Every dog needs a collar.
Dog collars are important for several reasons. They are necessary for walking your dog and identifying him. If your pup doesn’t wear a collar, people may think the dog is a stray.
Dog collars also carry important information about rabies, your contact info, and you can grab it in an emergency!
However, dog collars can also pose hidden threats.
Here are my top tips for keeping your dog safe when wearing a collar.
Make sure the collar fits properly
According to the Humane Society, a flat collar should fit comfortably about your dogs neck. It shouldn’t be too tight to choke your pup or too loose so that they can slip out of it. A good rule of thumb says that you should be able to slip two fingers under the collar.
Don’t leave collars on in a crate or when your dog is unattended
Collars pose a real danger of strangulation. Any collar can get hooked on something inside the crate, or out in the world like a fence or a stick or even inside of the dishwasher!
Don’t leave collars on when dogs are playing.
Dogs often play with their mouths and it’s possible for a dogs teeth/jaw to get hung up on another dog’s collar. If a dog gets hung up, they can panic, twist, and choke out the other dog or break teeth or harm their jaw or worse.
What about dog tags?
Dog tags are helpful for identifying your dog, but I’m not a big fan of tags on collars.
Tags are noisy and they bang against food/water bowls. My dogs are finicky eaters, so clanging tags on their food bowls can distract from eating. Tags can get stuck in small cracks or vents too when a dog is laying on a floor.
The best solution I have found are these stitched collars from Amazon.
I love these because you can stitch your contact info on the collar itself. All my personal dogs use these flat collars.
