Please Remove Your Collars

Guys...I just almost had two dead dogs. I had just gotten home, Mom was here...we heard what we thought were the dogs fighting outside. I ran out with a broom, and Star was on top of Romeo-I started whacking Star (really hard) and she would not get off...finally I noticed that she had her jaw entangled in his collar. They ran up the hill in our backyard and I was able to grab ahold of Romeo, when Star fell off the little wall...Mom grabbed her...I thought Romeo was dead, honestly...Mom ran in for scissors while I tried to hold the collar off Romeo's wind pipe. Mom came back and Star was finally able to jerk away and ran into the house. I was about to do CPR on Romeo and he finally started breathing again. Everyone is OK now, I was worried that Star might have a broken jaw but she is alright, admist a few bites on her mouth, and Romeo has a sore neck and bite on him. They are all relaxing now.

What would have happened if that was a chain collar? Or if there was only one person here, if I hadn't gotten home in time? :( This never would have happened if the collars were left off...I know it's a lose/lose situation, if the dog gets loose and has no ID...but it's better than almost having your dog strangled to death. :(

I don't ever leave a collar on my dog..The only time they wear a collar is when they go for their daily free run in the bush and hubby is always with them. Otherwise they are in the house or their fenced yard. We do put the collars on when we take then in the van in case of an accident.
But that was a great reminder.

Well see..Zoie is usually the only one who wears a collar, as she is the most likely to "escape". I went for a walk with Romeo yesterday, and then just unsnapped the leash, didn't take the collar off for whatever reason-it's never been a big deal.

we are lucky nothing has happend with our dog's collars. I am glad everyone is okay! :)

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Originally Posted by areias

Guys...I just almost had two dead dogs. I had just gotten home, Mom was here...we heard what we thought were the dogs fighting outside. I ran out with a broom, and Star was on top of Romeo-I started whacking Star (really hard) and she would not get off...finally I noticed that she had her jaw entangled in his collar. They ran up the hill in our backyard and I was able to grab ahold of Romeo, when Star fell off the little wall...Mom grabbed her...I thought Romeo was dead, honestly...Mom ran in for scissors while I tried to hold the collar off Romeo's wind pipe. Mom came back and Star was finally able to jerk away and ran into the house. I was about to do CPR on Romeo and he finally started breathing again. Everyone is OK now, I was worried that Star might have a broken jaw but she is alright, admist a few bites on her mouth, and Romeo has a sore neck and bite on him. They are all relaxing now.

What would have happened if that was a chain collar? Or if there was only one person here, if I hadn't gotten home in time? :( This never would have happened if the collars were left off...I know it's a lose/lose situation, if the dog gets loose and has no ID...but it's better than almost having your dog strangled to death. :(

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A chill went flying through me- I had this happen with two shepherd pups once. They were wrestling when the smaller female got her jaw wrapped around the martingale part of the brothers collar! When she pulled- she was choking him- and when he pulled it was pulling her jaw. Both pups were screaming- their mother jumped in to try to figure out who was killing whom. Luckily the collars were nylon and with a very tight margin- cut the collar off of him!! Since then my dogs do not wear collars anymore in the house.
When zubin came he wore a collar for a brief time, until femka started playing with him- then alllllllllll collars came off in the house. I keep slip leads at each door incase I have to get someone quick- but all the leads do is collect dust..
I TOTALLY AGREE with your post on being concerned. Even if its a well fitted collar ( which mine were and I know your would be too) - this can happen!

How scary for you guys!! I'm glad everyone is ok now. :(

My girls don't wear collars. They have harnesses that I put on them only to go out. Thanks for posting this so everyone can be aware of it.

:eek:

A very scary situation! I am glad everyone is all right.

We have a collar on Belle at all times because we must use a leash when she does her business (although sometimes we'll just let her run out herself). So instead of taking it off and then putting it back on whenever she needs out, we just leave it on.

Thankfully, nothing bad has happened with her collar, and I hope nothing does.

My dogs don't wear collars unless we are going out front, I have read about this too many times, and it happens easily with undershot jaw dogs like Boxers.

Very glad your dogs are okay, I have read of other dogs who weren't so lucky so I'm glad they are alright!

How scary. :(

At the same time, with the chance of dogs running off, it's always a good idea to have collars on them. My dogs are never left unsupervised for this reason. Call me paranoid, but I always make sure someone is outside with them.

It's so hard to say yes, keep the collars on, or no, don't. I just took every collar off the dogs. Are there such thing as breakaway collars? Do they work? Unfortunately this was a martingale collar...which is why we couldn't get it off right away. It has to slide over his head, it dosen't buckle. She didn't get her mouth stuck in the loop, it was the collar itself, but I guess it would be pretty easy to get stuck in the loop in the martingale collar.

I would keep the collar on, if it was a single dog or if the dog dosen't like to play with the other dogs. But all of mine will wrestle around. I'm going to look around the internet for an alternative.

Here's the wall Star fell off of, Romeo was on top, she was hanging by her jaw, choking Romeo.
http://areias.zoto.com/img/45/cb8f42...40dd4b279-.jpg

How scary! :( I'm glad they are both ok! Unfortunately with having huskies the risk of them running off is too much for me to dare to let them go without collars. Nebo's is a rolled leather one and I've never had a problem, I would definitely never leave a chain collar or one made to tighten on.

Yes, it would not keep a martingale on. I use those for walking only.
I've never seen a break-away collar for dogs.

This just brought tears to my eyes. I am so glad they are okay.
I think I will mention this to my brother (who now has two dogs) and also for when Zoee is there for the weekend.
My brothers family is very good about taking off choke collars before they go in their kennels outside. But I am sure no one ever thought of this happening.
Thank you so much for posting this.

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Originally Posted by borzoimom

A chill went flying through me- I had this happen with two shepherd pups once. They were wrestling when the smaller female got her jaw wrapped around the martingale part of the brothers collar! When she pulled- she was choking him- and when he pulled it was pulling her jaw. Both pups were screaming- their mother jumped in to try to figure out who was killing whom. Luckily the collars were nylon and with a very tight margin- cut the collar off of him!! Since then my dogs do not wear collars anymore in the house.
When zubin came he wore a collar for a brief time, until femka started playing with him- then alllllllllll collars came off in the house. I keep slip leads at each door incase I have to get someone quick- but all the leads do is collect dust..
I TOTALLY AGREE with your post on being concerned. Even if its a well fitted collar ( which mine were and I know your would be too) - this can happen!

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I thought of your story while I was reading this... wondered if you'd seen it yet...

Is the 'collar issue' an issue if you've only got uno dog?

That must have been really scary for you. :eek:

That's terrible! I'm so glad both dogs are ok!

I never put a collar on my dogs unless we are going outside or traveling.

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Originally Posted by GreyhoundGirl

I thought of your story while I was reading this... wondered if you'd seen it yet...

Is the 'collar issue' an issue if you've only got uno dog?

That must have been really scary for you. :eek:

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Obviously not in the way that happened to me, however I have heard of dogs getting caught on a tree, hanging themselves, breaking necks when a tree catches the collar. It's very lose/lose...if someone finds the dog and thinks its a stray because it dosen't have a colllar..5 of mine are microchipped but if someone dosen't check, I don't know...I'm still looking for alternative.

Here's one, what do you think?
http://www.tagxpress.com/DogCats_NecklaceID.htm

I'd imagine with the ID necklace, they'd still have the chances of getting it caught. I think your best bet is supervision. If they aren't seperated when you leave home, take the collars off then. But when people are home and opening doors, I'd keep the collars on.

I had a similar situation several years ago with two former dogs that have since gone to the RB. Whitney, my standard poodle, had been playing in the next room with Ashley, my miniature poodle. All of a sudden I heard ungodly yelping. I ran in to see Ashley hanging from Whitney's collar by her jaw. It only took a second to free her, but I shook all over for about a half hour after it was over.

I never put collars on them again (except for walks or grooming) and Bella and Ripley don't wear them except for walks/grooming either. I am soooo glad you were there when that happened and that both dogs are OK.

once I had an incident with a collar.......

at this time it was just one dog that caught his own jaw in the collar......can you imagine a dog with his mouth open and moving like crazy, bumping on everything trying to release himself from that, besides being freaked out, I literally had to sit on him so he could stay still till I could cut the collar......his collar was not that loose so he was pretty much very tight, I still don´t know how he got caught like that........

glad everyone is Ok.......

Found what looks like a good one...
http://www.cole-co.ca/cole.htm

I'm soo sorry you had to go through that I can imaine how horrified you were. I never leave the collars on my babies. I'm too big of a worry wart. I'm soo glad that they are safe now.

I was just gona suggest that!!......:D

kitty type break away collars......and the strong regular ones just for walks......

I never leave collars on my dog except when she's outside and/or we're traveling. When she's outside I'm outside.

The same "no collar rule" should apply for crated dogs as well. It's very easy for a tag to get caught in a crate. Plastic or Wire.

There are lots of breakaway collars for dogs... there's just 2 d-rings on it for on-leash.

Both of my dogs wear rolled leather collars that I'm careful to fit them. They both wear collars, because I feel them getting out/lost is much more eminent than any situation like this. They don't go outside alone, anyhoo.

I'm glad both of your pups are ok! That definitely sounds like it was scary.

This happened to our Mist a few years ago but it was out in the street and I was walking her on the lead on the way back from a walk when a dog on the loose attacked her, staffie x pitbull, and got hold of her collar and ear together. Mist was choking so I undid the collar but because the other dog had hold of her ear too, it didn't get it off but Mist was able to breathe again.

Obviously being out and about, she had to have her collar on. In the UK, it is against the law for a dog to not have a collar and ID tag attached to it out in public. Speaking of which, our Jess managed to lose her ID tag so I need to get another.
In the end, the stupid dippy owner of the dog couldn't get it off so I told her to pick the dogs body up, turn it on it's side and then I used my fingers to wrench it's bloody teeth apart and then told her to pull it back as I held it's mouth open. It worked...and prevented anymore damage to our Mists ear at the same time.

Stupid cow had no control over it at all. Mind, most of the times it had attacked our Jess and Mist, our Jess and Mist won, it was just on that occasion it managed to get the advantage on our Mist.

The stupid woman moved away in the end so we don't have to put up with her and her dogs anymore.

Oh Goodness!
How scary. I got shivers too.
It reminded me of what happened with Beenie a few months ago.
She was playing with my niece and was chasing the ball.
She ran behind a recliner to retrieve it and her collar got caught in the side lever and she started choking. I acted quicky but Beenie was struggling with me. Finally, I got her loose. In the mean time she got so scared she pooped everywhere.
She was very unresponsive for about 15 minutes. I thought she was in shock. She eventually started acting normal. I gave her a bath to clean off the poo. I was shaking for a good hour after it happened. I still feel sick when I think about it.

Lacey and RB Mandy had a 'collar' incident once. Luckily hubby and I got them free fast enough. Layla will chew and/or pull on Laceys collar. I bought Lacey a collar, I'm not sure what you call it, but it can be unsnapped without having to pull on it to get any prong through a hole to get it off. That, along with teaching Layla not to chew on Laceys collar makes me feel better. Also, my dogs don't play unattended. :)

*edited to add* looked it up in Foster and Smith ,it's called a quick release buckle.

Many {{hugs}} to you after going through such a HORRIBLE thing!

I'm glad everyone is okay now, this collar looks like a good one!
http://www.cole-co.ca/cole.htm

I keep collars on my pups 24x7.
They used to be loose in the house all the time, but they've gotten themselves in to a destructive phase and they are now back in crates and both have broken themselves out of crates in the past so I thank you for the reminder about collar safety!! I will be taking their collars off when they go in crates every morning from now on. I will also be looking into the Cole collars because mine play VERY rough. I consider myself very lucky that my pups have only gotten tangled up in collars once.

My dogs are all seperated when we leave the house. The Labs are crated and Mandy is loose, but she just sleeps. If they were to get their jaws caught in another's collar (which has happened before with Nova and Luka) I'd be right there to get them loose. I'm sorry for what you had to go through.

That must've been soo scary! I'm so sorry that had to happen to you, but it goes to show what can happen to dogs when their collars are left on. I'm soo glad that they are both alright.

Once, when Sammy was a puppy, we heard him making weird noises in his kennel at night and my mom went down to let him out to go potty. He was hanging by his collar. :eek: Good thing we were there or he woulden't have made it. He just had a sore neck and some missing hair.

wow, I can't believe how many of our own members had this happen, that means it's not as rare as I thought! I take Niño's collar off a lot inside but my parents always put it back on him because he gets out a lot. (or used to, he hasn't in a long while!) I'm ordering one of those dog tag like ones too though because he seems to be anoyed by all his other collars, and some of them leave the area a little irritated. oh nevermind, they only come up to 14". :(

I'm so sorry to hear about your ordeal and can understand the fear of it happening again.

Frankie's an escape artist and has gotten out more times than I care to admit. Her collar stays on her 24/7. She's gotten herself in some weird positions and hasn't hooked her collar yet. She is supervised whenever in the yard, so I will keep my fingers crossed. In her case though, not having tags is a bigger fear for me.

**edit* I just saw the break away collar that was linked in the thread. It looks like a great idea and a good option to not having a collar at all.