needing help on a dog collar

[Spence]

It depends on the dog and what you want to use it for. I want a collar that is not going to come apart because of the work and play I do with my dogs. This particular collar is for tracking. It is 1" wide and I use 4/5 oz. leather - doubled. It could be wider (again - depends on the dog). I've done the same design in a 2" wide for "agitation." If you're not familiar with that, it's the training for protection or the protection part in the sport of Schutzhund. The dog is usually pulling to "get at" the decoy and the wider the collar the less stress on the neck. With tracking, my dogs don't pull so much so I can get away with a 1" collar. On live tracking (the real deal) and patrol or protection work, I use a harness on the dogs.

The design is as much for function (heavy duty) as it is for looks (and deterrent). A bad guy sees a heavy duty collar on a dog and he thinks twice about relieving you of your riches.

I folded it, as opposed to using two straps, mostly to make less work for myself. The D-ring is about as secure as it's gonna get.

I had made a mistake in listing the buckle. I pm'd Wildrose, but it is a Bridle Buckle #12, 1", Part # 1603-01 from Tandy.

[wildrose]

I realized I erred in the length I cut for the strap - it was too short to try Spence's way. So I still folded it over, but I put the buckle on one end, then stitched in two keepers, and hole punched the other end. Right now, I've measured out where I will begin installing the sparklies. Will start setting them tomorrow.

Pics to follow, of course.

[wildrose]

Here's the beginning of the setting; should've allowed for more room on either side of the star, but it'll look good when all done.