Glad to hear you are using a harness to walk with and not a collar-but I'm a downer on the convo., despite the obvious strangulation by a collar and the thought of using a break away, I just wanted to add that long haired dogs can get irritated with anything that stays on their fur too long-like a collar so maybe a short cut on the neck (like almost shaved) or not wearing a collar for long periods is best, especially if not supervised. I use "bling harnesses" because so many collars are so cute and I don't use them because of my dogs all being rather long haired...here's a pic of my "bling harness" though. These are totally generic and you can get them at any pet boutique (preferably not a big box one-ye I'm one of those too)
. As you can see Elvis got all excited when Mommy brought out his "blingy" he thought we were going out somewhere and when I didn't put it on him he started nosing it!