ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Lydia/Pepper
I just had an incident with Pepper that I thought I'd pass on. Pepper wears a nylon collar w/all of his i.d. tags etc attached to the collar with a ring. Pepper was rolling around on the floor (attmepting to scratch his ears). Anyway, I noticed he was awful quiet & not moving. Apparently, the ring that is attached to the collar got caught on the carpeting & Pepper was attached to the carpeting & unable to move. Fortunately, I noticed and removed the collar immediately to free him. Just thought I'd pass this along.

DISCUSSION:

Elsie Greenwood
I'd like to add that when my Maltese was about 6 mos old she was trying to remove her collar and it got stuck in her mouth and she couldn't close her mouth. The reason was the collar was too loose. Too tight creates other problems. Collars should be checked from time to time to prevent this, especially when a collar is put on a pup and over a period of time before you know it, it gets too tight as the puppy outgrows the size it was set at.

Shelley
Lydia: Sounds like the collars should all be removed if they are left alone. I like a collar to walk KoKo and Shayna when I am working on their obidience training. I also find the harness is cutting Shayna's long hair on her back and all the way under her arms. Conclusion: in the house, they should have nothing on.

Marilyn
I also had a terrible experience with a choker collar my previous Sheltie had, She was sunning herself on the deck, with her head down, and of course the collar was on wrong. When she went to pick her head up her license tags fell into the space between the deck boards. The more she pulled, the tighter it got. I was so lucky I saw her, she was about to choke to death! She never had her collar on again without me always with her!!!

cathy brown
Lydia, I don't let Lucy wear her collar unless we are on a walk. I keep collar and leash attached and take both off when we come in the door. My only worry about that is that she would get out of the house accidentally and not have her tags, but that I think is less likely to occur than her getting caught by something when she's roaming around the house; especially if I'm not home. Unless you have some good reason for keeping Pepper collared when he's indoors, I'd suggest keeping the collar off. Also, if you take him in the car, be sure to get his collar and leash off immediately--before you even start up the car. I had a friend whose dog was nearly choked to death when he got wrapped up in something while on a drive, and she nearly wrecked the car trying to get stopped and get the collar off him.

Marsha O/Jazz
When I got Jazz, I was worried about putting a collar on him for all these reasons. I would also be worried about him being out of the house without his I.D. tag. What I did was get a break-away kitty collar for him. It is made so that if the fastener, rings, etc. get caught on anything, and your pet pulls to get free, the collar stretches about 2 inches and slips off over his head. Another advantage I found was that the collar has a little bell on it...makes it a little harder for Jazz to play "find me if you can HAHAHA"! I do still leave it off a lot when we're home, because his hair tends to matt underneath the collar. So, if you try this, be sure to remove collar often and comb your baby well.