Evening walks with your dog are the most rejuvenating parts of the day for every age. Be it your kids or your parents, a walk with your cute buddy always freshens up your mind. But, the only reason of concern in this entire soothing scenario is that your little buddy can run haywire and you’ll be running around after it to keep it safe. And thus, dog collars come to our rescue. Dog collars come in different sizes and shapes and are easily available online. But wouldn’t it be quite exciting if you could make your dog a funky dog collar yourself. There are different materials with which you can make a dog collar. It could be a cloth or fur and use buckles or Velcro. But we need to keep in mind the comfort of our dog. A dog collar made with very strong strands of thread would most probably cause rashes on the skin of your dog or a collar that is made with a very thin and weak material is most likely to break. Thus, a good quality material is to be preferred.
The best of all these materials is paracord. You can easily weave it and make any designs of your own. The most important advantage of making a dog collar using paracord is that you can easily weave as many strands of thread you wish to according to the breed of your dog. But before we put our creative minds into work, there are a few precautions that you need to take care of.
Firstly, try to make the collar sufficiently wide. This is because wider the surface area, lesser is the pressure applied. Thus, if you push your dog with much force, it would not cause an effect on the neck of your dog. There have been many reported instances of severe injuries to the windpipes of dogs due to the carelessness of their owners. Thus, you need to keep the width of the dog collar in account.
Secondly, try to make a dog collar that does not involve Velcro. This is because a Velcro does not offer much strength even if it gives the advantage of adjustment.
So now that we know the basic precautions, let’s get to work.
We will first learn how to make a simple weave. Before you start the work, first measure the dimensions of your dog’s neck so that your dog does not entangle itself with the collar.
Materials required for making a Dog Collar:
The materials that you would require for the collar are as follows
- Two strands of paracord preferably of different colors
- Plastic buckles
- A D-ring
- A pair of scissors
And this is it.
Steps to follow for making a Dog Collar:
Now keep following these simple steps to make a beautiful collar easily.
Step 1 – Take a corner of both the strands and cut them at an angle. Now heat the corner of one of the strands and join the strands while they are hot. This also accounts as one of the advantages of using paracord because it can be joined easily while its hot and forms quite a strong bond.
Step 2 – Fold the cord into two halves and pass it through the joint. Secure this cord by making a hitch knot.
Step 3 – Then, set it through the other end of the buckle after you have noted the approximate length required.
Step 4 – Now slide the D ring over the strings so that it touches the buckle that you just attached. After these steps, your cord looks something like this.
Step 5 – Now take the leftmost blue cord and glide it under the rightmost red cord. After this make a knot of the cords as shown below.
Step 6 – Use your thumb to make the cords stiff and tight again after the knot. Repeat the same steps from the right side
Step 7 – This is how the cords would look after you have completed the steps twice from both sides. After this, keep weaving until you reach the other end of the collar.
Step 8 – Repeat the same process after you have turned the cords round through the space between the buckle. Repeat the above steps on the opposite side so that a secure and strong cord is formed.
Step 9 – When you reach the end, pass the cords through the D ring and secure the cords with knots that are strong enough.
And we are done!
This is how the collar would look after you have completed all the steps:
To make this collar adjustable incase you have two dogs with varying neck sizes, simply open the last knot that you made with the D ring and slide the last buckle according to the size you want.
Now this is just a simple cobra design that you can weave for your dog. But if you want to try your hand at more creative designs, it would be much easier through a video representation.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177892254013355203/
https://in.pinterest.com/pin/819232988445027630/
What is 4- Strand and 6-Strand Paracord Dog Collar?
You would have observed in the video that there are different numbers of paracords that can be used. But basically, these can be divided into 4- strand collars or 6-strand collars. A 4-strand collar would have 4 vertical strands over which stronger designs have been made and a 6- strand collar would be made with 6 vertical cords.
The basic difference is quite obvious that a 6-strand collar would be wider and can be used for breeds like the German shepherd whereas a 4-strand collar is better for smaller breeds like the pugs or terriers.
Thus, we have learned how easily we can weave a dog collar for our little fellow. We need to understand that if we love our dog, there is no chance we can hamper its safety. Thus, the next time you take your dog for a walk, make it wear the harness that you have carved out of love.
Source:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Paracord-Dog-Collar-4/