement in the area. No more crusties, and it went from red to pink. And it was completely gone in a week.

I can’t wait to break into that dry shampoo. It’s perfect for my dogs because we don’t bathe them often, but they do get smelly!

Pawesome posted this instructional from Apartment Therapy on creating your very own Flokati pet bed. I think any dog that likes to snuggle will really love the softness of the Flokati cover. It’s a great tutorial and a fun DIY project that you can do easily in one day.

If you’re in the Seattle area on Sunday, March 28th from 1-3PM, pop in to Assemble Gallery and Studio for a class on sewing your own squeak toy.

Choose from one of three animal patterns to sew a squeaky, plushy toy for your puppy (or small dog). Students will learn basic machine and hand-sewing techniques to create a hypoallergenic friend.

Roverdog8 offers Canadian-made collars, leashes and jewelery. Each piece is handmade using the high-quality materials and carefully-chosen trims. Their collars also feature a signature lampwork bone bead made exclusively for them by one of two accomplished Canadian bead artists.

I’ve owned a Lucky Fiona dog collar — custom made for my Lulu. It’s a shame Beans likes to munch on Lulu’s collar or I think it would have lasted much longer. We had to buy a leather collar for Lulu, and yet it is still full of little teeth marks!

However, here’s what I will say for Lucky Fiona’s collars: large fabric selection, custom sizes, they’re well made, strong, and durable. So, if you don’t have a little muncher like I do, take a look at Lucky Fiona.