The margarine tub is what finally did it. I had it in the back of the Outback with a jug of water, and by the time I pulled into the truck stop in Tomah the lid had worked loose and there was a quarter inch of water soaking into a blanket. Scout drank out of it anyway. The transport dog I was handing off did not get a turn, because there was one tub and it was already a mess. That was the second Saturday in March. On the drive home I ordered the SLSON collapsible bowls, two of them, and I have not carried a margarine tub since.
Eight months and eight transport legs later, they are the thing in the dog bag I reach for most and think about least. Nothing about them is exciting. They fold, they hold water, they clip to a leash, and they go back in the bag. What they actually ended was a small recurring hassle. At every stop somebody had to figure out what the dogs were going to drink out of, and the answer was usually whatever was rattling around in the cargo area. That question does not come up anymore.
Two SLSON bowls, half an inch flat, in the bag before Saturday
Each bowl holds 12 fluid ounces and folds to about half an inch. Two carabiners come with them, so one clips to the leash and the other goes in the glove box.
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The folded height is about half an inch and each bowl weighs around 3.5 ounces. That is the whole argument. My cargo area holds a folded crate, a water jug, a carrier and a bag, and there is no room in it for two rigid bowls. The SLSON bowls expand to 5.1 by 3.5 by 2.1 inches, which is a real bowl, and they collapse down to something flat enough to slide into a side pocket. Gear that does not fit gets left on a shelf in the garage. This fits.
Twelve ounces is one stop's worth of water, not a day's supply
Each bowl holds up to 12 fluid ounces. Scout is 18 pounds and drinks maybe a third of that at a stop, so I fill it partway, let her finish, and dump what is left. The bowl was never meant to be a day's water supply and it is not one. Water rides in the jug in the cargo area. The bowl is what the water goes into for four minutes at a time. Knowing that ahead of time saves you from expecting it to do a job it does not do.
Two bowls means the transport dog is not drinking out of Scout's bowl
This is the reason I bought a two pack and not a single. At the hand-off in Tomah I may have Scout and a dog I met ninety minutes ago, and neither of them is going to share a bowl with the other. One bowl comes out of the bag for Scout, the other comes out fresh for the transport dog, and both get rinsed before they go back. It is a small thing that keeps a strange dog from being asked to do something it should not have to do.
The carabiner clips to the leash, so the bowl is in my hand before I need it
The listing says the carabiners attach to a belt loop, a backpack, a leash or a collar. I clip one to Scout's leash handle and it rides there all day. When we stop, I am not digging through the bag with a dog pulling at me. I unclip the bowl, fill it, and we are done. One warning. That carabiner is light hardware, sized for clipping a bowl to a leash and nothing else. Do not treat it as a tie-out.
It holds 1.5 cups of kibble, so it covers a meal and not just a drink
The listing puts each bowl at 12 fluid ounces or about 1.5 cups of food. I have used it for both. On a longer leg I have fed a dog out of the bowl on the tailgate while it stood in the shade of the hatch, and it worked the same as the water did, which is to say it did the job and then folded up. If you are moving a dog between shelters, being able to put down food in something clean matters more than you would think.
Soft plastic does not rattle, crack or scrape the crate
The bowls are soft plastic and the listing describes them as odorless. That is accurate. They do not clatter against the wire crate when the car turns, they do not develop a crack at the rim after a winter in the cargo area, and they do not leave a mark on anything they get thrown against. After eight months the SLSON bowls have a scuff or two and nothing else. Rigid bowls in a bag full of metal and mesh were always going to be the thing that lost.
A rinse at the truck stop sink and it folds back down wet
You do not need to dry it before it goes away. Mine gets rinsed, shaken twice, folded and dropped back in the bag, and it has been fine for the better part of a year. There is no hinge to jam and no rim to crack. If the last stop was muddy, the fold is also how the bowl travels without that mud ending up on the inside of the carrier next to a dog.
The second bowl lives in the glove box and I forget about it
Having two means not carrying one. The second SLSON bowl stays folded in the glove box of the Outback and I go weeks without thinking about it. That is the point. The day I leave the leash bowl on the kitchen counter, or the day a dog needs water and the bag is buried under a crate, the glove box bowl is still there. A backup you do not have to remember is worth more than a better bowl you left at home.
It works for the cats too, and the rescue moves cats
The title covers cats and dogs, and the small transport cats I have carried in the Sherpa need a bowl just as much as the dogs do. Twelve ounces is plenty for a cat and the bowl is shallow enough for one to drink from. I would not have thought about that when I ordered. Somebody at the rescue asked me for water for a cat on a hand-off and I had it, because the bowl was flat in the bag.
Light enough to carry, and covered for two years
Each bowl weighs about 100 grams and the pair has never added noticeable weight to a bag that is already heavy with a carrier and a jug. The listing carries a two year warranty, which is a strange thing to offer on a bowl and a fair one, given what I do to mine. Eight months in, both are still folding flat and still holding water. That is the entire report. It is a bowl, and it has behaved like one.
What I'd Skip
Two honest limits. First, 12 ounces is small. Scout is 18 pounds and it is right for her. A 70 pound dog would empty it in one go and you would be refilling it. The listing lists large breeds as suitable and I would not argue with anyone who said a big dog needs a bigger bowl. Second, there is no weight in the base, so it tips on uneven ground. I set it on the tailgate or hold it out for the dog rather than leaving it standing in gravel. The carabiner is light duty, as I said. None of that is a reason to skip the SLSON two pack for the bag. It is a reason not to expect it to double as the bowl at home.
Two bowls, half an inch flat, and no dog at the Tomah hand-off has had to wait for the other one to finish drinking.
The SLSON bowl I would replace the same day if I lost it
Two collapsible bowls, two carabiners, a folded height of about half an inch, and a fresh bowl for every dog that rides a leg with you.
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