Ukraine's first patent for a service-dog body armor design

In 2015, after her husband's rotation home, founder Tetiana Slavinska's family welcomed a Belgian Malinois — and a new life began: training, competitions and serious work with the dog.

With the start of the full-scale war came the question of physical protection for service dogs. Ready-made body armor was very expensive, and none was produced in Ukraine — there wasn't even fabric for soft armor.

Tetiana searched for equipment everywhere — in Ukraine, Europe, America — while exploring the option of sewing it at home. Like-minded people supported the idea. They sewed, measured and changed the cut until they settled on their own model.

The first vests went to the four-legged operators of the bomb-disposal service of the National Police in Dnipropetrovsk region. Today it is a full-fledged Ukrainian production with its own patents.

"Our model is no worse than Western ones, but 2–3 times cheaper."— Tetiana Slavinska, founder of Vartoviy K9