Collars

[Guest Clover]

Only Clover wears her collar at home occasionally, but most of the time she runs nekkid as well. The younger dogs always go without their collars, it is not worth the risk of them getting caught up in one anothers when playing.

Even the cats have break aways but only wear them at the moment when i am there to look out for them.

[Starkehre]

No collars at home here.

There is no safe tightness or looseness. Too loose they can get their foot, mouth or other objects stuck in a collar. Too tight, they can't slip it if it gets stuck. Not a risk I am prepared to take and I am at home mostly.

Apart from the serious risk factor, I do not like the marks they leave in the coats or how the young ones form habits of chewing them.

I have seen one dog get caught in another dog's collar, and then they were stuck together, not good.

Edited July 15, 2010 by dyzney

[Pugmum]

My guys never wear/wore collars - firstly their necks are bigger than thier heads so they tend to fall off easily, plus in order not to be too tight they used to slip down too far and just look stupid.

When they go out they wear a harness with rego and id tags etc on that - again, when your neck is bigger then your head its pointless. Whenever one wanted to be a bit ornery he'd just stand his ground and it would slip off.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Pugmum

[doggywoof]

mine never have collars on at home, not worth the risk, i did leave the break away collars on them for a while but they just dont need them - there is no way they would ever get out of the yard (or want to... spoilt doggies).

here is a link for the break away collars:

http://www.twosmallpuppies.com.au/

they are good because you can still attach a lead through the 2 D links - but once the lead is off the clips 'pop off' without much force if they ever need it too

[4Kelpies]

More information about Breakaway collars http://www.breakawaycollar.com/about.cfm

I've been using them for some years now. They don't last all that long but are well worth the money to keep my dogs safe. I leave them on all my dogs except Cara who tends to wrestle with Caleb. I only put hers on when I'm leaving her in her run. It's easy to find in there if Caleb pulls it off her.

[GoldenGirl85]

Mine only wear collars when they are out, Tess can easily slip hers but Lexi thought it was a game to take Tessas collar off, in the end I got sick of hunting through the yard to find it so I decided to take them off

[Red Fox]

Mine is usually collar free too

Of course he wears a collar when he's out and about but it's usually removed as soon as we get in the gate. Occasionally I will leave a flat collar on him during the day, though only if I'm home. I do this for only 2 reasons, first being if I know we will be in and out a lot during the day and it saves me form taking the collar an and off continuously, second if we have visitors and I may need to grab him or leash him quickly.

If we go away I tend to leave a soft flat collar on him at all times simply for the fact that we are in a strange area and it has his ID, again he is never left unsupervised so not an issue.

I do have a breakaway collar but find it works a little too well - comes of if you grab it and the dog pulls away etc. so I don't tend to use it. However if my dog was ever to go into a boarding situation or needed to be left alone outside and/or with other dogs this is what I would use on him.

[goldielover]

My lot also don't wear collars at home. I had a close call ages ago with a Koolie who went to have a nap in the bathroom, accidentally leaned on the door, closing it, then jumped at the door trying to get someone's attention. Thankfully my mum was home as he was hanging by his collar on the door handle - he was a very lucky boy!!

[Clyde]

Lucky!!

I've also had the ID tags on collars get stuck in decking. I came home to find my dog 'glued' to the deck, thank god she was smart enough not to fight it and just lay there til I got home.

[goldielover]

I've heard of that too Clyde. One of my girls had a young Sharpei (?sp) playmate a few years back. We hadn't seen her in the park for a few weeks, then i was absolutely devastated to see an article in the paper where her owner had written in to warn people about those plastic council tags. She had left her girl outside while she was at work and arrived home to find that she had choked to death as the tag got stuck on something - just awful!!

[Red Fox]

Boomerang collar tags are a good way to prevent this happening if your dog must wear a collar. They slide onto the collar so no dangly bits

http://www.boomerangtags.com/store/list.php?A=G&ID=4

Very reasonably priced too, even with postage (which is only a couple of dollars for international). All mine have arrived in under two weeks.

[cornell]

Thanks for taking the time to post all of your responses

You are all obviously actively passionate about keeping your dogs safe.

Thanks to you our dogs are pleased to be running around the house in their birthday suits.

I think they are loving it and they do look so much more beautiful.

We have ordered the breakaway collars for when we go out. But please let me know if you find any cream coloured ones!!