I should back up right here exactly — before talking about collars directly, allow me to address an all too common misconception. Too many dog owners have the expectation that a collar, via attaching some personalized tags or custom identification, is what you use to identify your dog should he/she be separated or lost from you. That’s not any collar's main job description, rather, microchipping is the primary means of always identifying your dog. Hopefully, your dog is microchipped, that is the place to start for ensuring your dog can always be identified. If your dog isn’t microchipped get thee to your veterinarian and get your dog microchipped! It’s inexpensive, safe, and a permanent way to identify your dog.

A quick few words about microchipping. So what is a microchip? It’ s a very, very, very tiny = micro, chip = data chip. There's no battery, no power required, and absolutely no moving parts. They are entirely safe and the microchip is simply injected one time just under the loose skin between your dog’s shoulder blades. It's no more invasive than your dog getting a shot. That one microchip remains there for the life of your dog. If your dog should be lost and taken to any animal shelter or veterinarian, your dog’s microchip can be easily scanned by personnel there. Just by waving a handheld scanner over your dog's shoulder area, that scanner will read the microchip quickly and transmit a registered ID number unique only to your dog. Voila! That number allows those appropriate personnel to then retrieve your dog’s contact information from a secure database and reunite you with your beloved canine companion! Good stuff! Collars are never the primary means of identifying your dog.

Now, back to collars. Two words for you when selecting collars, BREAK AWAY. Yes, you absolutely want a collar that when confronted with a sudden, unexpected force to “break away.” What you don’t want is your dog in some buckle or other means of collar attachment that will not yield. If that’s the case, the unyielding collar will become a noose and right quick. Now that you’ve got that break away criteria for your collar, what else can you look for in collars? I’m glad you asked! 

I use two types of collars with my Labrador Hamish depending on what we are doing together; a safe plastic training collar (Starmark Pro Training brand) and a soft, personalized webbed collar (Snazzy Fido brand). Both types of these collars are attached to a leash for our time out walking together. (How to walk enjoyably with a leash and a collar on your dog is for another post and likely, I am thinking might just be a video!) I have attached some images of both types of these collars, because, pictures can be worth a thousand words, right? The Starmark Pro Training collar is a great collar that Hamish loves — and yes of course, it is a break away collar too! He literally jumps for joy to wear it. This is the collar we started out on as we were learning how to walk together, and though he wears it not often now, Hamish knows that if it’s what I select for us, he can expect we are going someplace that is likely new and filled with more novel sights, sounds, and critters!  

The other type of collar that we most commonly use day in day out for our adventuring together is a break away, personalized Snazzy Fido webbed collar. (I am sure there are other manufacturers of such collars, but over several years now, I have found those Snazzy Fido collars to be both affordable and most durable, so we have just continued on with them.) This collar has Hamish's name and my own mobile cell phone number boldly embroidered across the collar. I am writing of course about Labradors with their big, you know, neck circumferences, so there is plenty of room for a dog’s call name and a 10 digit phone number, not so sure this would work for a Chihuahua. Almost always, Hamish is on leash, but for very select hikes, sometimes spelunking or in a more remote wilderness area when he is off leash swimming, on the off chance we were to be separated, he can be identified by sight via these high contrast collars with all the information on them.  

When Hamish is at home or on when on home ground, he wears no collar of any kind. He is safe in the house and I have a 5.5 foot fence around the perimeter of our property. Collars are just for out of the home environment. Hope this has helped you in learning more about collars. 

Thanks for reading! 

 Jennifer & Hamish