Issues with kilted dog-walking?

[Tobus]

I feel quite silly posting about this, but it's enough of an issue that I was wondering if (or how) others have dealt with it.

A bit of background: I previously had smaller dogs (a Boston Terrier and a Chihuahua) which did not pose any sort of issue when walking them in a kilt. They have both long since passed on, and my wife decided last year that it was time for us to get another dog. This time we got a bigger breed, an Olde English Bulldogge. This is not the smushy-faced English Bulldog you're probably thinking of. The Olde English Bulldogge (aka Victorian Bulldogge or Leavitt Bulldogge) is a somewhat modern recreation of the original English Bulldogs that mostly disappeared in the Victorian Era after bull-baiting was banned in 1835 and they were considered monsters unsuitable for keeping. It was recreated only from breeds that came from English Bulldog, including Bulldog, Pit Bull, American Bulldog, and Bullmastiff. This recreated breed is more athletic and muscular than the modern strain of English Bulldog, with most of the health problems bred out. These are strong, healthy dogs that require a lot of exercise. While they are built like tanks for taking down bulls by the nose, they are very good natured pets and companions. They just need to be worked.

Hence the need for regular walking. And I will include hiking once the weather improves in spring. Some owners have theirs pulling trailers and weighted carts to build their strength and keep them healthy. One of my dog's siblings is documented pulling 12,500 lbs of weight! But for my 8-month old girl, it's mainly just daily walks in the neighborhood or at local city parks. Due to her size and strength and propensity to pull into a collar, we have trained her to walk on a short leash and prong collar. Her training has gone well, and she pretty much stays right by my side with a loose leash. I'll have none of this being pulled around by 10 feet of leash like most dog owners I see. We want to walk our dog, not be walked by our dog. I'm weaning her off the prong collar but I insist that she stay right next to me on a short-but-loose leash, much like a service dog.

So here's the issue. I would like to wear a kilt occasionally when we walk. However, because she walks right next to me, she bumps into me a lot. Especially if she turns her head to look at something. And because she's a Bulldogge, she has big wet drooly jowls that leave smears of slimy/sticky slobber on whatever her face touches. Let me tell you, it's a real joy to see these gooey slobber trails on my stainless steel dishwasher and refrigerator and cabinetry, glass panes on doors, trails across the kitchen floor when she's been sniffing around, etc. That slobber dries to a hardened layer like lacquer that is near impossible to clean off. And her head is high enough to be at my knee level when walking, or up on my thigh if she lifts her head. I've learned not to wear my good trousers when walking her, and typically stick to jeans or hiking trousers. At least I can throw those in the washing machine.

Now I do have a Utilikilt that I use for rough hiking, as well as one cheapie acrylic kilt for casual use that I can wash in the machine. But my other kilts are high quality wool kilts that I don't want to ruin or get unnecessarily filthy. For those of you who have slobbery dogs that are large enough to slime your kilts, what do you do? Do you just wear your lower-quality or expendable kilts when with the dog? Or do you have some good method of protecting your kilt from dog slobber? How about a good method for cleaning it off if you can't necessarily stop and wipe it immediately when it's wet? I think my issue will be for both kilt and hose; both will end up with dog slobber on them when we walk, and may not get cleaned off until it's dried and crusted on there. I'm just hoping there's a solution out there where I can have my proverbial cake and eat it too. Err... wear my good kilt and walk my dog too. I'd like to be able to take her to the Highland Games in spring, and that's no place to wear a poor quality kilt or trousers!

Just for an idea of her size and jowl height, here are two photos from a month ago of her standing next to my wife at a local Steampunk festival. She has grown a bit more since then. She's around 60 pounds right now and has a lot of growing left to do.