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Collar or no collar?


Collar or no collar?  

64 members have voted

  1. 1. What are your thoughts on leaving a collar on your dog, i.e. when not outside or on leash?

    • Collar stays on all the time
      44
    • Collar is off when dog is unsupervised or with other dogs
      17
    • My dog doesn't have a collar
      4


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24/7

 

Nylon buckle collars with boomarang tags for the adult Border Collies

Martingale collars with boomarang tags for Jasper and Sam

Nylon buckle collars with no tags for the pups until they grow big enough for adult collars.

 

Mark

 

Mark,

Those tags are freakin' sweet. Thanks a bunch for the tip.

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I make homemade breakaway collars. Out of leather. I usually scratch their names in them with my phone number with a knife. But a friend bought them name plates.

I make the breakaways by cutting the collar in two and either punching a hole in both sides and putting a little wire between them. Or by cutting the collar almost in two so it would break if caught by a horn or brush.

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Some on some off.

 

We have had some near wrecks with the ACD's and collars but not so many with the Border Collies.

 

The ACD's are more apt to hunt and get into things, I had one get his collar caught on the tine of the rototillar in the barn. Another slid past the lawn mower deck and got caught on the bracket. Luckily, in both cases I was not far away.

 

Weasel, Border Collie female, got her tags caught on the chain link, slipped her collar but ended up getting pinched and developed a baseball size hematoma under her chin, she had a metal clasp quick release that I think caused the pinching. It happened a second time, now she has a different collar with no tags and is in the vertical bar runs instead of chainlink and that collar went with the next dog that we sold.

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Everyone wears their collars here, all the time. With 3 escaping Huskies and a Border Collie who likes to door dash i don't take chances. The only time they're naked is at work. I also have "reward" written on their dog tags, any chance i can get them back, i'll take it.

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i try to keep a collar on most of the time, but when at home i take it off (it has ruined his fur around his neck... so mad). Has anyone else had that problem? his fur got really stiff and brittle on the top part of his neck and some of it broke off! hes on Omega 3,6,9 for his coat but it has not helped.

I had a Springer Spaniel with the same neck hair issues, a flat leather buckle with riveted tag in the years that I hunted her.

When she got too old to hunt, I tried a rolled leather buckle collar for her and it made a big difference. The smaller diameter

allows the collar to kind of burrow into the hair, but not flatten or misshape it. Both my BC's wear them, one is medium smooth

coat, the other is on the rougher side, neither have had any neck hair problems. The one downside to these collars is that there

isn't space for riveted tags, so it's back to jingle jangle. Tag silencers do help a bit though.

Mike

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I was leaving them on all the time then the other week Toby and Izzy were wrestling and he managed to pull Izzys collar tight around her neck, not choking her, but that scared me enough to take them off. Only on walks where a leash may be neccessary do we collar them.

 

Tim

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didnt used to wear collars unless we went out, but with 7 dogs and all my small animals I had too many close calls as a result of no collar to grab on to. my guys all wear collars 24/7 now.

 

edit to add that we have had dangerous situations as a result of collars before as well(jaws getting caught in collars), but I have has far more bad things happen without the collars then with.

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I checked collars all the time, but Brody has his taken of at bedtime by my husband it is their evening ritual and Brody seems to enjoy getting rid of it. When he is away I never take them of as I usually forget to put them back on and find myself trying to attach a lead to fur and have to end up with makeshift slip leads.

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4th option: Collar is off when dog is indoors or supervised in the backyard, otherwise on at all other times.

Reason: Attaching the dog's tags directly to its skin is a tad bit uncomfortable; Annie does not take well to body piercings...

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My dog ALWAYS has hers on except when in the bath. I use a leather collar with buckle and brass ring and brass plate with contact info. Back when I lived with a housemate he always would take the dogs collars off. He thought they looked better without them. Despite my REPEATEDLY begging him not to he still would. He continued to do it even after one of the dogs wandered off (one week before fencing went up) and the only reason we got him back was because he had his collar on with contact info!!

 

Now I should add that I leave the collar rather loose. It doesn't fall off but you can slip it off over the head. But not so loose that a paw could get caught in it.

 

Jennifer

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Hmm. I've always kept my dogs' collars fairly tight (can fit three fingers or so between the collar and the neck) on the principle that a looser collar has a better chance of getting caught on something. Probably a six of one kind of thing...

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Luke only wears a collar when going to the vet or to an agility trial.

 

Kaiser wears his collar when we leave the house -- I take it off when we get to work and put it back on him to go outside (he's the only one of my three who has to go out on leash). He used to keep it on all day, but he & Secret wrestle & she goes for his neck a lot -- The day she got tangled in his collar and he could have died was the day he stopped wearing his collar other than when the leash is attached.

 

Secret gets her collar put on when we leave the house and taken off when we get home.

 

None of my collars have hanging tags. I cannot STAND the sound of jingling tags. None of my dogs are door dashers.

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Cerb wears his 24/7. I would like to get something to cover all the jangly tags.

[/quote ]

Go to a local locksmith and get the little rubber rings that go on keys. Some of them will fit over the dog tags and get rid of your Jingle!

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Hmm. I've always kept my dogs' collars fairly tight (can fit three fingers or so between the collar and the neck) on the principle that a looser collar has a better chance of getting caught on something. Probably a six of one kind of thing...

 

I've always subscribed to the tight collar/less apt to catch school.

With all the high tech materials out there you would think that someone could design a break away collar for dogs. One with an insert that could be selected according to your dog’s weight. Since it would only serve to carry ID, you would need a separate martingale lead for walking purposes and a chip just in case.

 

I’ll get right on that.

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None of my collars have hanging tags. I cannot STAND the sound of jingling tags. None of my dogs are door dashers.

 

Odin always has his collar on (lupine). I tape the hanging tags together with duct tape to get rid of the jangle (low tech solution). Someday I'll get a cool collar with the riveted tags.

 

Odin door dashed last weekend - not out the door but into my neighbors house where they were having a party when we were returning from a walk and I had just released his leash at our doorstep. Not dangerous, but he sure caused a commotion. It was about 20 drunk kids in their early 20s and when he ran in and I just heard loud screams - what is THAT?? and laughter. His current best friend lives there -- a basset mix named Daisy, they have "play dates". I called him out and he ran in my house with Daisy in close pursuit, but Benway stopped her in my entryway, where she cowered and then peed on my foot. This has nothing to do with collars, but it was hilarious.

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I've always subscribed to the tight collar/less apt to catch school.

With all the high tech materials out there you would think that someone could design a break away collar for dogs. One with an insert that could be selected according to your dog’s weight. Since it would only serve to carry ID, you would need a separate martingale lead for walking purposes and a chip just in case.

 

I’ll get right on that.

 

Easy, cheap break-away collar for dogs:

 

One nylon choke-collar

One 1" split-ring type key ring

 

Hook the two rings of the choke together with the split-ring and slip over the dogs head. If they pull hard, the split-ring will open up, and the collar will fall off. If you want to leash-walk with it, hook the bolt-snap into both rings of the choke.

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Geonni that's ingenious!

 

For safety release collars the two major producers are Premier (their KeepSafe collar has a plastic reusable fuse) and Tazlab (the Tazlab collars have an elastic section). As I mentioned above, I'm currently using custom sized "cat collars" with breakaway buckles for my dogs' ID collars.

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