Collar width, and what it asks of a small dog

A narrow band is not automatically kinder. Width decides how weight is carried, and a small neck has less room for error.

The first collar a dog wears is often the narrowest one on the shelf. It looks proportionate. It photographs well. It is also the version that presses hardest into a neck with nothing to spread the load.

What width does

A band spreads pressure across the area it covers. A 1.5 cm band on a four kilogram dog covers a fair share of the neck. The same band on a thirty kilogram dog covers very little, and every pull arrives in a narrower line. Width should rise with weight, not with how the collar looks on the shelf.

Where the band should sit

High on the neck behind the ears is for showing. A walking collar sits at the base of the neck, where the muscle is, and should take two fingers laid flat underneath. Any tighter and the band presses on the throat the moment the lead tightens.

Sizing a young dog

Measure the neck now, then measure again in three months. Most of the adult neck girth is there by eight or nine months, so a collar bought at four months rarely finishes the first year. Buy into the middle of a range rather than onto the last hole.

• Neck girth 21 to 27 cm, XS

• Neck girth 28 to 34 cm, S

• Neck girth 35 to 41 cm, M

• Neck girth 42 to 48 cm, L

• Neck girth 49 to 55 cm, XL

When a measurement falls on a boundary, take the larger band and use the tighter hole. The reverse leaves nothing for a winter coat or a fuller summer neck.