My dog Dottie has been part of my life for more than 11 years now. Since we got her, when I first started working from home and working in this industry, I've spent more waking hours with her than my wife or our children.
Dottie has been so important to my life this last decade plus. She's a great friend, great with our kids and has been a constant source of joy and happiness -- even if she does give me the silent treatment when I leave.
I love my dog, and I have way too many pictures of her. However, when I saw someone on social media post a picture of a headcover that looked almost exactly like their dog, I was floored. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. On one hand, it looked great. On the other hand, would I want something that, eventually, might feel like taxidermy?
Some time went by since seeing the headcover, made by Cuddle Clones. Then, one day, I got an email from someone working with the company who asked if I would be interested in going through the process myself to get one of my dog. I took them up on that offer.
Setting up a Cuddle Clone is pretty easy. You'll need to provide some details about your pet, including their breed, fur color and other traits. That's all simple. Then you provide photos of your dog from a variety of different angles to highlight their features, be they on their ears, snout, eyes, face or chest. Once you submit all that and your order, you're all set.
Cuddle Clones aren't cheap. It's a $150 investment in the headcover. I've always been reluctant to shell out for designer headcovers because of a price tag that's often a little bit cheaper. However, the details that you get in the end product are really good, and they're inherently personalized. What's more personal than your dog?
There's also a substantial lead time to building these headcovers. The amount of production time required varies, of course, and that probably relies largely on the pipeline of orders in front of yours. Again, that makes sense given the amount of detail that goes into these and the personalized nature of the headcover, but it's something to consider when placing your order. This isn't going to come in three days, nor should you expect that.
When I got the Cuddle Clone of Dottie, I was thrilled with the detail in it. I was able to set details up front, like how her ears hang (I chose her "racing ears," which is the shape they take when she walks fast), in addition to the traits I identified initially to them. Dottie has developed a white beard over the years, and the details of that beard came through wonderfully in the final product. It's not perfect, but how could it be? However, it's enough like Dottie to make both my wife and my son jump back in surprise when they saw it in the back of my car one day.
The headcover itself works well. It's bigger than the normal headcover, and you'd expect that given that it should look like a dog's head -- although there are, of course, small dogs with smaller heads. The headcover fits a driver well, doesn't really move much and offers more-than-sufficient padding to protect the big dog (with a dog headcover). I would say, however, to only use this on a driver. I did try it with a fairway wood, and the head was too small to keep the headcover on for longer than a few minutes and a few bumps in the golf cart.
Unfortunately, I know we're closer to the end of Dottie's life than the beginning. And the thought of that scares me. In a strange way, having the Cuddle Clone of Dottie makes me appreciate the time we have left with her all the more. Just a look at it reminds me of how fortunate I have been to have her in my life and so many of the great memories I have enjoyed with her. Frankly, in times when the golf is tough, that's going to be a calming influence.
