* caveat - I don't own the collar, however...
First Lite did a nice job with the look of this collar. It is clean, attractive, appropriately understated, and the camo patterns obviously fit well with the First Lite brand. At $25, it also seems like a very reasonable value for a good-looking everyday dog collar.
Where I think it misses the mark is in presenting itself as a collar for a serious hunting dog.
For everyday use around the house, yard, truck, campground, or on walks, I think it would be perfectly fine. But a working hunting dog is a different situation. Those dogs are running through heavy cover, brush, cattails, timber, water, mud, ice, sticks and just about anything else they can find. In that environment, I strongly prefer a traditional buckle-style collar rather than a side-release clip. A conventional buckle is simple, secure and much less likely to accidentally release if it gets caught or twisted in cover.
If an everyday collar comes off, you may lose a $25 collar. In the field, however, the consequences can be considerably greater.
Many serious hunting dogs are also wearing an electronic training receiver, GPS equipment, or both. Most traditional e-collar receivers are designed so that the collar strap actually slides through fixed slots or loops on the receiver. That is one reason purpose-built e-collar straps tend to be simple, relatively narrow straps with a traditional buckle and very little additional hardware.
Looking at the First Lite collar, I am not sure how easily most common e-collar receivers could even be installed on it because of the sewn construction, adjustment hardware and quick-release buckle. And if someone did manage to mount an expensive receiver to it, I would be even less comfortable relying on a quick-release closure. Losing a collar is one thing. Losing a several-hundred-dollar training or GPS receiver with it is another.
I also recognize that many handlers, myself included, may use a separate ID collar and e-collar, so not every collar has to do everything. Viewed strictly as an attractive everyday or identification collar, I think First Lite has made a nice product at a very fair price.
I just would not call it a serious hunting-dog collar.
For that, I would like to see First Lite take this same good-looking design and build a true field version: a durable waterproof strap, traditional positive-locking buckle, minimal hardware, and a design that will readily accept common e-collar receivers.
The aesthetics are there. I think the next version just needs to be designed around how serious hunting dogs are actually equipped and used in the field.
