Waterproof Collar Review

Oregon is wet. As I type this, I can hear the rain outside. It has been raining every day for weeks at this point, I believe. The past few days, snow has been mixed in with the rain. But wet weather can't keep us from having some fun, or else we would never leave the house.

Chewy.com offered us the opportunity to review the Red Dingo PVC Dog Collar this month, and we jumped on it. This is a completely waterproof collar meant for the kind of weather we go through here, or for playing in the water in the summer. Or for dogs who roll in things (you can wash the collar off in the sink with soap, rather than running it through the laundry), or uncoordinated owners who spill things on their dogs (like coffee, which I spilled all over all of the dog gear at our last flyball tournament).

So, first, I have had Biothane collars before. Biothane is a specific brand of coated nylon that is used for horse and dog gear, among other things. This PVC collar is similar, but not the same. It feels less like leather and more like plastic than biothane, though it is just as waterproof and I do think it looks good. The colors are more vivid with these PVC collars than on any biothane one I've seen, with blue, hot pink, orange, purple, and lime green available. These photos were taken after almost a full month of Ptera wearing this collar every day, so you can see it holds up well. The bright color isn't faded at all.

When picking a size, the collar was very true to size. You can see that Ptera wears it on about the middle hole, and it fits her great. I just used the neck size I have measured with a fabric tape measure.

Overall, I think this collar is a very affordable option for anyone who wants a waterproof/odorproof collar, but isn't looking for the leather-like feel that comes from biothane.

Spoiled Dog Leather Review

I have always drooled over fancy leather collars. Bling for myself is nothing, but bling for my dogs...

So I was super excited to work with Spoiled Dog Leather to do a review of their products. In exchange for my honest review on this post, each of my dogs received an Artisan collar, customized just for them.

Showing of her new bling

I decided to go simple but elegant and wanted collars that would match but be different. So both of my dogs' collars are on the teal base leather with a white lining with teal Swarovski crystals and a brass buckle. Koira's collar has pink accent leather, while Pallo's has a rich (totally manly) tan accent. 

The collars themselves are soft, supple leather. The base collar leather is a really nice feeling, sturdy latigo leather that I am sure will wear really well. The white lining leather is a super soft and supple lambskin that feels amazing- I would certainly wear it next to my skin! The accent leather is a second layer of latigo. I think it adds an extra punch and an extra layer of fanciness to a really basically nice collar.

The hardware on the collar is also really nice. The solid brass buckle and cast D-ring (rather than a weaker welded D-ring) make me feel really secure in using these collars. There is also a smaller brass D ring on the second layer of latigo, which would make a great pace to attach dog tags, especially some kind of a nice matching blingy tag! It is sturdy enough to attach your leash to as well, since it is also a cast, not welded, D-ring and is attached to the second layer of latigo. The two layers of latigo leather are held together by really nice brass rivets, so that second D-ring is very well secured to the collar. Plus, using the D-ring in the middle of the section with all the bling would really help show off the flashy part of the collar while out for a walk, rather than having the buckle side up and visible.

Showing of the bling side of the collar (or is it a crown?). The second D-ring is in the middle.

Overall, I really love these collars. The price is also very reasonable for a fancy leather collar. Really, the only thing I would want different would be to have the inside of the brass rivets covered by the lambskin lining rather than through all three layers of leather. Koira's metal allergy appears to be much, much more mild with brass than with nickel, meaning she can wear a fancy collar to show off every once in awhile without adverse effects, but I would feel even better about having her wear it if the studs were covered by the silky soft lambskin. For dogs who don't have allergies it probably wouldn't be an issue at all.

Wordless Wednesday: Collars

Here are the collars that will be available for the Giveaway winner to choose from. They are also available to purchase now if you don't want to take a chance on your favorite being gone by the time the giveaway is over, just email me. For reference, Koira is wearing a two inch wide collar, and Pallo is wearing a one and a half inch wide collar for Koira's birthday. 

(As collars are purchased, I will make a note in the description of the photo on Flickr. Just click on the picture to be taken to Flickr.)

One inch collars

One and a half inch collars


Two inch collars


Two inch and one inch collar webbing (for custom sizing/design options)


One and a half inch collar webbing (for custom sizing/design options)

Koira's Birthday Day (and a Giveaway!)

I think Koira enjoyed her birthday today. For breakfast, she got some greek yogurt, and then a Jack toy filled with crumbled cookies in her crate.

After I got home from work, the real fun started. Short of going to the beach (and not getting there until an hour before dark), I thought Koira would have the most fun just going to the park. Before leaving, the dogs had a meal of venison, their first venison this year. Then, we headed off to the park to play. First, we set up and did her birthday "pupcake" at one of the picnic tables though.

I made the pupcakes this weekend. They are a blend of peanut butter, pumpkin, eggs, garabanzo bean flour, and a little cinnamon. Both dogs are crazy about them, and even Martha stole one and ate the entire thing while I had them sitting out to cool. You know something must be good if even the cat likes it!

Once the pupcakes were gone (don't worry, Pallo got one too), we went on our walk. Koira was all full of jazz and perhaps a little too bonkers. There was one woman who Koira body slammed three times, and I kept trying to say that we would walk faster and go ahead of her, but the woman wouldn't let us go! I did finally manage to get on ahead so that Koira would go play instead of fixating on the person's chuck-it.

We ended up finding a bunch of other friendly, playful dogs to romp with. Koira also did some serious stick chewing, of course. And Jason did some tug-of-war with her.

Koira did get a bit impatient about the stick being thrown a few times. She sure can be demanding sometimes. I'm just glad she is so mellow at home. I don't really care how loud and demanding she is at the park.

And even Pallo agreed to wear a birthday hat to help celebrate Koira's fifth birthday. I don't normally go all over the top for birthdays, and focus a lot more on Gotcha Days, but for some reason, 5 seems like a landmark of some kind, like she just turned 21 and can have her first drink or something.

Now for the fun part for all of you! Giveaway time.

Do you see those festive collars Pallo and Koira are wearing in the pictures from today? I don't really call them Christmas collars, because they can pretty much work all winter long. They are more of a holiday/winter collar. And one of you will get to win one! The particular designs worn by my dogs are just the ones I chose for them. I have a small selection of already made collars that the winner can choose from, or else a selection of partly completed collars that can be made to more custom collar lengths.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post and fill out the entries in the Rafflecopter below. (Sorry, only open to US and Canada due to shipping costs.) The winner will be contacted on Saturday the 15th and will have 24 hours to reply. If they do not reply within this time frame, a new winner will be selected. Collars are also available to purchase if you don't want to take your chances on winning one! Just email for more information.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Daily Dog Challenge Update

First off, an apology on not posting more this week, and not getting much of a chance to visit and comment on all of your blogs. I'm house sitting for the next few weeks, and the addition of twelve animals to care for has been a bit time consuming. And me not being able to figure out the wireless internet doesn't help at all either.

So, here are the Daily Dog Challenge photos, new since last time.

94. "Front and Center" Make a photograph with a central point of focus today. Don't forget the aww factor that dogs bring to a picture! - last day Feb 8

95. "Purple Haze" Take a photo that features the color purple today! - last day Feb 9

96. "Time Passes" Use your dog to take a photo that illustrates the passing of time today. - last day Feb 10
(I think Koira is telling me it is past time to clip her nails)

I also wanted to share a picture of Koira's new holiday collar for Valentine's Day coming up next week. This fabric was sparkly and on sale, and seemed perfect for Koira.

Sunday Sewing (And Stuff)

Okay, it was actually Saturday sewing, but I didn't get around to posting yesterday. 

I had a few projects in mind, and had picked up some fabric on sale (remnant at 50% off of the current 50% off price end up being a steal of a deal). I wasn't planning on making the dogs Halloween collars until I saw this great purple with black cats fabric in the remnant bin. I was, however, looking for fleece, which I found there as well.

This picture includes the two Halloween collars I made for the dogs, the tug toy I made out of the selvages of the fleece (directions below), and a thermal-reflective cat bed. I also made a thermal-reflective dog crate mat, but didn't include it in the picture. And, since you are probably wondering, a thermal-reflective bed/mat is basically a thin, fleece covered mat with a thermal-reflective core that, when used, will reflect the body heat of the dog or cat back at them, increasing the warmth. Basically, a non-electric heated bed. I plan to make a few more of the cat beds for Martha and my mom's cats as well, and have another non-thermal dog bed planned.

I also realized that its been a while since I shared some pictures of the dogs playing at the park. A lot of pictures lately have been posed, as I am working on the dogs' sit-stays and down-stays.

So, here you go, my dogs looking goofy at the park!

And now, a DIY tutorial: How to make a fleece dog tug.

Start with four equal pieces of fleece. Mine are 4" wide by 45" (which happens to be the width of this fabric). When beginning, it will be easiest if you have two strips each of two separate colors.

Line up all the strips evenly and tie a knot as close to the end as possible.

Hold the knot in you hand with the long pieces of fabric up. Separate the strips so that one color is up and down, while the other is on either side.

Loop the top strip down and the bottom strip up, putting a finger in the loop that is made and keeping it nice and loose.

With the other colored strips, one at a time, put the strip over the loose end of one loop and through the loop on the far side. Repeat with the other strip of the second color. If you do it right, it should look like this.

Tug on each loose end to tighten the knot. You can leave it quite loose for a soft tug toy, or pull it as tight as possible for a nice firm toy. Make sure to pull each strip evenly, though, to maintain the same length of fabric.

Repeat each knot in this four-square pattern until you get to the end of your fabric strips. Tie a knot like you did at the beginning and trim the tails leftover to equal lengths (if you want).

You can also use other materials, such as old jeans or a t-shirt, to make a tug. I find my dogs like fleece the best, and it is soft on their mouths even when they are tugging like crazy. Plus, by buying remnants, it is easy to make a cheap fleece tug.

Collars and training

Due to a sale at the local fabric store, the dogs got new collars made this week.

I went for a new, fancy look by making them each a 2" brocade collar. With a limited slip, of course. Having my dog pull out of her collar once on a busy street was enough to ensure I will always put my dogs in limited slip collars to prevent that from ever happening again. And, I just had to do a 2" collar this time to show off the fabric.

I think it makes the dogs look very regal.

Now, since I don't have any flyball pictures I haven't already shared, I'm going to continue showing you pictures of the dog's new collars while I talk about flyball training.

Pallo is doing great with his ball carrying training. After a full weekend of him carrying his ball the whole time, I decided it is time to step up the training. So far, I have been sending him, running up to the start line, call him when he hits the box, then facing the lanes, back up a few steps, right hand held out and low in a fist, and yell "Touch" to him. Once he touches my hand with the ball, he gets his tug.

This works fine, obviously, but I want to get back to the normal pattern of flyball. The normal handler pattern goes something more like this: Release dog, run to start line, call dog when dog hits box, turn and run veering to the right, tug held out dangling in left hand, dog hits tug.

So, the first thing I did was put Pallo's tug into my closed right hand. I'm trying not to change the picture too much all at once, so everything else I did in the pattern was the same except for the tug placement (so, facing the lane, right hand outstretched with tug).

He did that successfully a few times, so I upped the ante by then turning and sticking out my left hand with the tug held in my closed fist (so, facing away from lanes, left hand outstretched with tug). He dropped a few feet early the first time, but nailed it the next few times. Over the next few practices, we will hopefully build up to me being able to be running away with the tug dangling and not have to worry about Pallo carrying his ball. I think we will get there without too many problems.

On the front of Koira's box turns, I think we made a decent amount of progress. Instead of using a PVC prop in front of the box, we are now using a single gutter and a triple gutter. These are basically exactly what they sound like, being plastic gutters from the hardware store, cut to be 4' long. The triple is just three of them stacked up, two on the bottom with one centered on top of that (I'll get a picture as soon as I get to the hardware store to make my own for practice at home). Using the triple gutter right in front of the box and the single a few inches out from the triple, Koira's turns are high, tight, and fast. And, she seems to be having a great time.

We will work her with this set up for a while, then slowly fade out the triple so she just has a single gutter in front of the box, then eventually fade that to a white slat laid flat on the ground, then nothing. Hopefully, if we do this over a long enough period of time and take it nice and slow, with lots of pull-out-prop for one hit, put it back in, etc, we will build a beautiful turn that stays high and safe even when at a tournament.

Martha had to come investigate while I was shooting photos of the collars.

I think she was jealous of the dog's getting new bling when she didn't get anything, so she decided to eat Koira's new collar.

As a last little note, I am LOVING my new indoor photo shoot setup. Doesn't it look nice, clean, well-lit, like I have a pro back drop and everything? I picked up two pieces of poster board in white, taped them together, and set it up in front of my window (which is covered in tissue paper so people can't see in, but which acts as a diffuser preventing harsh glares). With winter coming on, its nice to find a way to take indoor pictures that don't totally suck.

Meet Me On Monday, and a Giveaway!

I'm going to try out the Meet Me on Monday questions for the first time. Technically it is still Sunday where I am, but I guess that doesn't matter too much.

Before I get to the questions though, I need to announce my giveaway! Right now, this blog has hit 51 followers, and I promised something special when we passed the 50 mark.

The something special is a leather collar, such as was featured on the blog a few weeks ago. Because I know readers have dogs of all different sizes and will have different needs and wants in a collar, I will make it only after talking to the winner about what you want!

To enter, leave a comment on any post starting now and ending on Friday the 20th. To win, you must be a follower of the blog. You can enter multiple times by commenting on different posts, but only one comment per post will be counted as an entry.

Now, on to the Meet Me Monday questions:

1. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
I prefer crunchy, and generally only eat peanut butter with celery, or on a toasted bread with marionberry jam.

2. What is your favorite color Rose?
I love the deep reddish-orange roses the most, but don't know the name. They have a deep orange at the base of the petals and are tipped with red.

3. Do you remove your shoes when you walk into your home?
Yes, but not always right away. I also have slip on shoes sitting right by the door for the times when I take my shoes off in a different room and can't find them fast enough.

4. What is your favorite season?
Late spring in Oregon. We still have plenty of rainy days but are starting to get some of the brilliant sun shine and hot weather, coupled together with the garden sprouting, fresh greens, and flowers everywhere.

5. Approximately how many hours a day do you spend blogging?
Writing blogs, probably only about 3 hours per week at a maximum most of the time. If you count in reading blogs, taking pictures for the blog, editing pictures for the blog, and arguing with my very frustrating internet, it would be much, much more than that.



Thanks for stopping by, reading my answers, and hopefully I'll see your comments for the giveaway!