Collars

[banana]

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As I have a goldie and a little terrier, I have not come across the whole 'collar thing' and am wondering why greyhounds/whippets etc have such thick collars that also look like they have a slip type thing on them?

Can anyone tell me pleaseee????

 

[pippywhippet]

The thickness of the collars is to protect the long whippet neck- and the "slip" type thing will be a martingale collar as whippets/ lurchers etc with their dainty heads can back out of an ordinary collar- the martingale should loosen to go over the head and then tighten if they pull :thumbsup: I read in a working Lurcher book by B Plummer that whippets were originally encouaged to pull against the thick collars to build up their back and leg muscles

 

[chelynnah]

As already said, because of the long slender necks the wider collar is safer for them to spread the pressure. A thin collar on a puller could cause serious damage to the throat.

The 'half check' or 'martingale' style of collar is as also stated because of the shape of their heads/necks. The whippet at the base of their neck where a collar is comfortable is the same as the widest part between the ears. This means if a collar is fitted like you would on any other type of breed (other than sighthounds), they can easily back out of it. The neck behind the ears is very narrow, so if a 'regular' collar was fitted there, they wouldn't be able to escape, but they would also be very uncomfortable. So with the martingale style it goes easily over their head, but has the ability to tighten up behind the ears so it can't be backed out of if fitted properly.

A lot of people do something like I do which is all of my dogs have a 'tag collar' which is a regular collar fitted loosely to hold their tags. This collar is on all the time, and if they escaped and got it caught, they could slip it, but it's still permanent ID while in the house, and gives a 'handle' to hang onto when people are coming and going etc... Then when we go for walks we just add a martingale collar or all in one on as well and we're good to go.

Whippet World has a Collar/Lead primer in their archives which gives really good info about all the different types of collars and their uses.

http://www.whippetworld.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=155

© Patience Renzulli and WhippetWorld.net

Wendy

 

[lurcherman]

ive found the best collar is the one your use the least, but have always used big collars when needed, remember bigger is always better :thumbsup:

 

[eingana]

The longer the dog's neck, the wider the collar needs to be, basically. Stress on a single point of a neck gets to be more and more risky the longer the neck and the longer the individual vertebra.

As a rule of thumb the collar that is used for walking should always be wider than a single vertebra in order to share the load created by the lead should you have to restrain the dog. Really big dogs like St Bernards, mastiffs and Newfoundlands have really long vertebrae but they also have lots of muscles and tissue in the neck to spread the load. Long, lean sighthounds have the long vertebrae but don't have the muscle mass to spread the load around and so it becomes ever more important to have a very wide collar to prevent neck bone and nerve damage.

My personal choice of collar for my dawg is a really substantial and padded EzyDog collar. Their collars are wide enough to share the load between vertebrae and are basically made of neoprene and webbing, which doesn't rot once it's got wet and will go through the washing machine to keep it in good condition after mudhounds have taken it for an impromptu bath, along with nice and chunky welded rings. I know that there are loads of other brands out there, but I have yet to see any which beat EzyDog for comfort, strength and durability for the same price