I used a cheap nylon adjustable collar and a nylon leash. When mine were 6 months old I got them their permanent collars (Bison Designs) and at some point, a leather leash. Keefer even used Dena's hand-me-down collar and leash until he was too big for it.
That is what I use for Lancer. When he outgrows those, he will be using Kayla's old collar. And I have variety of leather leashes - type and length to use when we exhaust the usefulness of the current nylon leash, which i expect to be well before he turns 1.
Thanks for inputs. I'm putting in an order on Petedge or Dog.com with a friend of mine. We buy in bulk every now and then and I just wanted to get a few items that I could use now and in the future.
Leather lead from the get-go here. It's a lot like cotton lead rope for horses - if you've ever had nylon pulled through your hands you'll know why. Leather is much friendlier to your hands, it feels better and it doesn't burn or cut.
Collars - gad. Eldest would chew her own collar off, then @ 3yo I got the youngest - who took over chewing them off. I went with cheap nylon after trying three that were guaranteed even for chewing. Once Barker the Younger gave up chewing off Barker the Elder's collar, I went to rolled leather. Plus an assortment of other collars - a couple for obedience trials, a couple of silly ones that were on sale and I couldn't resist.
I use nothing but leather or beata (synthetic) - I get custom handmade leads from an Amish harness maker, flat collars for pups, and have the longlines made from beata....as a horse person, I will not TOUCH a nylon lead or line!!! even before beata, I had long lines made with 6-8 feet of leather and then had a cotton lunge line or 25 feet of nylon sewn onto the leather - so I had a leather line in my hand for most of the work...
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