Breakaway collars

[Becki's Boys]

How good are the breakaway collars. I was thinking of getting Jack and Star one, because when they play they pull at each others collars. It makes me nervous. I was just curious if any of you had ever used one.

[diane allen]

I have not and sometimes wonder why. A friend does, and swears they work, as they've been found in various places other than on the dogs' necks.

I do use the "Knot a Collar" - which is basically like small climbing rope, with a sliding knot in it. If you put pressure on one side or the other hard enough, it'll loosen up. I don't know that it would work if it got caught, for instance, on a fence post - but I don't have any posts like that. It definitely loosens up - and after awhile, even sometimes when I don't want it to!

 

I used to use rolled leather collars (long-haired dogs, and their necks always got matted under any kind of flat collar). Once upon a time, Mr. Big and Ms. Medium were playing. Mr. Big got his lower canines under Ms.'s collar, apparently after twisting his head around, then straightened out. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been there at the time. It was MOST difficult to un-do the connection there, but thankfully I did with no long-term problems. Ms. was on the verge of choking. Yikes.

 

Seems like a good idea to me!

 

diane

[silhouettestable]

Once upon a time, Mr. Big and Ms. Medium were playing. Mr. Big got his lower canines under Ms.'s collar, apparently after twisting his head around, then straightened out. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been there at the time. It was MOST difficult to un-do the connection there, but thankfully I did with no long-term problems. Ms. was on the verge of choking. Yikes.

 

Something similar happened with the Danes that we had. They were playing, next thing I knew one of them was screaming and I thought the other had attacked until I realized they were stuck together and I think the noise was out of fear. I got a knife and cut the collar off (at the time we were using the flat nylon martingale collars with the chain section). After that I've never left collars on my dogs for any reason, they only wear them if I'm taking them somewhere on leash, the rest of the time around home no collars.

[MaggieDog]

Yup I use and love the KeepSafe collars from Premier whenever Maggie is playing with another dog - she got caught by the collar a few years back when my parents' dog and her were wrestling and they too had to cut collars off, thus triggering the purchase of the breakaway collar.

 

I like it and trust it (it's been found on the deck or in the yard several times), but the tricky part is remembering to snap the leash to both rings to disable the break function when on a walk, so we just use a martingale for walks that is only put on at those times and taken off after - the breakaway collar is for ID purposes really.

[Guest TheRuffMuttGang]

My dogs all have regular plastic buckle collars and I still oftentimes find them laying out in the yard so I know they aren't so strong that they will choke the dogs if they ever get entangled but they are still strong enough to use to walk my non-pulling dogs.

 

http://www.yellowdog-design.com/

[nancy in AZ]

Ditto waht Erin said. Two of mine have had near disasters with nylon collars with parachute snaps. I use breakaways when we hike, martingales when we walk and they're naked when home.