Collaring Your Passions

When you think of a MANLY dog, a pug might not always be the first breed that comes to mind. I have a Pug mix. We think he's a Pug and Chihuahua mix, which might also not lend oneself to rugged masculinity, but Brodie is very much a GUY dog. A neutered guy, but still, a guy. So I love reading website with pet review stuff, but let's face it. The majority of cool dog accessories are mostly...girly. So many of my reviews are documents my search for dog things that are still for the boys. There is nothing wrong with a male dog wearing rhinestone collars and pink doggie nail polish, but Brodie just ins;t that sort of dog. Though only 24 pounds, he totally lives up to the Pug motto, Multum in Parvo, a lot of dog in a small space.

So this leads me back to my search for cool dog accessories, but still looking a bit manly. On the other side of the equation is that I am a girl, who loves accessories and goodies. I want Brodie to look hip and cool, though of course, most dogs aren't particularly into fashion.

The first place to start was a collar. A basic of dog necessities. All the collars that I liked (for example the Lynne Ellyn Designs American Alligator collar in Cognac or the Lizard in grey) were gorgeous. they were also WAY out of my price range. This led me to more affordable possibilities for a nice leather collar from Petco. Sure, they had some nice basics, but *yawn* I thought they were all dull and boring. Sorry Petco, but it's true. All the ones I liked were too expensive, all the affordable ones bored me to tears. Of course, Brodie didn't care. He was wearing a thin black Nylon collar which was thin enough to choke him when he pulled in his leash and black enough to get totally lost in his dark fur. I wanted a nice leather collar, sturdy and a light enough collar to be visible. Harder to find then you might imagine. Even looking on the internet produced limited results and nothing interesting.

That was why I was DELIGHTED when I walked into Posh Pets here in Columbus OH and saw a pale tan Ostrich collar. Posh Pets is posh enough that it might have been real ostrich, but STRICTLY OUT OF CUROIOSITY, I looked at the price tag. $14. NO WAY. So it was probably embossed leather, but even so, $14 was dirt cheap for a nice but very stylish leather buckle collar. I looked at another in pink, just to make sure the price tags were the same. They were. They also had a steely blue (while beautiful, I wanted a color to stand out from Brodie's fur) and a pale pink. I snatched up the tan and brought it home.

Like many dogs, Brodie is interested in any thing new and especially things that are for him. He was immensely curious about the collar, sniffing and wiggling. I must admit, it looks great. The leather isn't stiff and it has a very sturdy look and feel. The ostrich embossing looks very authentic and gives it just enough differentness to catch one's attention. Yet is doesn't look frou-frou.

Now that I had this great collar it was time for 1 important question -was there a matching leash? So this morning I walked Brodie, in said collar, to Posh Pets and asked Jo, the proprietor, if a leash was available. No, unfortunately, there isn't. Oh, well, I tried. Bride is much happier running around on his retractable lead anyway.

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