Measuring your dog for a collar: the quick version

To measure your dog for a collar, run a soft tape measure right around the base of their neck – where the collar will actually sit, low down near the shoulders – and keep two fingers flat under the tape as you go. Read the number exactly as it is: that measurement picks your size. It takes about thirty seconds.

This is the quick version. For the size chart, the size calculator, how a collar should fit, puppies and a breed table, see the complete fitting guide.

The three things people get wrong

Measuring too high. Just behind the ears the neck narrows, so you get a number that's too small and a collar that rides up under the jaw. Go lower, to the widest part just above the shoulders.

Getting the two fingers wrong. Two fingers lying flat between the tape and the coat – not pushed in edgeways, and not a whole hand. When the collar arrives, check it the same way: if you can fit three or four fingers, it's too loose.

Measuring the old collar. Unless you're certain it fits properly, you'll faithfully reproduce a collar that was always slightly wrong. If you do use one as a cross-check, measure from the buckle pin to the hole you actually use, not the full length of the strap.

No tape measure?

Use a piece of string or a phone charger cable. Wrap it round, mark where it meets, then lay it flat against a ruler. Most people find it easier than wrestling a tape around a wriggling dog.

Between sizes, or measuring a puppy?

Between sizes, size up: every collar adjusts inwards within its size, but none of them let out beyond it. For a puppy, measure the same way but pick a size their measurement sits low in, so there's room to grow, and check the fit weekly. The fitting guide's puppy section covers when to re-measure.

And if you're stuck, send us the number and we'll tell you what we'd make.