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We really love our dogs. This means that we spend time shopping for them and doing things that we feel will improve their health and well being. We seek advice and read books, visit other owners, make regular trips to our veterinarians' offices and so forth.

As a result of much contact with other owners of sight hounds and dog trainers, we have learned about Martingale collars. These are fantastic collars that are designed for dogs who may easily back out of their collars. Sight hounds have heads more slender than their necks, so they have no problems slipping regular flat buckle collars.

So what is a Martingale collar? It is a collar composed of two loops, usually made from fabric or webbing. There is a large loop connected to a small loop. In the 'relaxed' position, the resulting circle slips easily over the dog's head. The larger loop is adjusted so that when a leash is attached to the small loop and pulled, the small loop tightens up, but does not choke the dog. The hardware connecting the small loop to the large one should not pull completely together if the collar has been properly fit.

Because a properly adjusted Martingale dog collar does not choke or cut off the air-flow for the dog, these collars are also referred to as limited-choke collars or humane-choke collars.

The Martingale collar is an excellent collar that helps keep pets under control and gives gentle guidance. We use them when we are taking obedience classes with our greyhounds. They are gentle on the neck and offer gentle corrections that do not hurt the dogs in any way. A Martingale collar is a great training collar for the easy dog.

Our dogs like to play hard and have a tendency to get a bit dirty. No problem. With the Martingale collar, we switch to a clean collar and wash the dirty one. We use quick links to allow us to change the dogs' tags to the new collars quickly and easily.

Because Martingale collars are fabric or webbing, it is possible to change the look for the season. Your dog may be in dazzling spring colors or classic plaids or tweeds. Each holiday offers a wonderful opportunity to jazz up the collar collection. Yes, it is possible for a dog to have a drawer full of collars suitable for different occasions from formal wear to soft blue denim for a day in the yard.