I have an 8 month old, lively Keeshond (dutch barge dog) with a ruff round her neck.  I have tried all sorts of collars, flat, padded, rolled leather, rolled leather slip with stitching (still gets knotted in the fur) and to be quite honest I am at a loss what to try next so that it does not wear her mane away.  The breeder recommends a rolled leather half check with no visible stitching which sounds good but on most sites it always says under these collars, things like, suitable for showing only or please choose a collar which is strong enough for your dog, which gives me the impression that these could suddenly break???
Any ideas anyone? Thanks

Hi I use these for my german spitz. I use a harness for walking them though. collars are for id and showing only (so not worried about sudden breakage) I have no probs with this setup at all. Hope you get sorted.
Angela

I use the 8mm round leather ones from here: http://www.accoladeleathercraft.com/#1X0 These will be plenty strong enough ask for the medium weight chain.

Where they say about show only is on the all in ones with light chain and the leather only about 5-6mm.

My Norwegian Elkhounds wear theirs 24/7, and I restitch them about once a year, but the company will do this FOC.

Sorry to disagree Brainless but i use the same rounded leather cord that accolade use and no, its not safe to use for anything other than a show collar/lead, and I most certainly would not sell a collar made out of that to anyone for any other purpose. (Going into more technical depth, the strength in leather is in the grain side, not the flesh side. This leather cord is a flat strap with all the 'corners' shaved off until you have a strap that is circular in cross section - that however leaves you very little of the strong grain and dense corium of the leahter left, meaning it is not anywhere NEAR as strong as even a thinner flat strap).

In any case, the chain will tear and break the ruff on a long coated dog, you'd really need one with a leather strap taking the place of the circle chain, but even these can catch.

Well I have used the thicker round collars (8mm) on my 20kg plus girls, who are not angels and will often pull if they see a cat etc, and never had a collar break, the stitching does degrade after a while but some of mine have had them for about 6 years.

I should think that there would be no problem with a Keeshond being smaller.

Meh, maybe I am overly paranoid about it then, it just scares me the idea of something breaking and i know how much stronger flat straps are in comparison.

As Brainless says, the 8mm rolled leather collar is more than strong enough (I used to use them on my GSDs without any problems).  They do the same thickness in a plain collar without using the half check, which doesn't damage the coat as much, though I do find that you will still get a parting of the ruff if you use any collar permanently.

Thanks for the ideas everyone.  I think it will be a case of trial and error.  She doesn't have a collar on all day just walking times but cats,birds other 4 legged friends all have her lunging! I would hate for a collar to break. I could try a harness and just have a simple collar for id when we go out.  It's definitely her pulling and prancing about that wears the coat away where the collar is!

Mine lunge 9especialy whilst young) and as I said after 6 years or so the collars have never broken (only the stitching needs redoing as it does with any leather collar) and I have up to five 20kg Elkhounds who are very strong if they pull.  The male I won in partnership has certainly broken the lightweight chain used with the thinner ones, but he too has always had one of these on when visiting here.

having bearded collies I have tried every collar on the market including rolled leather the best collar I found I buy in the US a bit pricey but dont damage the coat they are half check all hemp the website is :
http://www.earthdog.com/hemp-products/decorative-hemp-line/martingale-decorative-collar
I recommend these to new puppy owners.

Roni

Those collars look great!! Want 1 (or rather 4!)
Angela