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Collar Safety Or Collar Death

"Chinook" (1986-1995)
Chinook, a beloved companion, hung himself while enjoying a family hike in the woods. As dogs do on family hikes, Chinook momentarily lagged behind the family to investigate a special scent. When he failed to catch up quickly with his family, they went searching for him. Nine-year-old Chinook was found dead, his collar fatally entangled with a tree branch. As Chinook fought to free himself, his twisting collar increasingly shut off his air passage, causing his cries for help to go silent. One of the great tragedies of collar strangulation comes with airway constriction. The owner, even if only in the next room or around the corner in the yard, cannot hear the dog's cries for help because, while desperate, they have been hushed.
Heidi, a Shiloh Shepherd, died of collar strangulation in March 2002. She was playing with another dog, Riva, when Riva's paw was caught in Heidi's collar. Heidi and Riva became so quickly entangled that the owner didn't have time to free them with her hands. Heidi was down and turning blue before the owner could make the short trip into the house for wire cutters and back out to the dogs. By the time the collar's links were cut it was too late for Heidi, who took her last breath in her owner's arms. The owner: "I have never felt so helpless in my life as watching my dog die in my arms while I was trying to free her."
"Heidi" (1999-2002)

Have you ever tied a noose around a child's neck? "NEVER!" you say. Well, if the child was a male, you certainly have secured a necktie around his neck. A necktie is a noose. Now, would you ever let that child go out to play wearing a necktie? Of course not, it has the same lethal, killing potential as the noose.

The same principle applies to your canine companion, your best friend. Collars, even non-choke collars, on dogs present the same life threatening risks as neckties on children at play. We have come to expect safety collars for cats but dogs have been left out of the picture.

Few dog owners are aware of the potential tragedy that masquerades as a collar. Until it happens, most dog owners are unaware of the strangulation risks posed by most dog collars. The majority of these heart-breaking accidents occur in the "safe" environment of the backyard or inside the house.

Examples of the many collar accidents in which dogs have died or been seriously injured are listed below; there are many others as well:

  • The jaw or paw of one dog has been caught under the collar of another dog;
  • The collar has become entangled with a low-lying tree limb or branch or with brush or briars;
  • The collar or tags have been caught on floor vents, picnic tables or floorboards of a patio deck;
  • The collar has been caught on a fence wire;
  • The collar has hooked onto an automatic garage door;
  • The collar or tags become caught on a crate; and
  • The collar is caught inside a car.

The most frequent collar accidents occur when two dogs are innocently playing together. Dogs, by nature, are neck biters. When the jaw of one dog gets caught under the collar of the other dog a serious injury or death is almost certain. As the first dog attempts to free its jaw, the collar twists causing it to tighten even more both on the first dog's jaw and around the second dog's neck. The two dogs panic, frantically twisting and turning to get free. Quickly, at least one dog is seriously injured or, more often, killed.

By far, most collars, like neckties, can injure or kill when worn in the wrong setting. Unfortunately, the settings and activities in which dogs spend the majority of their time are the very ones in which most collars pose a life-threatening risk. Collar accidents occur with nearly every type of collar, i. e., collar accidents are not limited to choke collars.

No one disputes that dogs need to wear collars. Not wearing a collar poses its own set of serious risks. What should an owner do? To protect their dogs, responsible owners and handlers should use a breakaway collar like the KeepSafe Break-Away Collar whenever their dog is not on a leash and under close supervision. Even under these circumstances, standard collars can be lethal. Recently at a dog show, we observed a dog standing on a grooming table. The owner was about 10 feet away from the dog. The dog became agitated and slipped off the table. By the time the owner covered the ten-foot distance, the dog was being strangled by the collar and leash that tethered the dog to the tabletop.

Chinook's owner developed the KeepSafe Break-Away Collar so that other dogs would not meet the same fate as Chinook. Tragically, Heidi (below) met with a collar death in March 2002. Heidi's owner gave us permission to print Heidi's story with the hope that it will motivate others to practice collar safety by using breakaway collars.


Collar Safety Links:

keepsafecollar
premier
Kharapage

 

©Diane McClure, Raid The Wind Kennels, LLC 1/15/03