Looking after it, and your dog

Fit it properly

A collar should sit at the base of the neck with room to slide two fingers flat underneath – no more. Too loose and it can be pulled over the head or caught on something; too tight and it presses constantly. Check the fit again whenever your dog’s coat or weight changes, and weekly for a growing puppy.

Full instructions are on the fit guide.

Supervise your dog

Please take the collar off when your dog is crated, kennelled, left alone, or playing roughly with other dogs. Collars catch – on crate bars, on branches, on another dog’s jaw – and a caught collar is one of the more common household accidents involving dogs.

If you’d rather your dog wore ID at all times, a well-fitted breakaway collar is the safer choice for unsupervised wear.

What a collar is not

• Not a restraint for a car. Use a proper crash-tested harness or a crate. A collar attached to a seatbelt in a collision can be fatal.
• Not a tethering point. Don’t tie your dog up and leave them, and never tether by the collar where they could jump or fall.
• Not a training device. No collar teaches loose lead walking. If your dog pulls hard, please look at a harness and some training.
• Not a toy. Collars and leads aren’t for chewing.

Check it regularly

Every few weeks, take thirty seconds to look at:

• The strap where it passes through the buckle and the D-ring – the two places wear concentrates.
• The rivets at every fold. They should sit flush and not turn or rock. A rivet that has started to lift needs replacing before the next walk.
• The hardware, for cracks, distortion or a stiff buckle tongue.
• The ID tag, which wears blank surprisingly quickly. A blank tag is no ID at all.

Retire anything that’s frayed through more than the surface, or where hardware has cracked. If it’s one of ours and it’s worn rather than damaged, send it back – we can usually repair it, often for nothing.

Washing

Hand wash in lukewarm water with a little mild soap, scrub gently with an old toothbrush, rinse thoroughly and air-dry away from direct heat. No washing machine, no tumble dryer, no bleach and no biological detergent – heat can soften the coating and lift it from the webbing core, and harsh detergents dull brass. BioThane may pick up light surface scuffs very slightly on first wash. That’s normal.

Brass and stainless

Solid brass darkens with handling and exposure. That’s a patina, not corrosion, and it’s one of the reasons we use it. If you prefer it bright, a little metal polish on a cloth brings it back – keep the polish off the strap.

The legal bit

In England, Wales and Scotland, the Control of Dogs Order 1992 requires a dog in a public place to wear a collar with the owner’s name and address on it, on a tag or on the collar itself. A microchip is required separately and doesn’t replace this.

And finally

We make these as well as we know how, but no collar, lead or accessory is indestructible, and none of them replaces supervision. You know your dog and we don’t – please use your judgement, and ask your vet about anything health-related rather than taking our word for it.