Dog Supplies
Buy and sell dog supplies in Guatemala.
A lot of Guatemalan dogs spend the day in the patio or up on a roof terrace, so the kit that earns its keep here is whatever keeps them dry and off wet concrete through the rainy season: a dog house with a raised floor, a cot bed that dries by midday, a heavy bowl that does not tip and fill with rain. Harnesses fitted to another dog’s chest change hands too, along with grooming clippers and the odd sealed sack of dry food a fussy dog refused. Much of it is passed on, new and second-hand, by owners whose dog outgrew it.
Plastic or wooden dog houses for a patio dog:
the rain decides it as much as the dog does. Through the rainy months the afternoon downpour floods patios in Flores and along the south coast, and a dog with nowhere dry to lie sleeps in the wet. A moulded plastic house, a Petmate or one of its cheaper copies, hoses clean, never rots and unclips into halves to fit in a car, but in full sun under a sheet-metal roof it heats up like an oven and sweats inside on cool mornings, so it belongs in the shade. Wood stays cooler and drier inside, yet it rots from the bottom up and draws termites unless it stands on legs or blocks. Either way, look for a floor lifted off the ground and a roof that overhangs the door. A moulded plastic house for a small or medium dog costs under Q1,000 new, while a wooden one from a local carpenter starts around Q350, because it is built here instead of shipped in. Second-hand, plastic holds its price only while the shell is glossy: once the sun has turned it chalky, cracks follow within a season or two and it should go for little. A wooden house sells on its base, and a sound floor on legs is the part worth paying for.
Cot beds, foam beds, bowls and harnesses:
a raised cot bed, mesh stretched over a metal frame, keeps a dog off cold tile or wet concrete and dries fast after a storm, though a puppy will chew the mesh at the corners. Indoors, a foam bed is only worth having if the cover zips off for washing. Stainless steel bowls outlast plastic ones, which get gnawed and hold smells in their scratches, and outside a weighted bowl stays upright. For a harness, measure round the chest just behind the front legs rather than trusting the letter on the tag, since every brand sizes differently. A dog just home through adopt a dog usually needs all of it at once, and if a cat shares the house, its gear is under cat supplies. For a hard chewer, a rubber Kong in a size up outlasts plush or rope, and a ball small enough to slip behind a big dog’s back teeth can choke it. Poodle and schnauzer owners often keep electric clippers and a slicker brush to stretch the gaps between visits to the dog groomer.
Sun, damp and termites in a used dog house:
press a key into the bottom edge and floor of a wooden house; soft wood, fine powder or thin mud tunnels mean termites, and that house should stay well away from your own woodwork. On plastic, feel the shell for chalkiness, look for hairline cracks around the clips and screw holes, and count the clips, since they hold the roof to the base. Check a cot bed’s mesh corners and the frame joints for rust, and squeeze a foam bed: foam that stays flat or crumbles is finished. Take dry food only in a sealed sack with a readable date, as an opened one goes stale and draws weevils, and the same goes for flea collars and pipettes.
Listing a dog house, a bed or a box of your dog’s things:
measure the inside floor and the height of the door opening, which is what the next dog has to fit through, and say whether the house stood in sun or under cover. Photograph it from the door side in daylight, then tip it over for a shot of the base. For a harness, give the chest measurement it was set to, not just the size. When a dog has died or left with its family, the bed, bowls, harness and brush go faster as one lot. A buyer driving up from Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa in the rainy season will want the dog house hosed and dry, its clips in a bag taped inside the door, and the bed rolled in plastic for the ride home.