Some pet brands are built to scale fast and sell out. Dog + Bone was built to do almost the opposite: make a few things, make them by hand, make them last a lifetime, and give a chunk of the proceeds to dogs who need it. Seven years in, that stubborn smallness has turned into a quiet reputation, especially for one collar that rescues treat as standard equipment.
A short list, made by hand
Dog + Bone arrived with a simple promise: quality over quantity. The line is deliberately tight, snap collars, adjustable leashes, and waist extensions, cut from heavy-duty one-inch nylon webbing and finished with military-grade tri-glide hardware and solid cast brass rings and loops. Everything is machine washable and made in small batches in-house, which is the whole point. Founder Anne Christian, who runs the company with her husband, Ivan Cook, has been clear that the goal was never to churn out products for the sake of a fatter catalog. It was to make the essential pieces well and resist the pressure to expand just to look bigger.
That restraint shows up in the gear. Because the couple owns their production, they can watch every piece come together and keep the quality consistent, which is also why they have never outsourced it and why they can offer something almost unheard of from a tiny maker: a lifetime guarantee on everything they sell.
The collar rescues rely on
The brand’s crown jewel is its martingale collar, and it has earned an outsized following. A martingale is a limited-cinch design: an extra loop that the leash clips into so that when the dog pulls, the collar tightens evenly and gently around the neck, just enough to keep a dog from backing out of it. That “virtually inescapable” quality is exactly why martingales became a fixture at shelters, where a dog slipping a collar can be a genuine emergency, and Christian first learned about them while volunteering at no-kill rescues, where practically every dog wore one. Unlike a choke collar, the cinch is limited, so it stays firmly on the humane side of control. Dog + Bone’s version is built for bigger breeds in particular, generally recommended for dogs heavier than about 15 pounds.
The part that isn’t about the gear
What actually sets Dog + Bone apart is where the money and the mission point. Christian is a regular supporter of A Purposeful Rescue, a nonprofit that pulls dogs from high-kill shelters around Los Angeles, and giving back is baked into how the company operates rather than bolted on for marketing. The partnerships take a few forms: gift boxes for rescue events, weekend fundraisers where half of all sales go to the cause, and gear offered to rescues at 50 percent off retail.
Sustainability runs on the same logic. Handmade, small-batch production means very little waste, so little that the studio gets by with a residential trash can rather than a commercial dumpster. Returned products that are not in resellable shape are handed off to a rescue or shelter rather than thrown out, and a repair program keeps gear in service longer, which is better for the planet and cheaper for the customer than buying new. The company is a multi-year member of One Percent for the Planet, now in its third year.
Mountains as a business plan
The brand reads like a reflection of the people behind it, outdoorsy, unfussy, happiest with dirt on their boots. A move from Austin, Texas to the tiny mountain town of Lake City, Colorado, turned out to be a turning point. A former US Forest Service building there now serves as the couple’s basecamp, housing their first retail space, the studio, and their home all at once. The lower cost of living let Ivan come on full time, which let them push harder on growing the business, and living in a place that runs on seasonal tourism reshaped how they think about their role, including an emphasis on creating steady, year-round work that pays a living wage. It is also, not incidentally, the perfect proving ground: endless terrain to let their own pack, a shepherd mix, a lab mix, a hound, a senior toy fox terrier, and a very patient house cat, run wild and stress-test the gear.
For years the couple sat on ideas for new products but held back, wary of making stuff just to grow the collection. Now, finally staffing up, they have said they are ready to add a few new, genuinely meaningful pieces, on their own terms.
Why it’s worth knowing about
Plenty of companies talk about quality, durability, and doing good. Dog + Bone is one of the rarer ones where those claims are structural rather than slogans: the lifetime guarantee is possible because they control production, the low waste is a byproduct of making things by hand, and the giving is written into the sales model. In a market full of gear designed to be replaced, a handmade collar backed for life, made by two people and a pack of dogs in the Colorado mountains, is a genuinely different proposition.
You can find Dog + Bone’s collars and leashes through the brand directly at dogandbone.com and through select independent pet retailers.
References
- Design Milk. Handcrafted Collars and Adjustable Leads from Dog + Bone. https://design-milk.com/handcrafted-collars-and-adjustable-leads-from-dog-bone/
- One Percent for the Planet. https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/
- A Purposeful Rescue. https://www.instagram.com/apurposefulrescue/
