By Does your dog love water? Warm weather is approaching. That means water activities will be surely part of your adventures. River, lake, stream, beach or even some pool time! 💦 So many options!
Xena’s not quite a water dog yet but loves to, I mean L-O-V-E, to roll in things outside. My favorite collar for Xena has white fabric with black and gold hearts. I had to wash it every weekend to keep it presentable until I tried a waterproof collar.
I recently tried waterproof collars from two brands – The Honest Hound and Ruffwear. So I thought it would be good to share my experience. First, here is the comparison of the products based on the information available on their websites:
Ruffwear Headwater
Now I will provide a review as a customer. First, I will start with Ruffwear – Headwater collar. I received it as a prize from a photo contest so I was super excited to receive it in the mail. They sent me a blue one and it was pretty. But… when I removed it from the package, it was misshaped due to packaging. The first thing I noticed was that it was much thinner than I expected. The material is less than 1/8 in. I had to put my kettlebell on top of the crease to flatten it out for a day before I could put it on Xena.
The Honest Hound
I purchased the buckle style and used it for a few months now. It’s a fitted collar. You send them the size and they make it for you. Xena is wearing it in the above photo. I wasn’t used to the fitted look so I was afraid that it was too snug at first but I was convinced otherwise later on.
In summary, The Honest Hound was a clear winner for us. It came in really handy on a recent hike too. Xena found something stinky to roll in and came back to me all happy. She was a STINK bomb!! Luckily, we were hiking next to a stream. I took her collar off and wiped it off in the stream. After we came home, I cleaned it with mild soap. A waterproof collar is a must-have for an adventure pup!
Hiking Girl with Dog 
The buckle collar was too heavy for Robin (12″ neck) but the chain martingale is shockingly light and I love it! Yay for new companies.
Wow, that is shocking! The martingale looks heavier to me! Good to know. Thanks for sharing!
Love how the collar looks on Xena, the teal colour is so pretty against her black coat 🙂 the idea of a waterproof and easy to clean collar is great! We had the Ruffwear headwater collar, but didnt work for us at all, and faced some of the same problems as you did. It might be Shurgan who just pulls too much, but the collar dug into his neck and after a few uses it was already worn, but i loved the colour selection (Yay for pink!). Great review and comparision 🙂
Thank you! I like the teal on Xena too. 🙂 I wish they carry more bright colors though. Yes, I love how easy it is to clean the collar!! That’s too bad about your Headwater collar. It’s too thin and doesn’t hold the shape. Ours is still not round! If Shurgan is full grown, you might want to check out the Axel Martingale collar from The Honest Hound. It’s good for training if Shurgan pulls. Robin wears it and Kat wrote a great review about it recently. Check out https://robinventures.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/the-honest-hound-axel-martingale-collar/