Opinions on Collars in the House

Hi
My three girls and two cats are 24/7 collars tags and chips .At work we are working on a new build " Museum Of Liverpool Life " project its a new museum on Liverpool waterfront next to the Liver building but the health and safety
requirements on this development are totally over the top and its a wonder anything ever happens ,so if we all did a risk assessment of our houses i am fairly sure we would never be allowed inside them as they are far to dangerous a place to live in .We can only do a sensible risk assessment for our cavaliers and protect them to the best of our ability and eliminate all obvious dangers , and i do fully agree with Karlin that the risk of escape/loss without collars far outweighs the danger that any normal house or garden presents.

My dogs do not wear collars but they are microchipped. I am at home all day and we have a fully fenced in garden so they are safe. However, I recently picked up a cavalier pup in the Cork area with no collar and when I took him to the vet I found he had no microchip either (correct me if I'm wrong Karlin but I thought all IKC registered dogs have to be microchipped to be registered). Anyway, through trial and error and some door knocking I eventually found the owner and berated him for not putting a collar on the dog - I joked that I was going to keep him! I had spent three hours trying to reunite this pup with his owner and he wasn't even trying to find him, assuming he was stolen. He told me his last cavalier was microchipped, stolen and never recovered so he didn't see the benefit in chipping this one. I said he should at least have a collar and tags in that case. To be honest I've been watching out for the dog ever since. My opinion is if you are not at home during the day and/or your dog has a chance of escaping, put a collar and tag on them because, let's face it, most people are not going to take the time to go to a vet and get them scanned, however, they may make a call if there is a number available on the collar. Lastly, if your dog is stolen the only hope you ever have of seeing them again is the microchip.

I am home full time and I never leave the collar on while in the house or crate. I keep the collar with tags at the front door and it goes on with the harness anytime we leave the house even for a short walk or ride in the car.

Mine don't wear collars at home, but wear their harnesses whenever we go for walks or go out of town; their harnesses have their tags on them. They are chipped, too. I was at a dog park once and saw a dog get it's tooth caught in another dog's collar, and it was yelping in pain and someone had to use a knife to cut the collar off. Having 2 dogs that love to play together, I worry about that happening when we're not home.

Sasha always wears a collar w/ tags during the day. At night I take them off when she goes to sleep for the night.

Our dogs never go without their collars. If there was ever a fire or a reason we had to get out of the house fast, I doubt we'd have time to grab their collars, and in all the chaos, they could easily escape w/ out any way to ID them.

My two are tagged 24/7. Im always so paranoid that something might just happen, and they could accidentaly escape from the house. Our garden is totally secure and we have a very rigid regime when somebody knocks at the door (I make sure the dogs are in a closed room before going to answer the front door) Millie used to be very bold for bolting towards the front door if it was open. She is much better now that she's a bit older - but I still have the fear that it could potentially happen!
My sisters dog managed to escape from the house just under two years ago. She had just given her a bath and she hadn't put her collar back on her. Although the dog was microchipped - she never got her back. I always wondered if her collar and tags had have been on, would we have got her back.
I think its better to be safe than sorry....

Mine wear theirs 24/7 now after I found a dog and was able to return him to his frantic owner an hour after he went missing because I called the number on the tag. They were round in 5 minutes to pick him up.

Ruby pretty much wears hers all the time during the day unless she's in her crate. I take it off then because I'm usually not home when she's in there, and I worry about it getting caught on something. She also doesn't sleep in it at night, mainly because she sleeps with us and it makes noises when she moves! I don't worry about it during the day because she's never had any sort of problem before, and she's usually in my line of sight. She only ran out of the house once or twice when she was tiny, and it was one of those times when she just darted out before we could catch her. She's not so big on trying to get out now because that would mean we're not out with her, and she's the ultimate little velcro dog. However, I like to keep it on her just in case because I could grab it much easier if something like that happened and she ran out. She's micro-chipped, but I still feel better knowing our phone number is on her tags should something happen.

Brett always has a collar on, Lucky used to, until I realized Brett was chewing her collar. He's chewed it right off of her 3 times now. So she only wears one when we go for a walk.

Anyways, I recently found an old stray schipperke dog. It was roaming around the streets, running towards cars and everything and no one stopped to help it. They just drove on by dodging him. Eventually I coaxed him into my car and drove around the neighborhood asking people if they knew whose dog I had in my backseat. I even called nearby vets to see if anyone reported a missing dog and went to the nearby apartment complex asking if anyone in the complex owned a schipperke. Nope. Nothing... so I actually drove it down to the vet that is 2 minutes away and asked them what I should do. They told me to bring him in and they could scan him. So they bring out this box and pull out this weird scanner thing, all the while they look like they don't know what they are doing, and eventually the dog is scanned. Nothing. I ended up taking him to a nearby shelter. His life didn't look so bright seeing as though he was obviously an old dog and probably wouldn't get adopted within 5 days.

Luckily late that night I heard someone calling a name, as if they were trying to find something or someone. It was a friend of the people who had lost their dog, the black schipperke. He took me to where the owners lived and I told them where I had taken their dog. They were ready to jump in the car and go get her. I had to remind them that it was 10:30 at night and it most likely wasn't open.

If only that dog had had tags on... I could have returned it within 5 minutes. Instead I had it for almost 4 hours before I finally gave up and took it to a shelter.

Poor doggy.

No collars in the house here. Collars and harnesses when we go out. Just a personal preference. Both are microchipped.

all my dogs wear there collars 24/7 also there collars allow 2 of my fingers to go under there collar my fingers aren't exactly thin lol, This allows for them to pull the collar if they got it caught on something. But i agree the postives out way the risk. I would rather have my dogs with there collars and tags on them if they got out and couldn't find there way home, My dogs are microchipped,registered with the council and also have id tags, Which reminds me i have to get a new one for my golden retriever and chihuahua.

chloe92us said:

Well, I guess I am in the minority here, but I keep collars on my dogs 24/7.

Accidents happen. But it doesn't stop us from driving, flying in planes, or letting our kids run around outside. I think the chance of them strangling themselves is less than the chance they could accidentally run out the door accidentally. Just my opinion. You can't protect them from everything.

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+1 to that!
We have collars (engraved with phone numbers) on all of our guys, even our 16 year old house cat.
You can't be certain that they will never get out.
Sometimes even the best of friends (or their children) will "let the dog out" without thinking.
Why take a chance? We have Charlie micro chipped, but a neighbor 3 blocks away can't read a micro chip (anyone can read a tag, however).
If you are concerned, you could always pick up a "break-a-way" collar.