A dog bandana looks like the simplest thing on the order form. Four decisions separate one that lasts a year from one that fails in a month or, worse, snags.

Choose the fastening for how the dog is kept

Over-collar sleeve for unsupervised wear — crated, boarded, in day care, in cover. No knot, nothing left on the dog if the collar goes.

Tie-on for supervised wear only. Break-away snaps for adjustability without a permanent knot, and check they are break-away rather than riveted metal, because a rivet does not release.

Ask for two measurements, not a size chart

Neck circumference, and for sleeve styles the WIDTH of the collar strap.

Small, medium and large tell you nothing about whether a sleeve will go over the forty-millimetre collars your salon actually uses.

Insist on sublimation, not transfers

Dye sublimation puts the colour into the fibre. It survives a weekly hot wash indefinitely.

Plastisol and vinyl transfers sit on top of the fabric, crack, and peel away in flakes — and a dog is going to chew the thing eventually.

Check the hem and the colourfastness

Double-stitched hems, or it frays inside a month of washing. Ask; it is easy to see on a sample and impossible to fix afterwards.

And test a dark bandana wet against a pale cloth. A saturated red that transfers is a complaint from every owner of a white dog.

What to send when you ask for a quote

Artwork, quantity, your neck ranges, your collar widths, and how the dogs are kept. That last answer changes the style before anything else does.