Wow, those are nice collars! Pretty dogs too!
Wearing a collar indoors
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All of my adult dogs wear collars with ID tags at all times. Most of my adult dogs are also microchipped but I would never rely solely on a chip to get a pet back to me. Animal shelters do not always scan for a chip and many good samaritans who find a pet have never even heard of a microchip. A collar with an ID tag makes it simple to get a pet back to it's owner quickly.
I have never understood why show people are so concerned about the hair on the dog's neck. Starting about two weeks before a show, I remove the collar at night, massage the neck area, and put the collar back on the next day. You cannot tell that the dog has worn a collar by the time the show arrives.
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Mine are nudists at home, the tags jingle and bang on the food and water bowls, which startles them. They are chipped, and older. If they get out, they come right back
home.On the occasional vacation, we keep the collars and tags on at all times, and I usually buy temporary tags where I list the address / phone numbers where we are staying.
I am not concerned at home, but use every caution when we are away from home.
If I had a youngster, might keep a collar on.
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Good thread. Very interesting comments.
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Normally I don't leave collars on at home because of the risks of accidents but also because I have one (Gbala) who chews the ends or buckles off collars if she can. Jewel, my oldie, does wear a 'Bioflow' collar though, to help prevent stiffness when she gets up. Gbala has chewed one of those but so far has left the latest one alone.
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We make a ritual out of uncollaring after walks and what not. We call our dogs over with the chant, "Let's get naaaaked…" And that's how they know it's time to take the collars off. My partner jokes that dogs, like babies, find nudity to be the most comfortable state. Kind of how like when I get home, one of the first things I do is switch into more comfortable clothes.
So we don't keep their collars on at home. At approx. 6 years of age, both are quite mellow, and do not seem to exhibit ANY inclination to bolt or escape. We also only have one collar for each of them, so with all of their jangly tags, it just seems like a lot to wear at a time, all the time.
Our Shiba, when he was younger, was a bolter, and so we kept his collar on a lot more back then, even indoors. He is also microchipped. We've lived in this one house now for over three years, and he has now come to naturally regard this as his territory and doesn't seem as inclined to explore the neighborhood as he was in his youth, when we had to move around more (he had lived in about 5 different places before the age of 2, so each new locale was full of explorable temptations outside).
Bowpi is not yet microchipped because she has shown absolutely no inclination to bolt... but I will get it done eventually, regardless.
My partner prefers to keep their collars on if we're both going to be out of the home for a longer period of time (which is actually very rare, given our lifestyles). In the back of his mind, there's a fear that an earthquake or some other chance mishap will occur while we're away and both dogs will be accidentally let loose. As paranoid as that might sound, I can see where he's coming from there...
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If I am traveling with the dogs, collars are normally on 24/7… At home, nope... I will never chance it... mine dogs are loose during the day when we are at work since we have a doggy room and a doggy door to the backyard which has 12ft privacy fences and paddlocked gates... we are set back from a quiet street and don't have to worry about "meter readers" since all the meters are in front of the backyard fence. One of the very reasons we bought this house....
So, it is just not about showing, but about safety for my kids and the situation we have at home. I will not chance one getting caught in a collar either in play or in something in the yard when loose and alone.
That said, still makes the neck hair much nicer if they are not having to wear collars and honestly... less work for me to have to worry about trying to "groom" the hair way before the show....
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Mine are only collared when we are traveling. I've had dogs catch their collar on furniture and knobs when jumping off things. I had to go to a wireless mouse and keyboard as my whippet kept catching her head in the cords under my desk
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My dogs are all micro-chipped, but I know that our local shelter doesn't always check and I assume that might be true for many shelters.
This is not true of most shelters, at least not in California. All the shelters I have experience with scan upon intake of the animal and many scan a second time just in case they missed it when the animal first arrived. Of course, it may just be they are more aware since every animal that leaves a California shelter now leaves it microchipped. In fact, most people in general are now aware of microchips and often take loose dogs to a shelter or veterinarian to be scanned for a chip.
They do make break away collars for dogs but they aren't likely to stay on long if a dog has gotten out. Though I do use collars when away from home, I do not use them at home because of the risks of injury or death with multiple dogs playing. I have found in my neighborhood almost everyone knows me and my dogs, they see my husband and I walk them daily and most likely if any found any basenji running loose in the neighborhood they would probably end up at my doorstep.
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Mine are nudists at home, the tags jingle and bang on the food and water bowls, which startles them.
Tag-A-Rounds are a great way to keep tags from jingling.
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Mine are nekkid at home. I used to have collar/tags on everyone until as a youngster Zest got her lower jaw caught on the malinois' collar twice in the span of 2 or 3 months. VERY SCARY. I'm a little slow so it took me 2 times to learn this lesson. While no one was hurt because I was less than 10 feet away, it also scared Zest, but not enough for it not to happen again. Thank goodness the mali had a quick release collar on, so I could get it off quickly. I can't imagine trying to unbuckle the collar in that sort of scenario. Yes, I know there is a risk with them being sans collar, but obviously in my house it was a definate that somebody (read Zest) was going to get their jaw caught on a collar. And i also know of 2 different people who have lost a dog due to another dog getting their jaw caught on the collar and strangling the first dog. The person with the Cane Corso solved this problem by getting a 4 inch wide collar that fits very tightly. (Of course now she only has the one dog currently.) I'm not sure this type of collar would work on a basenji.
The very first day I had Zest, I put a collar with a phone number on her. (I don't even think the tag had her name on it.) I put her in an x-pen so that she could watch her new brothers (basenjis) and sister (malinois) and not get hurt or stepped on. She immediately tried to crawl out of the pen and proceeded to get her tag caught on the xpen. Again, i was only 10 feet away. I have also seen dogs get tags caught on crates.
Hard to know what the right thing to do is.
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Wow, so many good reasons why to and why not to. Thanks to everyone for their comments.
As Kipawa is the only dog here and is not shown, I think I will keep him in his home collar. We have care workers that come to our house in the evening. They know our security code and let themselves come in. I can see them coming, and as Kipawa is always with us, I hold onto his collar to make sure he doesnt bolt off. But all it takes is one time and he could be lost. He is Mr. Social and wants to always say hello right away to anyone who comes in our house. If he got out, I would be sick knowing he didnt have a collar on.
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For other tag options, I've also seen these Boomerang Tags that pin flat onto the collar itself:
They're guaranteed not to fall off. I know other people who really like them and speak highly of their quality. I've never ordered any myself, but I'm considering it.
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Each situation is different and the decision is based on safety priority; is escape more likely than catching a collar/tag on something or on another roughly playing dog?
Boomerang (I'll endorse) makes the flat tags M.C. mentioned, and their regular metal tags are wonderful, well done, I have had them for years and the deep lettering is still clear, no wear at all. And you can have both sides engraved so lots of data, phone numbers.
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As I posted on another thread, I knew 2 people in a short span of time who lost their dogs due to collars… one broke it's jaw and died after getting it stuck in the collar of another dog, the other dog got mouth stuck and strangled or broke neck of the other. I haven't left a collar on a dog in about 18 yrs (except the chow who played with NO ONE and allowed NO ONE to get near her collar, so I had it on to grab her in case of a fight). I think the risks are too high. It is easy to have tattooed, heck even add the "needs meds" to it! (good idea), and avoid the "might not scan" issue. I had the previous chow tattooed on her ear AND her inner thigh, btw, and chipped, as she was a runner and never had a collar on.
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I will weigh in on this topic
As you can already see, people who agree on most other topics can disagree on this one, because there are risks to both choices. In our house, there is virtually no consideration given about collaring regarding who is a show dog, and who is not. Some of ours wear collars all the time, and some go naked. It all depends on the risk factors that each dog encounters.*our two males ALWAYS wear collars, in case we mistakenly let them together and have to separate them. Querk wears a Nick Russell collar with a flat tag with phone numbers bolted to the material. Hippo can chew everything except a flat buckle collar off…so that is what he wears, with the same type of flat tag.
*the older two females wear Nick collars most of the time because the likelyhood of them wrestling is next to nothing
though when Ivy was young, she somehow got her front foot through her collar up to the elbow, and we had to cut it off. She went nakey for a long time after that. The possibility that they might find a way out of the fence is much higher than the possiblity that they would hurt themselves with their collars this age.*The trade off for Bella is challenging. She will wrestle heartily with Hippo, but she is also unfocused enough to get completely lost if she were to get out of the yard. The only collar I feel relatively safe having her wear is a very snug fitting snap buckle collar. If I see them enaging in a lot of neck biting rough play, I will often remove the collar.
As you can see, there is no 'right' answer for this one, you have to weigh your own personal concerns, and each dog's individual risk factors.
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i should have added that as i posted last night, all of my basenjis were wearing their housecoats. The housecoats are a light weight coat (one layer of polar fleece, one layer of flannel) that they wear in the house in the winter since I can't afford to keep the house at 80 degrees in the winter. (they have heavier coats for outside when it's really cold/windy) I have actually never had a problem with the house coats, so maybe the answer is to write info on the coats and keep coats on them year round. (only 1/2 joking) :p
I should also add that i have an adult-only house hold. Rarely have visitors inside (more often people come to play on my agility field which is outside). I live on 5 acres with the house set towards the back of the lot. And my house is on a quiet dirt road (not to say no traffic and certainly people have been known to drive faster than they should). My lot is fenced on 3 sides, but not the front. If I had lots of kids going in and out, I might do something different. Then maybe the permanent coat might be a real option.
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i should have added that as i posted last night, all of my basenjis were wearing their housecoats.
Oh boy, I would love to see a picture of them in their night loungewear!
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oh it's just a lighter weight regular dog coat. But it would be fun to have a large phone number on the side of them!
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Well, differing opinions for sure. But to me it boils down to one thing.. which is safer.
If you have potential dog fights, a collar might be very worth the risks. But just to wear… don't wear, no danger. Wear, possible serious danger. I just don't see value in keeping a collar on if you chip/tattoo the dog and keep your fencing secure.
I would love to see their coats on too.
Cara actually will leave her's own, but Sayblee and Arwen ate their own and each others! -
My girls keep their collars on all day, but when we close up the house and get ready for bed, they come off. First one up puts the collars back on. At this point, we have one who tries to be an escape artist, and one who will stay, but the fear of the escape is enough so we would never leave their collars off during the period we are up.
