Wow glad everything turned out okay with Lolly. I know how scary that can be. I had something similar happen, when Murph was a puppy. He got his tags caught and totally panicked. I think he could have easily choked to death, if I hadn't been there. So after that incident, no more collars on mine, if I'm not there with them. Tattooing or microchipping seems a lil' safer way to go.

As to emergencies, I think you have to look at your situation and dogs and judge which route would be the least risk to them. I keep my 3 confined in my bedroom, which is at the back of the house and the bedroom door leads out into my fenced back yard. They're not normally bolters, but if they did in the scariness of the situation, hopefully the firemen would open the back door, so they could bolt into the back yard.

If I awoke to fire, I would also be tossing them out the back door into the yard. But your comments do bring up a thought Phred, that I should probably put a set of collars and leashes on a hook by the back door, so I can grab those on the way out. When we go walking, I usually have to hunt for where I laid them down last. So they're not going to be easily accessable in an emergency.

Par...