How to stop collar tugging between 2 dogs (how much, labs, bites)
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I decided to start a new thread because after looking into this I have realized how dangerous it is.
Six days with our new 5 yr. old rescue lab, Bella and things are going very well but we do have one small glitch with Bella. When she plays with Zoey, our 9yr old lab all she does is tug on her collar. We were warned about this, apparently she has always done this with other dogs. Zoey doesn't seem to mind but I do not like this habit. Zoey has never been exposed to tug-of-war so she doesn't do it back to Bella. You can get Bella to stop with a simple "no" and "sit" - she then gets out of the zone and calms right down. But as soon as she wants to play again she is right back to the tug-of-war. She usually lies down so Zoey could easily walk away but she doesn't! They seem to have fun playing with each other but the collar pulling has to stop. My husband suggested that I put Bitter Apple on Zoeys collar - any thoughts on that?
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to break this habit?
Consider using an e-collar to correct this behavior. Reward good play, correct the collar tugging by giving Bella a correction every time she takes hold of Zoey's collar.
Another option would be for them to be collarless duing "playtime" only.
My dogs do this too, but not constantly. I walk them with harnesses so I don't leave collars on them anymore. Maybe you could get a big rope toy for them to play tug with. If one dog doesn't participate, play tug with the other one to show how much fun it is. Also throw tennis balls for them, and engage them in any other kind of play you can think of, so that Bella can expland her playing repertoire. If you don't want to remove the collar (and Bella may just grab Zoey's neck instead if you do, just so you know) make sure the collar is the kind that adjusts the size by buckling to different holes, rather than doubling up part of the length. That kind can get sqeezed tight during play.
I like the Bitter Apple idea. If it doesn't work I would remove the collars but make sure you have them microchipped just in case. It's an old habit so will be hard to get rid of but it would make me nervous also.
My dogs get walks in a harness and have really loose collars so they come off if anyone grabs on to another dog's collar. Maybe once or twice a year one will pull the collar off another and I'll find it in the yard but I would rather have that happen then one get hung up on a branch or something with a collar that can't come off. The only danger is if they did get loose and someone tried to grab them by the collar they would be able to slip out pretty easy if they wanted to. But they are microchipped.
My dogs don't focus on the collar when playing but they do grab the neck all the time so sometimes the collar gets in the way. I think alot of dogs play by grabbing the neck and it usually is all in just good fun so don't get too nervous if they both enjoy that sort of activity. Usually if one doesn't like it they will let the other dog know. The dogs have alot of loose skin around their neck that moves around so the biting and hanging on that happens in play doesn't usually hurt them, only if one dog makes a mistake and bites too hard is there a problem.
Hi how do you stop it when I'm walking with my dog as she is 11 months and goes straight for the collars of other dogs when I pull her off and shout no she goes back once the other dog owners take off there collars she leaves them alone but not all dog owners can take off their collars
If you are walking your dog off leash, you need to stop doing that. If you are walking on the leash, she shouldn't be getting close enough to other dogs to pull on their collar, unless the other dog is off-leash. If that's the case, it's the other owner who needs to control his or her dog. It doesn't matter whether your dog is being playful or not, you need to keep her under control. She could get hurt by the other dog even if she is just playing, and other dog walkers shouldn't have to worry about their dogs getting rushed at, jumped on, or bothered in any way.
I have 3 labs and one pulls on another's collar all the time. Now the electric fence collar is broken. I have tried bitter apple with out success. Any other ideas?
Get an empty can and fill it w/ about 10 pennies (w/ a plastic top) - shake it a couple of times just to startle them - eventually they'll hear your voice and hopefully you wont have to shake the can to get their attention - you mght want to have several cans so you can grab one fast when they get too 'playful'
I decided to start a new thread because after looking into this I have realized how dangerous it is.
It is very dangerous. We have a beagle mix that is slightly larger than the pocket beagle. They were playing the one time and not specifically with the collars. The little one still had her puppy collar which was just a thin very pliable nylon. She somehow twisted around and the collar formed into a figure 8 with one loop around the larger dogs bottom jaw. She started yelping, if no one was there she probably would be dead.
Make sure those collars are not very loose and are made of sturdy material that cannot easily be twisted like that.
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