The 7 best dog collars in 2025, tested and reviewed

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Every dog should wear a properly fitted, comfortable collar with their ID tags attached when they go out into the world. The best dog collars for this purpose are safe, durable, and easy to use.

We tested 12 collars in various styles and price points, including personalized, leather, reflective, and waterproof collars. Our top pick is the Ruffwear Crag Reflective Collar, which is easy to adjust, sturdy, and equipped with special features like reflective stitching and a carabiner for attaching your dog's ID tags. If you're looking for an expensive collar, we recommend the simple, reliable Frisco Solid Nylon Collar for about $10.

Keep in mind that the safest way to walk a dog is with a harness and leash. Walking a dog with a leash attached to a collar can pose undue risk to a dog's larynx or trachea if pressure occurs from leash pulling, says Dr. Brian Collins, a veterinarian and senior lecturer in community practice at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. 

Read more about how Insider Reviews tests and evaluates pet products.

Our top picks for the best dog collars

Best overall: Ruffwear Crag Reflective Dog Collar - See at Chewy

Best personalized: GoTags Embroidered Personalized Dog Collar - See at Chewy

Best leather: Riparo Genuine Leather Padded Dog Collar - See at Amazon

Best reflective: L.L.Bean Personalized Pet Collar - See at L.L. Bean

Best waterproof: Stunt Puppy Go Dog Glo Dry Collar - See at Chewy

Best budget: Frisco Solid Nylon Dog Collar - See at Chewy

Best LED: Blazin LED Light-Up Collar - See at Chewy

Best overall

The Ruffwear Crag looks rugged, but its flexible, lightweight nylon is smooth and comfortable against a dog's neck. It also has all the must-have features we look for in the best dog collars: a place to securely attach ID tags, a side-release buckle for easy placement and removal, and a good range of adjustability. It was easy to fit the Crag for our tester pup, a medium-sized Australian shepherd with a fluffy neck, which typically takes some trial and error to get the right fit. 

The Crag moved to the top spot thanks to some excellent extra features. Reflective threads woven into the webbing give your dog extra visibility at night, though not as much as you'd get with an LED collar. There's a separate silicone ring sewn into the outside of the collar. It holds a small carabiner where you can easily attach your dog's tags. An included round silicone tab, the "tag silencer,'' sits flat between tags and eliminates the familiar clinking noise when your dog moves or shakes their head. 

Instead of the D-shaped ring found on most other collars, the Crag uses a V-shaped ring for attaching a leash or tags; it worked similarly to others. Although we don't recommend walking a dog by attaching a leash to any collar, the Crag held up well in our tugging and pulling tests (no dogs involved) and emerged from our cleaning and soaking tests free of rust and corrosion.

The collar is labeled hand-wash only, but we put it through the washing machine, and it came out looking new. Unfortunately, it's not available in an extra small size. If your dog's neck circumference is less than 10 inches, you'll need to consider a different collar, like our budget pick from Frisco.

Best personalized

The GoTags Embroidered Personalized Dog Collar replaces our former top pick, the Orvis Personalized Side-Release Buckle Collar. The collar has been redesigned, and we will be testing it soon. The GoTags collar performed well in our testing but comes in fewer colors and wasn't as resistant to cuts and tears in our toughest abuse tests.

The soft, pliable nylon collar comes in four sizes — extra small to large with corresponding thicknesses of 3/8 up to 1 inch — and offers a 6-inch range of adjustability in each size. Five collar colors are available and can be embroidered with your dog's name and your phone number in one of 14 thread colors and up to 25 characters. It has a strong, thick D-ring that stayed firmly in place and did not discolor or corrode during testing and cleaning. The downside of the substantial D-ring is that it is difficult to place and remove tags.

The collar looked as good as new after cleaning. Just throw it in the washing machine or clean it with hand washing — both work well.

Best leather

The Riparo Collar is a beautiful piece of leatherwork, but it isn't just for dress-up days at the dog-friendly office. It is strong and sturdy, with a pebbled, full-grain leather surface that resists teeth marks, stainless steel buckle closure, and a D-ring that won't corrode or discolor from wetness.

Although this collar is tough, it doesn't compromise on comfort. Lined with sheepskin padding, it makes for a soft, comfy fit on a dog's neck. The collar also has a small tab built into the leather for attaching tags, so we did not have to fiddle or fuss about with the D-ring.

Unlike the best dog collars made from synthetic materials, leather takes some special handling: It's best not to leave it wet or even damp after a walk in the rain, and as for cleaning, saddle soap is recommended. But with care, the collar should retain its shape and last you many years. The smallest neck circumference is 11 inches, but that size comes in a ¾-inch width that should suit dogs on the smaller end of most medium-sized breeds. However, the 1-inch width of the medium collar looked a bit bulky on our test Aussie.

Best reflective

Not only was this personalizable L.L.Bean collar the most reflective of the best dog collars, but it was also durable and easily adjustable. The collar was visible in headlights from 150 feet away at night, so nighttime walks or predawn runs with your dog will feel much safer. 

The only drawback is a rough edge to the stitching inside the collar. Because it feels scratchy, it won't work for all-day wear on short-haired dogs.

As for personalization, the collar can fit up to 23 letters or numbers for the smallest size and up to 30 for the largest, stitched onto the material with black thread. Scotchlite, the collar's reflective material, is also used for safety, athletic, and casual garments. It is heat-bonded onto the fabric and did not fade or deteriorate in any of our rounds of soaking and machine washing.

Best waterproof

Quick-drying and reflective, the Stunt Puppy Go Dog Glo Dry Collar is designed for nighttime walks, rainy days, and long stints outside. It is made of BioThane, a tough, water-resistant polyester/PVC material that completely resists odors and dampness and is well-suited for dogs who like to roll in the mud and romp on the beach. 

The collar also has a band of reflective material visible in headlights up to 150 feet, which is useful for predawn or evening outings with your dog. Because BioThane is stiffer than nylon and leather, this collar is more difficult to adjust. Using the rings to thread the collar to the right size takes some effort, but once in place, the collar lies flat on the dog's neck. 

Although it's one of the best dog collars we tested, its stiffness and thinness make it less comfortable for all-day wear, as it may dig into a dog's neck. You will want to take the collar off of your dog when you get inside.

Best budget

The Frisco Nylon Collar is a great all-around budget choice if you're looking for one of the best dog collars. Both durable and pliable, it held up in all kinds of abuse tests, showing no "teeth" marks from pounding with a meat mallet or hardware damage or decay from prolonged soaking or pulling. Its only drawbacks are its limited range of colors and the choice of only ¾-inch width for the medium size collar. 

Made of tough but pliable nylon with 7 inches of adjustability, the Frisco collar is hard to beat. Its D-ring stayed strong and did not discolor with prolonged wetness, and the fabric uses UltraWeld, a silicone fabric sealant that is highly resistant to tearing and chew marks. As for ease of use, Frisco has you covered with an easy-to-manipulate side-release buckle and a nickel-coated aluminum D-ring that doesn't impede tag attachment. 

But there is a downside: At ¾-inch wide, the size medium collar won't accommodate all medium-sized dogs. It fits dogs with necks from 14 to 20 inches in circumference but looks a bit skimpy on the neck of a standard poodle and is completely unsuitable for the larger neck and smaller head of a greyhound or Afghan hound, for instance. The next size up, for 18- to 26-inch neck circumferences, comes in a 1-inch width.

Best LED

The Blazin LED Collar has three light-up modes (solid, blinking, and strobe) and keeps your dog visible during nighttime walks from at least 150 yards away. In solid mode, it stayed lit for just over four hours. It also proved durable, staying lit even when sprayed with water. 

With a USB charging box built neatly into the end, the Blazin collar was a seamless, comfy fit on our test dog. The box closed securely after charging, so it resisted water well and kept working after we sprayed it with water to clean it up. Best of all, the collar lit up our test dog like a Christmas tree with a light bright enough for us to see her and for her to see what was in front of her. The LED lights take two hours to charge fully.

The side-release plastic buckle was easy to open and close, and the nylon collar was easy to adjust for size, even with the built-in strip of LED lights. Inside, it was smooth on the dog's neck. The is available in a range of colors, but we found one clear advantage to the neon green model we tested: It stood out clearly on our dog at 50 feet away in semi-darkness, even with the LED lights turned off.

What to look for in a dog collar

There are key features to consider when selecting a secure, safe collar for your dog.

Secure closure: Collars have two types of closures: plastic side-release tabs and metal belt-buckle types. For ease of use, the side-release tabs work best since they can be released with one hand, and all the models we tested held up securely in all our tests. Side-release tabs that open the collar quickly can help if your dog gets caught on something while wearing their collar, Collins says.

The metal buckles, common on leather collars, did not fail us either. But they have ease of use issues since they can only be secured at notches on the collar, making it harder to get the perfect fit on the dog's neck. 

Hardware: A collar is for carrying your dog's ID tags, so it should have a solid D- or V-shaped ring made from a durable metal like stainless steel or aluminum for attaching the tags. However, there is such a thing as too solid: A collar with an extra thick, bulky ring can be very difficult to work with. Anyone who has struggled to thread the wire loop that holds the tags to the D-ring knows firsthand that prying the wire apart to attach it to a thick ring is too much work, if not impossible. Some collars have two rings — one for ID tags and one for attaching one of the best dog leashes — but we do not recommend using any collar for leash walking.

Adjustability: Getting the right fit on your dog's neck is essential for collar comfort and safety. Even the proper size collar needs fine-tuning, and we found those that offer at least 4 inches of adjustability are the easiest to fit to a dog. On fabric collars, size adjustment means threading the collars through tabs that allow you to double it up, thus sizing the collar down. Stiffer, bulkier materials can be more difficult to adjust. On leather collars, all you have to work with is the belt notches. 

Comfort: For overall comfort, look for a collar that is smooth on the inside where it touches the neck. Any stray stitches or material sticking out may irritate short-haired dogs. Pliability is also important since a stiff collar could dig into a dog's neck if caught on anything. As for overall collar weight, less is more. "You want the dog to not even know they have a collar on," Collins says. 

Materials: Woven nylon and BioThane collars are more durable and easier to clean than other materials, and most can ride in the washing machine. Leather collars are not washing-machine-safe since prolonged wetness will waterlog them and eventually dry them out to brittle pretzels (which we know from once trying to wash a leather leash). Hand washing in warm, soapy water is your only option for leather.

How we tested the best dog collars

We pulled, pounded, and poked 12 collars, adjusted and readjusted their sizing, attached and removed ID tags, buried them in the dirt, soaked them in vinegar, and weighted them down with bricks to stress the fabric. 

Hardware durability and performance: To make sure they were durable and long-lasting, we put the D-rings and closures through some tough testing. We attached the collars to leashes and closed them around a fixed, solid support beam. Then, we yanked, pulled, and twisted them to find any weak points. 

Fabric durability and performance: After burying collars in mud for 24 hours to get them dirty, we made cuts in them with scissors and tied them to 4-pound bricks to weigh them down for 24 hours. Then, we checked back in to see if the cuts grew larger. We also pounded each collar with a meat mallet to simulate dog chew marks and examined both the fabric and the hardware, looking for discoloration and signs of corrosion.

Pet comfort: Since dogs cannot always communicate their sartorial preferences, we put each of the collars around not only dogs' necks but also our own, looking for scratchy stitching and irritating material stiffness. With dogs wearing the collars, we looked for proper neck movement and whether the collar could lie flat on the neck. We deducted points for excessive shaking, scratching, or head wagging that might indicate irritation. 

Ease of use: Adjusting a collar's size and getting tags in place easily saves time and effort, so we put all the collars to these tests and deducted points for anything bulky, such as too-thick rings that had us prying away to loop tags on or stubborn buckles and stiff collar fabrics that stuck when threading them. As for putting the collar on and taking it off, the side-release closures on all but the leather models should be easy to open one-handed; we took off points for those that took more effort. 

Spray test: To simulate dog walks in the rain, we sprayed all the collars with the spray nozzle at our kitchen sink — even the LED models, which continued to function normally. 

Cleaning test: We soaked all the collars in vinegar for 30 minutes to make them very stinky. Then, we tested smell retention by cleaning them to see if odors stuck around. Except for the LED collars, which we hand-washed in hot, soapy water, we used the regular cycle on our washing machine. While the collars that got this treatment all came out looking clean and no longer smelling of vinegar, a few showed corrosion and rust on the hardware. 

Return policy and warranty: Collars with generous refund policies got high marks. Those available on Chewy are covered by the retailer's 365-day guarantee. Others offered full refunds for factory defects, which was less valuable in our evaluation.  

Available colors: Since personal preferences and dog fur colors vary, we looked for collars that came in a range of options. Some of our top picks have limited color choices, but their other attributes won us over. We'd rather have a collar that's easy, safe to use, and stands the test of time, even if the color it came in wasn't our first choice.

Dog collars FAQs

What is the best collar for a dog to wear?

The type of collar depends on the specific of dog to some extent. While all dogs do best with a collar that will lie flat on the neck, close securely, and provide a place to attach ID tags, thinner bands (½ to ¾ inches) are better for toy breeds and other small dogs, while thick collars (1 to 1 ½ inches) work for larger breeds. The best dog collar for any pup is one that fits well and is comfortable enough to leave on for long stretches of time.

What is the safest collar for dogs?

Collins says the safest collar should be adjustable to fit the dog's neck with room left over, is easy to remove, and carries a dog's identification tags securely. Although you wouldn't put a heavy collar on a toy breed's neck, the collar's weight is not as important as other factors, like ease of removal or collar thickness relative to neck size, he adds. 

Do vets recommend collars?

Collars are recommended whenever a dog is outside so someone can easily identify the dog and in case you need to grab hold of it to separate your dog from another dog safely. Collins says a collar also serves as a backup if your dog's harness gives way. If you're looking for gear to safely and comfortably walk your dog, we recommend outfitting your pup with one of the best dog harnesses or best no-pull dog harnesses and attaching their leash directly to it.

Should dogs wear collars at home? 

Veterinarians agree that it is best to take collars off whenever dogs play with one another or are at home alone. "For ultimate safety, it's best never to have a collar on a dog at home, unless you are with them the whole time,'' Collins says. "The point is it can get caught on a piece of furniture, on another dog's collar, or a dog could get its teeth on the collar, or they could get their foot through it if it's too loose.'' Since so many things can go wrong, removing the collar makes sense. 

How tightly should a collar be worn?

A misconception is that two fingers should fit between the dog's neck and collar when it should really be looser. "It should be loose enough so that it lies flat and the dog is not bothered by it,'' Collins says. As for positioning on the neck, aim lower than the dog's larynx, closer to the shoulders. Collins says this avoids a sensitive area of the neck that can be damaged with too much pressure. Finally, the thickness of a collar relative to the size of the neck is important. He says thinner collars are for small neck circumferences only. All of the collars we tested were either ¾- or 1-inch thick, which worked on our medium-sized dog, but most of them were available in ½-inch thickness in smaller sizes.