We've said it before, but we'll say it again; we don't make novelty quality collars! We design our collars with longevity in mind. We don't offer themed collars because we want you to spend your money on classic, timeless designs you won't get sick of. We only use materials we have tested over time and know will hold up and be safe for your dog. We build our products to last and to be repaired if necessary.

We know you love bling! But honestly, the more bling the more delicate a collar is. The Jewels and stones we use are very durable, but nothing is indestructible. Over time we expect to see a collar wear, in fact, we think our collars look even better with a little wear. But, occasionally we see a jewel blowout or a stud jump ship. These things just happen, it's life, and we are here for you! We will repair and refurbish your gear any time!

If you own one of our collars and just want to send it in to have the leather cleaned, edges re-dyed, sealed and conditioned, be our guest! We would love to help you renew your love! Just shoot us an email to hello@karmacollars.com to let us know you are sending it in and be sure to give us your return address. We fix and reship your repair and refurbish collars within 24 hours of receiving them in our shop.

Want to keep you collar in the best condition possible at home? If you have an extremely dirty collar you can clean the collar with some saddle soap and a toothbrush, then rinse under cool water. Blot the collar dry then let it fully dry before applying a coat of leather conditioner. Most collars can simply be conditioned without being cleaned first. We recommend Fiebing's Weatherproof or Aussie Leather Conditioner. Just massage on a little conditioner, let it soak in for a few minutes, then wipe the collar down with a cloth to clean the conditioner off of the studs and bling.

The coolest thing about leather is that your dog's natural oils actually help it stay sealed and conditioned! Don't get crazy and over clean your collar, just a little conditioner a few times a year should be all you really need in most cases. Enjoy your gear!

Hell hath no fury like a sore loser in a Facebook contest. No really, want to see the best side of people? Host a Facebook contest. This is NOT to say that we don't also LOVE and THANK 99.9% of the people who participate in our contest. We need to be very clear about the fact that we owe our business to you all, without you we would be nothing. In fact, we will probably never ever stop forcing you to take free collars every month during our contests, LOL!

But seriously, we asked a lot of our fans this month when we switched our contest platform from a "wall post" based contest, to a much more complex "app system" format. We expected hate mail, death threats and potentially even a contest flop, but instead we had a record number of participants (160 entries in 5 days) and were really really proud of how well people adapted and stuck by our side (happy tears). 

We learned a lot this month and wanted to share a few highlights and insights with you so you know what to expect in the future. We used a service called Wildfire this month. Wildfire proved to be glitchy through FB, a bit too cryptic with info, slow, and a bit clumsy for our taste. But, the contest was much easier to manage and kept our wall open for fun daily activities, which allowed us to do a FREE LEASH FRIDAY during the contest. Overall, we are sticking with the “app” thing but we are going to try a different company/service provider next month. During this last contest some fans told us about a service called OfferPop and we are planning to use them next month. Yes, it will be confusing to go with a new system, but we hope it will be easier to navigate and less squirrelly in the long run.

One more thing... We noticed that using a contest app actually marketed our contest to people outside of your fan base because the contest is posted on the App Company's website. We do NOT like this; it opened us up to a lot of "career contesters" who spend their days hawking FB for free stuff. We want to sincerely thanks a few kind folks who "flagged" some contest entries as bogus and alerted us to these few individuals who scam the system and could have ruined the contest for everyone had we not disqualified them from behind the scenes. Oh the things you learn in a week... But really, PLEASE let us know if you ever see any fishy activity on our FB page or during our contests, we will take immediate action.

Thank you all again for making this an awesome month here at Karma Collars!

 

Well... Unfortunately there is an end to this one little thing, but we hope to make it short and pretty darn painless. Sadly, we report that The Lady Luck and The Wrangler collars will be discontinued, thus taken off of our website as of Friday 11/25/11. We know it's a bummer, but it's really out of our control. Seriously, the manufacturer of the cool horseshoe shaped conchos we use to make this collar has decided to discontinue this style, so we really have no choice but to drop this design too. We have stocked up on a sizable number of these conchos, so feel free to order up until Friday, and rest assured, we will always keep a handful of these conchos on hand to repair any collars that have been purchased over the past year+ (remember we have a lifetime warranty folks). We know this is a bummer, but we hope you trust us to come up with some new designs that satisfy your irresistible desire for BLING! Stay tuned for some new additions...

PS- So, anyone who owns one of these beautiful collars, you better hold onto that thing for life because you now own a piece of history. These collars will one day be "vintage" and worth hundreds on Ebay...HaHa! No really, we might buy it back from you in a decade.

 

Oh the things we've learned the hard way... A few years ago we were running a Meetup group for Pit Bulls and their parents. Part of what we offered was group socialization walks and APBT specific training classes. We were very concerned with helping less social dogs get some exercise in a safe environment, meaning no dogs running amuck! Many of our group members used training gear like the prong collar, but no one seemed to know that this type of gear has a pretty high "failure rate." For our group events we simply required folks to "backup" their training gear.

Anyone who has put a prong collar on a dog knows how hard it can be to pinch those little prongs and get them into the little holes in the other link while your dog flails and jumps around excited to go on a walk, exactly our point! When prong collars are not put on correctly, when the links get older and become loose, or if they have a "French clip" style attachment on the chain - they can "pop open" and free your dog at the most inappropriate times (Murphy's Law). 

Nowadays the trend of "backing up" seems almost mainstream, for this reason we offer our popular Double Ended Leashes in various widths and lengths. There are other ways to back up your gear that are a little more DIY, check out our Gear Guide (scroll down to the bottom of the page) for a quick, safe, and effective way to backup your prong collar until your new double ended leash arrives!

Selecting/using a double-ended leash for backup:

When you double over a 6-foot leash you end up with a 3-foot leash, well, sort of. Notice in the middle picture above how the side of the leash that is attached to Sequoia's flat collar (for backup) has a nice amount of slack in it. You will need to learn how to hold your double-ended leash so that you always have this "slack" on the backup side, otherwise you are distributing force back onto the flat collar and away from the corrective collar, which will give your dog a "nagging" correction which won't help either one of you. We recommend grabbing your leash about 18-24 inches from the end that is attached to your training tool (prong collar, etc.) then wrapping your hand/wrist with the leash at leash once to create a handle type feeling. You will notice you have a loop of loose leash by your side - this is why you do not want your double-ended leash to be too long, it will drag the ground and drive you nuts. So as you can imagine, a 6-foot double-ended leash is perfect for most people.

 

There are dozens of leash snap/clip attachment styles out there but these two are our favorites. After years of testing we've found these two styles to be the easiest and most fool proof for general use. With this said, we love to do custom work, so if you would prefer another style of leash clip we can do it - just let us know what you're looking for. 

Why we love the Trigger Snap: Our quick release trigger snap with a round swivel eye which prevents twisting and tangling of the attached rope or round leather. The quick release mechanism makes this a frequently used favorite for dog and horse products (lunge lines, reins, leashes. We started using Trigger Snaps because we noticed that the small flat o-ring style attachment pieces on the Halti, Gentle Leader and prong style collars would actually wiggle through the opening on a Bolt Snap, causing the leash to release - yikes! With the Trigger style snap there is not chance of this happening. Trigger Snaps have a small pin that goes through the center to allow the two sides of the clip to move and stay put. Occasionally a Trigger Snap pin will get gunk in it and become stiff, this rarely happens but all gear should be checked and cleaned/lubricated if this occurs. Trigger snaps allows you fast, easy on and easy off access.

Why we love the Bolt Snap: Well, because this is what most people are used to and it is the easiest way to clip a leash on and off. Bolt Snaps have a tiny spring inside the shaft that creates the "spring" action when you pull down the bolt to open/close the clip. Over time this spring can weaken and start to allow the clip to open under very small amounts of pressure. Have you ever had a leash come of when your dog shakes their head? This is usually because the shaking action actually caused that little spring to push down and allow your leash clip to open - again, yikes! This can simply be because the leash is old, the clip was cheap to begin with, or the clip was defective, either way, if this happens it's time for a new leash.