Collar, 5" W x 24" L

Much preferred to an Elizabethan. More comfortable for my dog. Keeps his long neck from reaching around to hind end where he had surgery. Good for dogs with athletic shape and submissive temperament. He doesn't like it, but he's gotten used to it--unfortunately for our vet bills! Keeps calm, whereas with e-collar, amplified sound and missing peripheral vision were distressing. Be sure to use both buckle and velcro strap features.

I bought this for my Samoyed dog before her surgery, knowing that I would have to prevent her from getting to the incision. It was easy to put on, and though she didn't really like it, it was so much better than the lampshade type the vet sells. I tried it on her a few days before and got her used to putting it on and taking it off, I guess that was as much for my benefit as hers, but it made it easier to do after she had the surgery. She could walk around without bumping into things, and it was easy for her to lie down & sleep with this on, and it gave me peace of mind that the incision would be safe. I would say to measure very carefully, and the intended use should be considered. In my case, I purchased the 6" and I think the 5" would have been quite adequate....with the 6" my dog had to keep her chin up at all times, no looking at the floor immediately in front of her.....so that would be great if you were trying to prevent access, say to the front feet; I was more concerned about her getting to her tummy near the business end, so keeping the chin up not so important for this particular event, and it worked great! Also, the vet staff had never seen one, and they were very interested .. Right now the only way to get one is over the internet, none of the local pet stores or vets carry this item. It was shipped quickly...I paid a little extra for that to make sure I would have it in time.

My Newfoundland frequently gets hot spots and chews himself raw. He's very persistent and manages to get regular E-collars off by running into walls and furniture repeatedly. I bought the BiteNot Collar in an attempt to replace the E-collars that need to literally be tied on to stay on. I attempted to have him wear the BiteNot Collar three times. The last straw was on the third time, when he was sleeping in my bedroom with me. I heard him panting for long enough throughout the night that I got concerned that the collar was choking him. It looks very uncomfortable, which is understandable given its purpose, but when it gets to the point that I have to question my dog's safety and ability to breathe, I absolutely have a problem. The collar did fit around his neck, albeit toward the very end of the velcro. I am therefore unable to say if loosening the product would resolve the difficulty breathing. This company clearly knows what they are doing by adding a legal disclaimer about returns. I attempted to place a return, and after the initial Amazon return summary email, I then received a seemingly friendly email from Pet Recovery Collars asking for additional information. The email opened with the line "We're sorry the collar you ordered did not work for your Newfie," but eventually turned to, "**Please** keep in mind that for sanitary reasons we cannot accept returns for collars that may have been used on your pet." If your concern is that your pet cannot breathe in the collar, you wouldn't exactly know that until you hear him panting excessively while wearing it. I am very unhappy with this product and the way that the company handles (impossible) returns. I refuse to lie about my reasons for returning a dangerous item. I am unwilling to even give the BiteNot Collar two stars because the second time I attempted to have my Newfie wear it (when I was not in the room to hear him struggling to breathe), he managed to get it off.

I struggled a bit in deciding whether to tag this as 4 stars or five, but ultimately decided on 4 since I do have one concern: First, the good: Despite the fit being tight, this was a simply HUGE improvement versus a more standard Elizabethan collar (aka, "e-collar"). With the e-collar, my dog was constantly crashing into things, getting frustrated, swinging it all around, and thus crashing into more things. He would also run into my wife and me, and the edge of the e-collar was sharp and hurt. With this collar, there is no edge like that, and he has had substantially less stress with it on, which has allowed us to reduce his anti-anxiety medication. As mentioned elsewhere, this collar operates a lot like a whiplash neck stabilizer. Instead of providing a wide shield as the e-collar does, it provides a stiff brace for the neck that doesn't allow the head to twist back - protecting all parts of your dog except for the lower front legs and, conceivably, the rear paws. Although stiff, it is well padded and doesn't seem to create discomfort. I've read of other dogs suffering hot spots under the collar or at the edges, but ours has had no such issue. Do realize you'll want the collar to be pretty snug (but not so snug as to restrict their airway) around the neck to avoid them sliding out of it. If snug, the combination of the shoulders at the lower end, and the ears at the top end will hold it firmly on, with the chest strap providing a little extra protection against them sliding out of it. Two concerns (only one is particularly significant): 1) Size-wise, we ordered based on a mix of breed and weight. The collar is, however, very, very close to being too big. It fits, but if the dog was a single millimeter shorter in the neck it would not. 2) Durability. We're not entirely sure exactly when or how it happened, but we discovered the chest strap was nearly worn all the way through in 4 places. It appears to be some sort of friction tear/cut in the strap, but we're baffled how that would even happen on a long-hair, mostly sedentary dog. Our best guess is that the strap folded in on itself and was cutting itself apart as he walked, laid-down, etc.. My wife was able to cut a couple of pieces out of it and sew the strap back together and we'll be watching closely for similar problems in the future. There is an additional stretch band/velcro strap that wraps around the outside of it that also appears to have cut off for reasons unknown - this happened while we were away on vacation and we have no input from the person taking care of the dog to explain what happened, so one more concern. It took about 3 weeks for these two strap issues to happen. This latter strap concern is the source of me dropping to 4 stars rather than giving it a full 5.