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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
We keep collars on all the time, even back when we were showing. I have had too many escape artists just stroll out the front door with us, even when we were watching for them. Sidhe is so small, you just don't notice her at your side. Now everyone is crated, or held by their collars if company is leaving. A wider collar I think will prevent the broken hair problem, it did for us. Good luck. We have chipped Sidhe, Rogue goes for rabies & chipping next month and then Kell will be chipped in April when he gets his rabies. Have to do each a separate month to not hurt my budget too much.
As a dog lover in my 7th decade I have had a dog or dogs for all but the first 5 years and every one has been collared. It is just the last 4 years that I discovered the delights of B daddyhood, but old habits are hard to break and the first thing I do upon getting a new dog is fit him or her with a new adjustable 'quick disconnect' collar with an ID tag. As for the danger of injury from a collar, I have had one incident in all 66 years, about 35 years ago I had a fantastic mix breed, malamute, GSD, who thought nothing of jumping over the 5' chainlink in the back. One day while working in the back yard Marmaduke saw his best friend, the neighbor's Irish Setter come out. Unfortunately I had forgotten to remove his training collar, a choke collar that was just a little too long, and going over the fence the end of the collar caught on the top of the fence. Luckily it did not break his neck as it could have, but it did hang him about a foot from the ground. I ran to the fence and was able to reach over the fence and grabbed his front legs just at the shoulders and was able to lift him enough to relieve the pressure to his neck. My neighbor came out and was able to slip the collar over 'Duke's' head, freeing him. Needless to say, I have never put another choke collar on a dog since.
I know there has been lots of opinions on this one. I for one keep collars with ID tags on my dogs at all times(except bathing and drying). I know several people made the comment that their dog is older now and not one to escape. Just last week my 13yr old girl found a loose board in the fence and BAM she was out. This was early in the morning before we were up. If it wasn't for her tag we would not have gotten her back. The gentleman that found her wandering around the neighborhood brought her back to our house. Until this incident I though my 13 yr old could barely get up and down off the deck to potty but this didn't stop her from finding a way out.
I think I posted before about my oldy Jewel, who sedately walks along beside me and gives the impression that she just cannot go any faster who slipped her collar and chased one of our sheep across the field. You'd thnk she was 5 again - I couldn't catch her. Moral is don't believe a Basenji is ever too old to escape!! Jewel (is 16 plus)!
Basenjis will lie to you.
Congo has his collar on in the house unless we are sleeping. I have two roommates and I am always afraid that he might zip out the door when they do. His collar is always on the loosest notch and he could easily get out of it if it gets caught on something.
