collers... on or off?

Hi everyone....I was wondering who leaves their dogs collers on all the time and who leaves them off. I've been hearing horror stories latly about dogs almost hanging themelves with their collers on. Since i have 3 girls I'm worried they might get caught up in eachothers collers. So I have been thiking about keeping them off unless we go on walks or go to any public places, they are all micro chipped by the way. The one thing I am worried about though is an emergancy like a fire or earthquake where I would need to get them out quickly. What do you guys do?

 

I think this is one of those things that you are supposed to do it both ways, but of course you can't! I leave the collars off except when we are going out. That way they can't entangle each other with their collars. They bite at each others' necks a lot in play and I worry when the collars are on. I also don't like what it does to Nala's fur.

I do worry that they will get out sometime without their collars on. Nala is chipped, but she would have to be scanned for someone to know. I have not got Bonnie chipped yet. I was thinking of getting them tattooed so they would have more visible ID, but I am undecided about that.

If you do leave collars on, there are breakaway collars that are supposed to be safer. Of course, as Sams can tell you, if the collar breaks away when the dog is running off, then the dog has no ID anymore. The clip kind of collar is also supposed to be safer than the metal buckle. With a buckle, you have to have some slack to get it off, whereas with the clip you should just be able to squeeze to get it off in an emergency.

 

I can't make up my mind. Some days I leave it on, and some days I leave it off. It makes me nervous both ways. I really need to go get Annie chipped. I do make sure she's wearing a leather collar. Just from my horse back ground, I would never leave a nylon collar on her. A horse can easily break leather if they get into trouble. I figure Annie probably couldn't break her leather collar, but it would have some give if she got into trouble and would be more likely to slip it.

 

When we had Max I always left his collar off unless we went for walks. I do the same with Rocky too because he is microchipped and tattooed

 

Someone here posted once about two dogs getting tangled in a collar. The one dog was suffocating and they couldn't get enough slack in the collar to release the buckle. A collar with the flat clip latch thingy might have saved the dog's life. That would be my only concern about the leather collar. Do they make leather collars with the other kind of buckle?

 

Jimiya, I think the person posted had choke chains on, that seems to be the biggest problem and the ones that have a buckle, a tooth could get in it and get caught.

I have the plastic snap kind, I am just the opposite, my dogs look naked without and I just panic in case they got out, they could be returned right away if they have their collars on. I think a lot of people are more incined to rescue a dog that has a collar on vs one without

honeybear

 

Ok. THis is how I do it. When we're home and Smokey is with other dogs, He has his off. When we are home and there are no dogs around, he wears it.

When we go out and he's with us (alot!) he wears it.
When he's at home in a kennel alone, and we're not home, he wears it.
When he's at home and in a kennel with a bitch, we leave it off..


Anytime he's alone by himself, he 's got it on. That way if he ever got out or decided to leave and run away, he'll have it on...

 

I don't think it was a choke chain. Here is the original thread: http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2705

And here's a similar thread: http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6041

It really seems like one of those no win situations. You have to evaluate the risks of collars versus no collars and types of collars and decide what is best for your babies.

 

all our perminate dogs are chipped and don't wear their collers when their home. They have never gone beyound our property lines before mainly because they don't like staying to far out in the pasture with the horses I think sometimes especially Singer is nervouse that if she goes to far away we will leave or something with out her. But yeah collers make me nervouse definatly especially dogs let to run lose in their fenced in back yards with a choker on those are the main collers that cause the hangings but truly any kind of coller can do it.

 

Duke and Freckles run around "naked" at home and only "dress" when I take them out to walk or to the dog park. Duke is micro chipped but I need to get one for Freckles.
Every boarding kennel that I use removes collars.

 

On all the time, too many things can happen in a split second that they stay on 24-7.

 

I usually leave their collars off however, the other night we had a bad wind storm and the gate blew open and eventually collapsed. Thankfully, I was able to stop Natalie as she was heading towards the open gate...if she would have gotten out of the yard I would have regretted not having a collar on her. She is chipped and has a breakaway collar which I forget to put on her when I let them in the yard to pee. Now that they make the extra small size I'm going to get one for Sebastian too and will probably keep them on both dogs all the time.

 

we usually keep kumas on but we ALWAYS make sure its on when we leave her home alone. if she were to escape i want someone to be able to restrain her easily without having to put their arms around her and to be able to identify her straight away so there is no chance someone will 'steal' her and not bother taking her to the vet to be scanned.

 

Of course, just like anything else there are no guarantees. I had a dog get out of our yard once and we couldn't find her. She had her collar on with our name, address and phone number. I called every shelter (about a dozen of them) in our area for 3 weeks and looked everywhere. We never found her and she was never returned. I tell myself that someone saw her and wanted her so they just ignored the tags and kept her.

 

Collars off unless dogs are running the yard supervised or out walking...alll my dogs except the pits are Chipped so that's one consolation to having them off when I'm not home etc...

 

The only time I take my pup's collar off is when he gets a bath or when I apply front line. Brenda

 

I have ONE dog that does not get play time with others as he is dog aggressive and he has his collor on 24/7 except at bath time. With multiple dogs kept together without supervision I think the safest thing to do is remove collars no matter what type of collar they have.

 

Yes, I get VERY nervous when my dogs have collars on and they start wrestling. Bonnie likes to grab Nala's neck, and with a nylon collar on I worry that she could hurt Nala by mistake. They always have their collars off when I leave them inside at home during the day. I do not put them on when they are let out to pee and play, either. Nala has to wear hers when she eats because she has to be tied to her line or she will steal Bonnie's food. They wear collars when we go in the car for any reason, on walks, at the park, etc. They also go to the boarding kennel with collars on, but it makes me nervous.

 

Some days I take off Lutehrs collar (more for a vain reason than safety, his hair just stands up funny when he wears his collar too much) and then put it back on whenever I think about it, he usually doesn'T need his leash for walks. Any when he plays with the other dogs, his collar is buried under giant mane, so I don'T think they can get to it. My other dog wore a harness, bc her neck was so much bigger than her head and I did the same sort of thing with her harness I would just take it off and put it on whenever I felt like it.
But I have a question for those of you who hvae microchipped or tatooed dogs, as I have been thinking about getting it done to Luther and Dale, ok first which do you think is better? Like where do they save the info for the microchips? bc I have heard that different places have different standards, ie euro chips read on x brand scanners and USA chips are read on y scanners, bc I don'T want to have to get 2 (Is that even possible?) And I worry about the story I heard once ( and I know there is always the bad story about the pit bull who was put to sleep bc they had a differnt system or something, but really it was some lady's dog. And with the tatooing does that really help anything? Anyway, maybe I shoud just start a new thread!

 

I started a topic on another forum Thursday about coming home after being gone for 1 1/2 hrs. and finding that Grace almost hung herself on the fense that divides the two dogs.

When I went outside to let them in, I saw that Grace didn't have her collar on. I looked everywhere for it and found it hanging all twisted and inside out half way up the fense on a piece of rebar. She must have jumped up and hooked the collar. There were teeth marks on it where she was biting it trying to get out of it. Judging by where I found it, it looked like she was barely on her back toes and scratching at the ground. Luckily the collar was loose enough and stretch enough for her to get her big head out of it. If that would have happened in summer, she would have been dead in minutes from the heat.

So needless to say, the collars come off when they're home alone. I kept collars on them so if some slight chance they ever did get out, they would have their I.D. on them. But chances of that is very slim, so I will just have to rely on their microchips if something should happen.

I'm so careful in keeping their enviroment safe. Most certainly did not expect that. It may have been just a freak thing. Thank God I get another chance to make things right.