I’ve been working with (and using) Biothane since we relaunched as Ruffined Designs – making leashes and adapters for my paracord collars – but it’s taken until now to create collar designs to offer our customers. A long time supporter asked if it would be possible to make our Trixiedog design in Biothane and so the journey began. I made some mistakes along the way but I eventually came up with two different designs that I’m really happy with – The Selector and The Biothane Trixiedog.

It’s important to us that we test our products and luckily I have three live in product testers / models!

On the first outing their wares just had to withstand wrestling, mud and water. After a rinse in the bath with the dogs they looked as good as new. I decided that I didn’t like Butters’ collar though, there wasn’t enough contrast between the strap widths so I remade it with a wider bottom strap. A failed Trixiedog sample was made into a collar for Bruno and off we all went for another adventure.

Bruno dunked his in the muddy dam but Butters really took his product testing to the next level when he rolled in horse shit. Uh huh.

This is his “I’m so happy to be covered in horse shit” face.

Due to a number of reasons we decided to go home at that point. There was nowhere to rinse either the dogs or the collars so we had a lovely hour long drive home with that stench in the car!

I gave Butters’ collar a scrub under the tap and that got rid of most of the crud but there was some staining left.

The handy husband suggested rubbing it with acetone. It worked at removing the rest of the staining. I’ve spoken to Biothane and they said they haven’t tested that method so they can’t say if it will or won’t cause any damage long term and to make sure to wash the Biothane afterwards to remove any traces of acetone. On their website they suggest warm soapy water or rubbing alcohol. I often put my paracord and Biothane dog collars and leads in the washing machine, which has worked well for removing mud.

These product photos were taken after the horse shit incident, as you can see it looks as good as new.

Bruno’s collar is my first Trixiedog attempt, which I made a mistake on. In future the top strap will go the whole way around, like on the Selector collars above. Pictured also is our new Selector leash design.

These are the Biothane collars I’ve made so far. The two martingales are on sale in the Ready to Ship section.
https://ruffineddesigns.com/product/the-biothane-trixiedog-collar-rts-martingale-adjustable-48cm/
https://ruffineddesigns.com/product/the-selector-collar-rts-martingale-adjustable-45cm/

Because everything we make is bespoke these are fully customisable and all the hardware is either stainless steel or solid brass. We design things that are strong enough for our meatheads so they’ll be strong enough for yours!