Dog Training > Dog Training Collars > Nylon Dog Collars

Nylon Dog Collars

As a material, nylon is perfect for dog training collars. Not only is it stronger than leather, but it is also washable, weatherproof and will not stretch or lose its shape.

Nylon dog collars are widely available in a multitude of colours and sizes, and are usually priced at a reasonable and relatively inexpensive amount. When choosing a dog collar, the most important point is to make sure that you have the right size for your dog. To do this, measure your dog’s neck and then add one extra inch. Remember that ideally by the time you come to use a collar as part of your dog training, they should simply be a tool in helping to guide or correct your dog in training, not a means to control or punish it. However, choosing the right collar for your dog can be an important step in helping to reinforce the obedience training that it should have already learnt.

One of the positive key points with nylon dog collars is that they come in many different colours, some of which are specially coloured to increase the visibility of your dog, particularly to road traffic. The nylon dog collar styles also vary to suit your method of training and your dog’s needs – for instance, the softer nylon collars are ideally suited to dogs with thinner and more delicate coats.

There are also various styles of collar available in nylon. One such style is the nylon snap collar, which is placed and fitted around the dog’s neck, rather than being put on over the dog’s head. This gives a better fit, and also means that less force has to be applied when correcting and guiding your dog in training. It gently guides the dog’s head from the neck area, and puts much less pressure on its throat, thereby significantly reducing the chance of damage to the dog’s windpipe.

Nylon dog collars are also available in a type known as limited choke collars. These are made in such a way that there is a limit to how tight the collar can be pulled, so as not to actually choke the dog, but simply increase the tension around the dog’s neck – the collar can never go tighter than the size of the dog’s throat. This encourages the animal not to repeat the unwanted behaviour again.

Another collar available on the market is the quick release nylon dog collar. These are designed to prevent dogs getting strangled or choked by their collars. Generally they work by applying pressure to the safety buckle, which allows the animal to be freed quickly and efficiently. Safety collars are best for dogs that are playing or off their leash, but they can also be used in conjunction with a lead, however the safety device sometimes has to be overridden.

The halter collar – or head collar as it is also known - is not exclusively available in nylon, but is most widely available in this material. It is similar to the shape of the horse head halter, as it fits over the dog’s head, muzzle and neck. This gives the handler more control over the dog’s movement but, as ever, the collar should not be used to forcibly drag or make the dog move in the way you want it to, rather it should be used as a trainer collar that should be used in a more preventative manner. The halter collars must never be fitted to tightly, as this can aggravate and dig into the dog’s muzzle, causing intense discomfort and possibly even infection if it breaks the skin. Halter collars will also require a period of adjustment for the dog, as it will feel strange for the dog to have this sort of harness placed over it’s head. It is best that the dog is trained to learn that it can have control over it’s own actions, rather than associating the collar with it being made to comply with the handler’s wishes.