[hargyle]

Currently I am using a break away collar for Loki, but he is growing out of it fast. I have a buckle collar, but I have read that those can be unsafe if left unattended.

I will be getting him a harness. But as far as an every day use collar what do you suggest ... I was going to get a non-slip for walks and put his tags on the buckle.

Also... he does not wear his collar in his crate ...ever.

 

[Tankstar]

My dogs have a assortmant of differernt collars. buckle, snap, martingle. All I use for different things.

I have a clip that transfers their information from one collar to another.

But they never wear collars indoors. To danferous with 2 dogs who play ALOT with each other. Plus tags making sound annoy me and I wouldnt want to wear a tight collar all day

 

[Avie]

I have a very simple leather buckle collar that we only have good experiences with. Inside the house he doesn't wear a collar.

 

[Shell]

Chester has a variety of collars and harnesses.
His rabies and city license tags plus a tag with my cell number are on his main collar- a plain, Ruffwear brand, quick-release buckle collar. He wears that anytime we go outside and I take it off as soon as we step inside. Chester is not a door darter or a fence jumper so he is a very low escape risk from the house.
He also frequently wears a hiking harness (Ruffwear Webmaster- great all-around general purpose harness) and I have a second tag with my cell number on it attached to the harness. Both in case we are out somewhere and he loses his collar and simply because I might misplace the harness and it'd help the harness get back to me. Harness is also used for supervised tie-out and as a car harness (with carabiner attachments)

Additional collars are a 1 3/4 inch wide nylon collar for general neighborhood walking and a prong training collar for walking in high excitement areas. (Both worn in addition to the regular collar with tags). the prong has a mini-carabiner on it to link it to the collar as a fail-safe.

The foster pit Luna has a martingale collar on 24/7. She is too much of an escape risk to not have a collar with phone number on it for one; and two is that while all my neighbors know and recognize Chester and any of them could approach him and walk him home even without a collar, a "stray" pit bull with no collar is something most people aren't going to approach or try to catch. I also needed to let her drag a leash in the house for a month or so after she came to me for training.
She has a little basic walking harness for walks and supervised tie-out and a car harness for car rides and a prong collar for selected training uses (with a fail-safe of a choke chain back-up)

 

[hargyle]

Herm ok. So it sounds like one of each with tags all around! I looked into those Rubit clips to change his tags, are thoes reliable? any other suggestions clip/tag wise?

What about head collars for walking as oppose to harness/non-slip? I have read they are more calming than anything around the body - and as good as Loki is he gets REALLY excited, still working on manners.

I have him wear a collar while in the house because of the cats, sometimes I need to catch him! As far as running, I don't forsee this as an issue, but you never know. But at night time it comes off when everyone is calm.

 

[Shell]

If you prefer a head collar, I like the Newtrix head collar much better than the Halti or the Gentle Leader. It works on a different premise of pressure and release and I also feel it is safer on their necks.

I don't change tags between collars because I don't want the added step of remembering to change tags! I'm the type of person that would lose tags like that.

 

[3doglady]

Snap buckle collars are not always break-away collars. I like break-away collars, except when I don't want them to break away - lol. I use nylon collars with snap buckles for the ease of putting them on and taking them off.

Mine don't wear collars indoors, for safety reasons. My oldest got trapped on a heater vent under my bed a few years back. I couldn't find her and she couldn't get free herself. My lab (as a young puppy) broke her tooth biting. Her tooth got caught in the other dog's collar. Though these are random incidents, I just don't feel comfortable with them wearing collars indoors and especially if crated.

JMO

 

[Spirit_of_Cotons]

I like the collars that attach like a belt. Don't know what they're called, but you can adjust them if they grow bigger. Also I heard they can't fall off as one with a snap can just...well...snap. I don't trust those collars, only the ones that attach like a belt. They look like this (but can be any color): http://www.dogsupplies.com/products/Bluebird-Teal-High-Viz-Waterproof-PVC-Dog-Collar.html

A harness is nice too. Luke wears one and I have no problem walking him in it. He wears his harness and collar outside, not in the house. He also wears a harness because he has a small neck and sometimes likes to pull, so the harness helps there as it won't choke him. Training helps too, but the harness does its job.

 

[Avie]

I like the collars that attach like a belt. Don't know what they're called, but you can adjust them if they grow bigger. Also I heard they can't fall off as one with a snap can just...well...snap. I don't trust those collars, only the ones that attach like a belt. They look like this (but can be any color): http://www.dogsupplies.com/products/Bluebird-Teal-High-Viz-Waterproof-PVC-Dog-Collar.html

Aren't those just buckle collars? 'Cause our dog's collar is the same, just without the rings around the holes, and it's made of leather. A really sturdy, robust, but simple collar. We don't have a tag on it yet It used to have Charlie's tag on it, but that one is no longer applicable. I couldn't find a picture of the one I have on the web, so I took a picture of it myself. As you can see, it is very plain, no variations in width. It's not a very narrow or wide collar, I find it to be a good in between for a large dog. A bit worn on the left side In my experience it's a very safe collar, it has never been unreliable, snapped off, etcetera. It handled 88 lbs of enraged/frightened Charlie with ease. I'll never get anything other than something like this, can recommend it to anyone.


EDIT: Upon closer examination, I can see the difference But it's still a buckle collar, right?

 

[Willowy]

Do you mean a real breakaway collar (like a cat safety snap collar) or just one with a plastic clip buckle? They do make breakaway collars for dogs but they're kind of hard to find.

My dogs wear Lupine collars because of the guarantee. I think I've exchanged each collar at least 3 times and once for a leash. I love their guarantee (but they probably don't love me ). They have Boomerang CollarTags for I.D., and Rubits for their rabies and city license tags. I think the Rubits are nifty, and they certainly snap on and off easily (but not too easily), but I can't speak to their durability because I just got them.

My dogs do wear their collars all the time because I think, for my dogs, the dangers of going collarless are greater than the risk of a collar mishap.

 

[Zoey's Mommy]

My dogs seem to prefer the Martingales, they're loose when they're just chillaxin' around the house and tighten when you need some control on leash. Buckles seem to bother Zoey, she shakes her head a lot when we put them on her; I'm afraid she'll give herself another hematoma from shaking her head that much! And they wear their collars all the time, they're get all squirrely when we take their collars off, like they're running around nekkid or something, lol!

Etsy has GOBS of vendors selling hand made collars and tag that are super cute! Emmett's tag has his name and our number on one side, and the other side says "If you can read this, I will lick you."

 

[Shell]

While a "belt buckle" style collar is very unlikely to pop loose on its own, the downside is that in order to undo it, you have to be able to tighten the collar to free the buckle. If there is any chance of the dog getting his collar caught (while playing, on the teeth of another dog, on a fence or whatever), I prefer the safety factor of the quick-release plastic buckle that even if the collar is pulled tight, you can just squeeze the sides of the buckle and its free.
It also can be undone with one hand which is fairly difficult with the belt-buckle type.

 

[hamandeggs]

I personally prefer the quick-release flat collar. Easy to put on, and it comes off quickly if anything gets stuck. Biscuit actually got her tags stuck to another dog's tags while playing once, and we were able to release them before they even realized it thanks to the quick release. Would have been much more problematic with a buckle or Martingale.

The other downside about Martingales is that they have a dangly piece that can catch on things and/or be chewed by the dog. Biscuit has chewed a Martingale collar off her own neck when I was sitting on the other side of the coffee table for 5 minutes and couldn't see her. Very annoying! We leave a collar on Biscuit most of the time when we're home, but we take it off when she's in her crate and we're gone.

Since Loki is a pup and likely to grow a lot more, I would get something inexpensive for now. We had this flat reflective quick-release collar made by Rogz when Biscuit was younger, and I liked it a lot. Durable, washable, inexpensive and comes in lots of colors. I wouldn't spend too much money on something he's just going to grow out of in a couple months!

 

[luv mi pets]

My little dogs do not wear collars. I have a plastic tote that I keep all their collars in . When they leave the property, a collar is placed on their little necks. Depends on the dog what type of collar. Doberman gets a martingale. Head smaller than his neck slips out of regular collars. Chihuahuas get a buckle collar or a quick release collar. The Shepherds get a get a flat buckle collar and choke collar. Each collar has an ID tag attached to it. Just our phone number on the tag. The collars have our phone number either stamped on it, magic marker or stitched on. I saw two many dogs in my shelter days have just the 'S' hook on their collar. My big dogs at home wear a plastic buckle collar because I have an E fence

 

[WhiskeySundays]

Right now both boys are wearing matching Collarmania.com buckle collars. I will only put them in buckle or martingale collars, as I has a serious mistrust for quick snap collars. When I am settled at home, I usually have martingales setting by the door so when they go outside, I just slip the collars over their heads and out they go.

 

[begemot]

My dogs wear Lupine collars because of the guarantee. I think I've exchanged each collar at least 3 times and once for a leash. I love their guarantee (but they probably don't love me ). They have Boomerang CollarTags for I.D., and Rubits for their rabies and city license tags. I think the Rubits are nifty, and they certainly snap on and off easily (but not too easily), but I can't speak to their durability because I just got them.

Do you have the kind of CollarTags with the slots for adjustable collars? I am thinking about getting a new boomerang tag so that I'll have more flexibility in choosing collars (there are so many cute collars out there, I hate having to be restricted to ones that will fit his current tag) and that's one I'm considering. But I worry about it not fitting different collars right, or falling off despite what it says. I'd love to hear your experience. I'm trying to decide between that and a plastic dangly one. The boomerang plastic ones are supposed to be much nicer than regular plastic, and hopefully they're not noisy like the dangly metal ones. Noisy is a deal breaker.

 

[Willowy]

Do you have the kind of CollarTags with the slots for adjustable collars? I am thinking about getting a new boomerang tag so that I'll have more flexibility in choosing collars (there are so many cute collars out there, I hate having to be restricted to ones that will fit his current tag) and that's one I'm considering. But I worry about it not fitting different collars right, or falling off despite what it says. I'd love to hear your experience. I'm trying to decide between that and a plastic dangly one. The boomerang plastic ones are supposed to be much nicer than regular plastic, and hopefully they're not noisy like the dangly metal ones. Noisy is a deal breaker.

Yeah, all Lupine collars are adjustable so I do have the CollarTag with slots. They're very nice. . .I don't think I'll ever buy any other brand. The slotted kind would work on a regular nylon buckle collar, but if you get a leather collar or one of those double thick nylon collars you need to get their CollarTag for thick collars. I bought one of those for my grandpa's dog and it was great (not for adjustable collars though). My cousin bought one of their plastic tags for her cat and it was definitely nicer and sturdier than any other plastic tag I've seen, but I don't know about noise because the cat didn't wear any other tags. I buy CollarTags as gifts for all my friend's/relative's dogs. None have ever fallen off, and considering the wrestling I have to do to get the tag off the collar I really don't think it could happen accidentally.

 

[begemot]

Yeah, all Lupine collars are adjustable so I do have the CollarTag with slots. They're very nice. . .I don't think I'll ever buy any other brand. The slotted kind would work on a regular nylon buckle collar, but if you get a leather collar or one of those double thick nylon collars you need to get their CollarTag for thick collars. I bought one of those for my grandpa's dog and it was great (not for adjustable collars though). My cousin bought one of their plastic tags for her cat and it was definitely nicer and sturdier than any other plastic tag I've seen, but I don't know about noise because the cat didn't wear any other tags. I buy CollarTags as gifts for all my friend's/relative's dogs. None have ever fallen off, and considering the wrestling I have to do to get the tag off the collar I really don't think it could happen accidentally.

Thanks, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the slotted one for adjustable collars, since I don't imagine I'll be using a double-thick collar with my little guy. If I ever get a collar it doesn't fit on, I'll get a plastic dangly one when it happens.