Play Bare!

About an hour ago, I was reminded of how important it is to have dogs play WITHOUT their collars. I'm at a client's house and their two older puppies were in the yard, playing. One dog's mouth got stuck in the other dog's collar and it quickly spiraled from playtime to panic, fear and struggle.

I ran to them, figuring that I was going to be bitten, but plunged into the melee regardless. Thankfully, they both stopped struggling as soon as they felt me touch them and the one dog's mouth came free from the collar.

This client's house is new to me, so I had no idea where they would keep a pair of scissors, and I wouldn't have had time to search.

This could have turned out very differently, and usually would.

Ask your vet if they have seen or heard of a dog being injured due to it's collar and you'll be amazed at how common this is.

Dogs play with their mouths and the neck area is a very common one for them to bite. Like Bubba and Harper here -

Your dog can be strangled to death, have a broken jaw, have their tongue mangled, suffer from neck or face punctures - you get the picture.

It's not only playtime that can injure your dog. How many of us put our dogs in a crate with their collars on and never think anything of it?

Most, I would imagine.

But there are numerous cases of dogs getting their collars or tags stuck, then suffocating or breaking their necks when they jerk around trying to get free.

Collars or tags can get stuck on tree branches. fences, vents, chain link, tie outs - the list goes on. Sometimes it seems like if a dog can get into some kind of crazy trouble that you would NEVER think of happening, they will.

Here lately I've been looking at the collars that have the dogs name and owner's phone number embroidered on them. I like these for more than one reason - because I'm out traveling from home to home so often, I frequently encounter loose dogs who have on a collar and tags, but for one reason or another, I'm unable to get their owner's information that way. But what if I could read the name and number without having to get so close to the dog?

There are also tags that you can slide on a collar.

Other options might be the Breakaway collars or Velcro collars.

For those of us who frequent the dog park, what would you do if two of the playing dogs got tangled like this? In a situation like this, seconds count. Could you save those dogs?

Now I have something else I will make sure to have with me at all times and in the car - something sharp.

Do you have a collar story? Please share it here in the comments.