Martingale Collar Danger

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I've always liked martingale collars - they can snug up enough that a dog can't slip out; but when adjusted properly, they can't truly choke the dog.

However - we just had a scary situation: Augie the Aussie puppy (a boisterous 12 week old) managed to get his lower jaw through the tightening loop on Ben's martingale collar as they wrestled, then panicked and flipped himself on his back, effectively putting a tourniquet on his jaw and making Ben's collar tighten to the point it couldn't be removed. BOTH dogs were shrieking, Ed grabbed Augie to stop his struggling; and once I saw that there was no resolution, I grabbed the kitchen shears and cut the collar off Ben. Once loose, we untangled it from Augie's jaw - it shattered a puppy tooth and was covered in blood....

Maybe this will stop the "I'm going to kill you" dog games (Augie, for the moment, is now convinced that Ben is "mean") - but until Augie settles down a bit, I'm going to put a regular collar on Ben.

Just passing this along so it doesn't happen to another dog as they play with a buddy.

[colliehauler]

Thanks for the warning very poignant right now with a 9 month and 3 month old Collies. They grap each others collars in their mouth and pull. I will pass this on to Collie rescue as well. Will go out tomorrow and purchase conventional collars.

Would hate to think what would have happened if you weren't home when this occurred.