Collar Recommendations to prevent major matting

[Star and Goldie]

Is there such a thing?

I thought I read on here somewhere that leather collars are best since they don't cause as much matting but I must be making that up since I couldn't find it in my search.  Then again, I was searching for it in the middle of all the search engine remodeling.

Goldie seems to be accumulating some pretty radical mats around the collar line. Today when I picked her up from the Groomer I was scolded told to be more careful about watching this area. The groomer left the giant mats around her collar line and told me to work on them. My first thought was, well why didn't she just remove them? I had mixed feelings about her leaving them but then I took it as an educational opportunity. It is MY job to do the regular maintenance and I do want to succeed at that responsibility so I'm  not entirely upset at her for leaving them for me but I did think it was odd.

She suggested that I leave a collar off of her, especially while she goes through her coat change. I'm not completely opposed to leaving her collar off but there are times when we'll need one.

Does anyone have any collar type recommendations that may not cause as much matting? The one we have is super cute but it is causing some major matting and by major I mean it took me 1 hour just to get one side cleared up (thank God for the Safari dematting comb!)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Rolled leather collars supposedly cause less matting. I've never used one, but that's what I've always heard.

I think it's odd that the groomer left the matts around her collar area, too. 

[Star and Goldie]

thanks Karen! I was curious to see if anyone else thought her leaving the matts was odd too. This groomer is just odd all together but she does a great job ( I guess minus leaving matts now).

[Kyoko]

I use rolled leather collar as well.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I use rolled leather collars for the collars I leave on the dogs. Some of us think they cause less matting. But it also helps, especially when the are going though a coat change, to keep the band of hair that is under the collar shorter

[Star and Goldie]

Thanks, F! I didn't even think about that. Keeping that shorter during the coat change is a great idea. I thought I had done a pretty good job keeping the matts under control but I had no idea that collar area was so out of control!

[Camilla and Darwin]

If you can, I would just cut the matts out with scissors. It's likely that she has so much fur you won't even see the cut hair, just make sure that you hold your fingers against her skin as a guard. I think it's strange that the groomer didn't remove them! I too have heard that rolled collars are better for matting.

[Julie and Charlie]

I snip out mats too-- the fur covers up the somewhat bare spots if you are careful.

My groomer will de-mat or shave, but not snip- I can't figure it out either. He isn't a show dog, he's a doodle with wavy, imperfect hair!

[Ginny Nightingale]

I groom doodles and when they leave my house, they are hopefully MAT-FREE!! I snip them out if needed--but I am not a big time groomer and could never support myself that way since it takes forever to groom each one! But then when the pup leaves, I point out where the problems were and tell the people how to maintain the dog now that they have a fresh start.

As for the collar, you could use a harness! But also, I use the martingale style Lupine collar

http://www.amazon.com/Lupine-4-Inch-10-14-Inch-Martingale-Collar/dp...

and it is loose around the neck unless you put a leash on the loop that tightens--since it is so loose, the mats do not form. I also agree that keeping that hair short for now is a good idea--another area that gets matted due to the collar is right behind the ears and under the ears--you can cut that down too without it really showing.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Ned will mat in a matter of 2 hours with a martingale! With a flat cloth collar, his coat needs to be really short if it isn't going to mat.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Wow--really? Is it loose? I don't have an issue with my guys--but maybe they do not mat as much..I guess it was not a good suggestion!

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

we try to leave Harley's collar off while he is inside.   Maybe the groomer left the mats cause they were too painful to comb out and if cut out would greatly vary from the cut....just a thought.  I had a groomer tell me before she agreed to cut Harley that if a matt was bad enough she would not comb it out, but cut it out....which always made me nervous what I would get back :-0

[Lynn D.]

My groomer suggests rolled leather collars as well. Echo has a great collar that has a name plate in the collar, I love it. But it does cause neck mats. I have been looking for a new rolled leather collar to replace the one I really like.