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1717Guy,
We keep the collars on our dogs nearly all the time, standard leather or nylon ones you get in the store, but we leave them loose enough to where if it had to come off, it would slip right off. Now, we keep collars on our dogs because we need to display rabies tag and other tags, plus it shows the dog belongs to someone. The rule is that you should be able to put two fingers wide-ways under a collar, but we also keep them a little looser so they can pull them off, but not loose enough for them to accidentally put their foot into the collar. As the collar wears, it can stretch a little or even shrink from getting damp, or dogs lose or gain weight, grow or lose winter coats, so you have to adjust it fairly often.
We do not use choke chains AT ALL on our dogs as a regular collar. No. We ONLY put those on when we use leashes, and thus they are attached always to the leash where we keep them all in a drawer.
As for your dogs fighting, when we let our dogs out to do their business and run around in the fenced back yard for their regular outings, we leave the door cracked (we have a storm door that stays locked) so we can hear if anything is going wrong outside. We have trained our dogs not to bark except if there's something terribly wrong. And when we first put the two dogs together, we were with them almost constantly outside for a week or two, so we could stop any rough-housing that they thought they could get away with. In addition, we make a lot of effort to play with them out there, or just make unexpected appearances now and then, for their company, and just to see what in the world is going on out there with them!
Our dogs stay most of their days inside and all of their nights inside. However, they do get to go outside in the yard often, some short quickies just to pee, some longer for play time. And when they were in their first three years or so, we took them for very long walks one late afternoon a week and one day on weekends, always at a variety of parks where they could get some extensive and interesting walks in. This keeps younger dogs from getting too frustrated, and if you can manage to keep both of them at your side or behind you, this will help them understand you are the boss EVERYWHERE, thus they are relieved of the need to fight for dominance.
Now, 1717Guy, this twist-tie arrangement may prevent one of the dog's teeth from getting stuck, but since it's got a wirey thing in the twist-tie, which if swallowed would not be pleasant or might get stuck in a paw, and since it's not meant to hold a dog collar together in any permanent way, I think you might consider working on how loose you keep their regular collars, as I've explained. Also, you can avoid collars that have the same sort of tooth-sticky place as the previous collar, possibly even duct-taping over the offensive opening. And then there's prevention of fights, and while it is impossible to totally prevent any fights at all, you can nevertheless cut back on them by doing as we did, which I've already explained.
See, dog hierachy in the yard is a little diff than in the house, on account of the owners are top dog inside, but outside, unattended, they will sometimes fight it out for head dog or one will just be entirely too bossy. By keeping close watch on them and the other stuff I've already mentioned, this will become almost completely a nonissue. If they're young dogs, you can play inside with the two of them, with a simple ball or whatever, throw it and let them snag it, try to keep things fairly even, and if one of them shows any upsetness whilst this activity is going on, you can straighten it out right there. GG
Thanks for all the help everyone. These dogs don't fight unless their is food nearby but they do play rough very often. They are Jack Russell Terriers and are really full of energy.
GIGIMAC, I might try a tiny zip tie instead of the twist tie. As you said about swallowing might be as bad a problem, though I know the zip tie is not great either. It seems like there is no perfect solution to the problem. The dogs are outside a lot as we have a big piece of land and no close neighbors. I don't think I can do the no collar idea others have mentioned because we live in a lake area with a lot of out of state people here and I don't want someone taking a neat dog home with them and not checking the chip the dog might have. So far the dogs have not ripped each others collars off in play.
I just hope that people will read this and at least follow the advice of loose collars. Better to have to buy a collar once in a while to replace a lost one than to have a loved dog get hurt.
I would have the dogs Tattoo! & Leave the collars OFF! Welcome To NDR Adv person can SEE a tattoo! I had a many a dog returned! Abet most were neighbors LOL 1 that WAS stolen...her neighbor called me! I asked her to call the police! At 1st she didnt want to But then I said wonder what else she taken.....that got her to call them! Turned out a lot of things in her home were stolen! Tatoo &/or microchip will protect them from being stolen! Keep Collars OFF with keep them from getting hurt or Dying! I had 1 puppy that got hung & Died wearing a collar!
I have two canines that wear collars. One because its required as a condition of keeping it and the other because although I have several fences between me and the street, canines do what they do. We read about lost pets with NO COLLARS on this forum all the time, and in many many cases the dog had a collar and it just wasn't in use. We see dogs all the time wondering loose on the streets that look so nice and clean as if owned and probably are owned but NO COLLAR. How many owned dogs by responsible owners are in shelgers and piunds because they had NO COLLAR, yet those folks come waltzing in with the collar that was "hanging" somehere and "Oh geez, we ALWAYS put the collar on when we go out, Mr Dog Catcher...." and yet your dog is in the pound with no collar???? So why do people think that dogs will never get loose while not wearing the collar???
I use the breakaways and they are great for the purpose. They keep the required ID tags and such handy, they will break away if so much pressure is exerted as in a foot getting caught, tags getting caught, caught on a fence, etc, yet you can attach the leash and walk them with the collar so that your pulling won;t cause the safety breakway to come apart.
PF where do you get a Breakaway for a Dog? I tried a cat collar on LadyBug when I 1st got her. 1st time outside she hit the end of the leash & kept going LOL
PF where do you get a Breakaway for a Dog? I tried a cat collar on LadyBug when I 1st got her. 1st time outside she hit the end of the leash & kept going LOL
Katie - Just google breakaway collars for dogs. You will see many links
We want the collars to stay on except in the case where the collar would get caught on something like some of the posts have talked about or if the dogs get caught on each other. In those cases we want the collars to come off to free the dogs.
That's a mistake. Situations that have put my dogs in danger were due to collars being too loose. Dogs are more likely to get caught on things when the collars are loose. It sort of blows my mind that people don't realize that loose collars are what's dangerous. A properly fitted collar is very snug.
We have also had clients call us in tears – one dog’s loose fitting collar was the cause of his death. The dogs were playing and one dog got his jaw caught in the other dog’s collar, they panicked and twisted, the poor dog who died was strangled to death by his best friend as his person watched helplessly. She did try to cut the collar off but it was so tight she could do nothing.
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Please just be careful with collars. A properly fit collar is snug to the dog’s neck – you should be able to fit your four, flat fingers (no thumb) between the collar and the neck. Always check for a proper fit every time you put the collar on as puppies grow and some collars stretch out over time. See our referral page for our favorite collar type.
If you search anywhere on the internet for "proper fit dog collar" you will find that any fitting loose enough to come off in any situation is not a safe fit.
Chinook & Co out in vitginia makes and sells them retail. Or you can go to Primier Pets distribution and they will direct you to retail stores in your area that carries the keepsafe Collars. On of my collars is a special item through Ray Allen but only comes in bright orange and bright yellow with the warning label. The other is a KeepSafe which is available at most pet suplly store or online and comes in MANY COLORS!!!!!!.
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