All Things Dog Blog

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

© Carrie Boyko

Tanner in his Thinking Cap

While cruising through the website of MANKINDdog™ last week, I realized something. Their signature hat, emblazoned with their logo, screams out that all dogs are for all people--the whole of MANKIND. Yet, until that moment, I had always seen a guy's hat as a signal of the type of dog he would choose.

Call me an amateur profiler if you like, but this is all in fun, so please just sit back and enjoy the sillinesss that is me today. Hang in there with me for a moment while I explain. Visualize this...okay.

A guy in a cowboy hat is often found with a herding or a hunting breed. These dogs typify his association with ranches, the West, and the mountain wilderness lifestyle.

Your typical preppie type from an Ivy League college is probably wearing his Princeton baseball cap (and don't forget the sweatshirt) while walking his dog in the park--his Labrador Retriever. These days Yellow and Chocolate are the Labs du jour.

Tanner's favorite hat for 'thinking', shown above, sends an image of foreigners to my mind. And maybe a suave, debonair, elderly gentleman. Well, that certainly doesn't define Tanner, but I suppose he's not really part of this hat association thing I've got going today. He's cute though, huh?

Now picture a frequent flyer in the fighting dog genre--a black hoodie with low-riding shorts that show off his boxers, pants held loosely at his thighs by a heavily-studded black belt. What kind of hat is he wearing? A black baseball cap with a 'boarding' logo, but backwards on his head. Right? And maybe tipped a little off center just to add some extra cool.

Now I get to use one of my son's funny words--jarhead. I guess it comes from the haircut our servicemen get when they first join up. Their hats? Typically a flat topped military-style cap in camouflage. Their dog is often the German Shepherd that serves in so many of our deployment areas to sniff out bombs. A natural choice--protective, loyal, obedient--just like their owners.

Funny thing about this game I'm playing here. As I was looking at various types of hats that are prevalent today, I found fishing hats too. You don't see them often, but then I don't see many fishermen. They tend to take to the lake before dawn and are back in by mid-morning. These hats look cute with flies and hooks and worms all over them. I never did come up with a typical dog for the fisherman, though. Any ideas? I'm actually stumped on this one.

Now, a bird hunter will also be wearing a camo hat, and sporting a Retriever to return the duck, quail or pheasant to him after he fells it over the water. Now there's a job Tanner would love. Sorry boy; I'm not much for guns. We'll stick to fetch in the pool and at the dog park.

Today I had some fun looking through my husband's hat collection. It's more like a baseball cap collection, actually. It's sort of a fanatical hobby that makes him kinda cute to me. (Go ahead and say "awwww!") After 32 1/2 years of marriage to the guy, I'm glad I still think he's cute. But I digress.

He's acquired a couple of very nice cowboy hats (western style, anyway) over the years and a recent addition of a Fedora that I think he pulls off quite well. Occasionally he wears Tanner's hat from the photo above. It's a good look on him. What do you call those? Not a beret....

The majority of hubby's hat collection seems to be easily sorted into 3 areas of distinction: golf courses he has played, colleges and universities he likes (lord knows we've supported enough of them with 3 kids and an attorney in the family) and a third category that is sorta corny. Working in the children's book industry, hubby has all sorts of hats from various book series, publishers and characters. His choice of hats says a lot about him. He likes to read, golf and show off his favorite universities. You may find this humorous, but I like a guy whose appearance says something about his interests.

©The Stray Dog™

So, what hat is he wearing today? You'll love this. While on vacation this summer we ate at a restaurant called The Stray Dog. They have a shop and quite a bit of custom imprinted clothing, hats and all sorts of personal items--really adorable. Their logo is a scruffy, indeterminate dog of the pound puppy sort.

What's unique about this, other than it's lack of a logo with AKC papers, is how they designed their hat. I'll plug that is here too. The frayed outline of the words really add to the image of the scruffy dog, don't you think? It's a perfect design fit for the company's image. We had such fun shopping there.

All that said, I have had some great times shopping at MANKINDdog™ recently. I'm particularly proud of the doggie sculpture. "No, mom, you can't have it!"

I suppose now I'll need to pick up one of their hats for hubby. I guess if he'll wear a "Stray Dog" hat, he's likely to enjoy wearing a macho MANKINDdog™ hat: