I just love the looks of paracord anything. One day while paging through pinterest I found a pin on paracord dog collars so I ran out and bought all the supplies including paracord in not just one color but many. It took a bit of figuring and with the help of friends I think I got collars down pat. I will be interchanging tying and braiding in this illustration.

Here is my attempt to try and teach you how to make a collar.

Buckle, D Ring, Tape Measure, Paracord, Sissors and Lighter.

I bought my supplies at Michaels Craft Store, Hobby Lobby and Farm and Fleet. Each place had different color and lengths that I needed. Paracord is usually sold in 16 ft, 50 ft or 100 ft bundles.  There are many places online to purchase bulk paracord for a reasonable price.

To figure out how much paracord you need for a single color collar you need to measure your dogs neck not pulling the tape measure tight, just measure loosely around the neck and then add a inch to the measurement. Once you have your measurement you need to convert that to feet. One inch will equal one foot, then you need to add one foot. Gambler was 17 inch neck measurement so that would be 18 feet of paracord he would need for a collar.

Once you figure out the length you need, when you cut the paracord you need to take the lighter and burn all the ends that are cut. The white cord inside will pull out easily if not melted back together. You will then take that 18 ft of paracord and fold it in half so you have a loop at one end and the two open ends at the other end.

Put the closed end through one of the buckle ends and then loop over the buckle to hold the paracord in place.

Make sure your paracord isn’t twisted and thread the two open ends through the other end of the buckle.

Open the buckle and slide it down to the end where the other buckle is with the closed loop on it. This is where you need to make the length of the collar to fit the dog. Since Gambler measured 17 inches you then need to measure buckle end to buckle end to be 17 inches. You then take the buckle end that has the open strains and but the buckle under something heavy or tape it to the table so you can tie your first knots and get them tight, you want to be tying with the open ended strands. After you get a couple of knots you can hold it in your hand and do it until it is done.

This is basically a square knot which you keep switching sides as you knot. I numbered the cords to help with this illustration. I am going to start my square knot on the right side taking #1 and making a loop and going under #3 & 4 (3 & 4 are the two middle strands of paracord that are in the buckle) then over #2.

You then take #2 strand and go over #3 & 4 then under or through the loop of #1, you then pull it tight and snug it up against the buckle. After you make one knot on the right you then do this whole step the opposite way starting on the left side.

Make your loop with #2 and go under #3 & 4 and over #1. Take #1 and go over #3 & 4 and through the loop of #2 and pull tight.

Keep switching off going right to left. If you loose tract of what way you are going just look where the braid on the edge of the collar is, if it is bigger on the right then you need to braid from the left.

See the right side of the collar the braid is bigger that means you need to braid from the left like shown.

Pull tight and you will have a bigger braid on the left.

As you are braiding put your finger and thumb around the top and bottom of cord 3 & 4 and push up the braided part so it is snug. This will make your collar stiffer.

Either in the beginning or when near the end you need to put the D ring in and braid that in.

You can see on the lime green one I got some letters from the craft store and spelled out Gamblers name.

On my way to Saskatchewan I tried making 2 color collars. I made two different types. The first type I made was like the collar above then I took another color I wanted and did the same braid over the top of the collar I just made. This will make a thick sturdier collar.

The outer color is about 2 feet shorter than the original collar. You fold the cord in half just like the starter collar and then put the folded end through one of the buckle ends and use the original collar as your #3 & 4 strands and start braiding like before. Don’t pull the knots tight as you want spaces between these braids so you can see the underneath collar come through. Once to the end tie the ends and burn the ends so they melt into the other paracord so it does’t unravel.

For those of you who can’t understand my instructions you might be able to under stand the above illustration better. I can email it to anyone that might want it.

Stay tuned on how to make a tab for training and how to make a another 2 color collar.