Most returns in this category are fit, not quality. Five minutes with a tape measure prevents almost all of them.

Measure where the collar will sit

Not at the top of the neck under the jaw, and not down on the shoulders. A collar sits in the middle of the neck, and that is where the tape goes, with the dog standing rather than sitting.

Use a soft tape or a piece of string you can measure afterwards. A steel rule around a moving dog measures nothing useful.

Two fingers, every time

Slide two fingers flat under the tape. If they fit snugly, the measurement is right. If your whole hand fits, the collar will come off over the head; if nothing fits, it is too tight for a dog that will gain a winter coat.

Coat thickness genuinely matters. A double-coated dog measured in August is a different number in January, which is why we build adjustment range into every collar.

Martingales need the head as well

A limited-slip collar works because its closed size is smaller than the skull and bigger than the neck. Measure the widest part of the head, over the ears, and send both numbers.

Without the head measurement we are guessing at the one dimension the design depends on, and a martingale sized only to the neck is just a collar that tightens.

Puppies and growth

Buy for now with room to adjust, and expect to replace rather than stretch. A collar bought three sizes large so it will ‘last’ is a collar the puppy backs out of in week one.

For litters, colour-coded collars in a small width are the standard approach, replaced with a named collar at the point the puppy goes home.

Write it down

Record each dog’s neck measurement and the collar size supplied. For a kennel or a rescue this turns every reorder into a spreadsheet rather than an afternoon with a tape measure.

We keep the list on file too, so a repeat order can be one line of email.