Midleap - Cherry Canyon |
(We still have his Petco harness and use it for kick-scooter trips and the occasional hike. It's well designed out of stretchy, durable mesh, and while it's far from an attractive harness we've found it to be very secure.)
While researching hair breakage, I happened upon White Pine collars, which are chainless slip collars made of silky tubular nylon for show Samoyeds. I bought a flame orange "Soft Slip" size "Mini" in medium for 8-13 inch necks.
Tubular nylon, unlike flat woven nylon, doesn't have a rough edge, and on these collars the cut ends are folded to the outside. The slip action relaxes when tension is removed, unlike the chain martingale which stayed tightened due to the weight of the chain. It's adjusted to slip over his head for convenience, and at its tightest I can fit two fingers underneath. As soon as we switched to this collar, his hair grew back and hasn't shown any damage since. Despite the soft material, these collars hold up well: his daily "adventure" collar is six months old and does have a little fading and fuzziness, but its strength and construction is not compromised. Like all nylon collars, they are unfortunately susceptible to catching on velcro (my most hated fastener).
To remedy this problem, I made a generously sized continuous loop tag holder from some Amsteel Blue high-strength cord, left over from our homemade hammocks. The ends are spliced into the center of the cord, creating a strong, smooth circle with no rough edges, and the 7/64" cord is thin enough that it's essentially hidden under his coat except at the throat. I have learned firsthand that a tag could easily be the only thing standing between a safe Robin and a lost Robin.
Tags:
- The Amsteel tag holder carries a small brushed stainless Petco tag with only our phone numbers, which is still like-new after 8 months and is fairly easy to read.
- His day-to-day collar carries a lightweight, cheap aluminum tag from eBay, which has not held up too well (dings and scratches) but remains very readable. It lists his microchip information and our phone numbers.
- His newest tag and my favorite is the Boomerang slider tag on the new collar. It was more expensive and I balked at the cost initially, but it is leaps and bounds above the other two in quality. The engraving is deep, black, and tiny but extremely readable. It fits securely inline on his collar, so no extra jingling. It's thick, sturdy and warrantied for Robin's entire life. For this tag, we chose to engrave our two phone numbers and Robin's email address, which forwards to our emails and autoreplies our current travel information to anyone who might find him. I figure this should cover all of our bases for the next ten or so years of his life!
Takeaways:
Ruffwear Chain Reaction:
Good for: smooth coated dogs with a 12" or greater neck circumference or a large head. Probably best for a more muscular small dog since its width overwhelmed delicate Robin.
Not ideal for: fragile coats, slim/small builds and small necks.
White Pine tubular nylon collar:
Good for: any hair type, any size dog. Durable and secure with customizable level of control. Packs small so a good backup collar to keep in the car or a bag.
Not ideal for: dogs that pull constantly, since collars of any sort can damage the trachea and these are especially narrow to hide under the ruff. Pullers should always be harnessed. Also not a good option for unsupervised wear, since a tightened collar can't be slipped.
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