So under where Reiko's collar goes, gets really matted up because he's so fluffy around the neck. I'm sure this isn't very comfortable for him. His collar isn't too tight, if any thing it's too loose. I have a hard time brushing it out. Any suggestions for this? Is this common?

Very common. This is why we only keep choke chains on in the house. We have an indoor no collar rule.

With the fenced in yard though and the lack of a mud-room door to let them out of, I want to get one of those tag collars that are thin for emergencies.

Anyone see these elsewhere? I'd love to get a different color!
http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Mountain-Rope-Dog-Collar/dp/B003Y0H24K/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295552827&sr=8-3-fkmr2

Great idea with the choke chain inside. I'll give that a go.

I've never seen one of those collars before. They look neat. It looks like it's made out of a bungee cord. Could be easy to make.

Koda wrote:

...Anyone see these elsewhere? I'd love to get a different color!
http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Mountain-Rope-Dog-Collar/dp/B003Y0H24K/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295552827&sr=8-3-fkmr2

Maybe you can contact the seller? I think I saw Amazon had a phone number or a somewhere you can click to send a message to the seller?

i use a rake to brush out under sierras collar as she gets real matted up

Ginger's fur is really thick in her neck, but she doesn't get matted up and I keep her collar on during the day. We take it off at bedtime.

We house a free-range doggle in our place - since his lice incident, we try not to put anything around his neck... it allows him to be all silent and ninja-like, too. Any time we leave the house though, he wears a Ruffwear Hoopie collar (in Topo... since my huzzby is a geography guy). It's pretty nice.

Have you guys seen these collars from Ruffwear?

Here's the Hoopie Collar Kate is talking about:

http://www.ruffwear.com/Hoopie-Collar-trade_2

Here's another link to thin mountain rope type collars in a variety of colors...

http://nationalleash.com/mountain_rope_collar.htm

cmanding wrote:

Here's the Hoopie Collar Kate is talking about:

http://www.ruffwear.com/Hoopie-Collar-trade_2

That's the one!! It matches his pretty blue eyes really well, too...

Sierra and Jack both have that collar, sierra the pink daisy one and jack the plain blue one, i love them both but sierras fur still mats up with it, like i said the wide toothed rake brush helps unmat her fur well and its not that pain full for her as its wide tooth, also works on her back side where she is really thick on the hind legs.

Rolled leather collars are also good for minimizing the matting around the neck if you like leather collars.

I have always been leary of getting a color w/plastic connections. I like the look of the ruffwear collar. Has anyone had issues of the plastic connections breaking?

In all my years with dogs, I've never had one of those plastic buckles on a collar break... but none of my dogs were particularly hard on them (aggressive chewers or pullers). I've broken one snap buckle like that on my backpacking pack, but I think the extreme temperature change from really cold (like, 10 below to 75 inside when I brought it in from the storage unit to my condo) had more to do with the one prong breaking than anything else...

jack had snapped the outer cover on sierras original collar and i don't know how old that was and not RW. our 2 RW collars have held up really well and jack has had his for all most a year and it looks new still. i love them!

Growing up my sister had a German Shepherd that broke a plastic clasp, it was just a cheap collar though, so I doubt it would really compare to a ruffwear. Konrad broke a harness once, it had a plastic clasp, but he ripped the webbing on it. One of the chest straps gave out and the whole harness kind of slid back on him, which pinned one of his front legs to his torso, and he sort of fell on his face. He hobbled into a sit and looked at me like "Daddy! I'm Stuck!" It was funny but I felt so bad for laughing at him. After that we started working on the loose leash walking, he's pretty good now, still pulls like a psycho for the first 50 yards or so out the door before he remembers he's not going to get anywhere any faster, (unless there's snow and ice, then we have unintentional skijoring, we're working on mushing commands for this, he wont drag me more than 5-10ft if I start barking commands ). He's good enough at loose leash walking in general that I don't use a harness much anymore, just his collar, or a pack if we're out exploring for the day