You can find a lot of puppy collars at thrift shops for pretty cheap - would never pay full price for one. I'm getting mine at 14 weeks and was told that 8-12 inches was what was being used - then at 4- 6 months graduate to 10-14 inch collar.
Wearing Collars
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I do keep collars on mine..but am seriously reconsidering it. I am just convinced that if they got out, people in our neighborhood would not know what to do to get them back home. Our dog warden doesn't believe in scanning dogs for chips…don't ask...even though they are all chipped.
Mine don't wear dangling tags though. We have a brass tag that attaches flat to the collar. And they are rarely unsupervised for more than 10 minutes or so (of course something tragic could happen in that amount of time). We only have two that play quite so strenously anymore, and I CAN see it happening to them in the blink of an eye. So I may take their collars off when they aren't travelling.
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I have never tried these but I do like Premier products. For those who want to be able to have a collar on for ID but prevent an accident like what Dr Jo had these may be a good compromise.
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I am NOT "craft inclined".. but to do one out of elastic.. even I could do..gggg Hey when I try to sew a hem.. I usually sew it to the pants I am wearing…gggg
ha ha, nor am I. My kids will tell you, when an article of their clothing is in need of repair, they put it in my sewing basket….where it stays until they outgrow it.
Sad, but true. I can barely sew on a button. :o
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I suppose we really have to go "all out" with ALL of our loved ones. Does every city, county, etc. check for chips or tattoos? What I mean to say is that we do everything to protect our human children and family members from harm by getting to know our neighbors, letting our friends into our very personal lives, and asking officials to keep our loved ones in their sight. I know it sounds very silly to some, but to keep all of the people mentioned (family, neighbors, officers, friends) aware of who you are and who your "dogs" are may be very beneficial - especially by letting them know through small conversation that your pup is tagged in a special way.
I live in a very small town outside of St Louis. I have always made sure that my children are street smart. Being a part of this forum, I have been made very aware that I need to be pet smart too. After reading the posts here, I will be sure to let my surrounding neighbors and the chief of police know our dog's descriptions (they know our children already) and that our dogs are chipped. (I'm still consider tattoo-ing and will inform them of that as well).
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Also, what is tatoo-ing? Do all vets do this? Where does that tatoo go? Does it hurt? Sounds like a good idea.
The tattoos are just like people tattoos. I have found that some vets do them, but they can be pricey and they usually require sedation. I have come across several breeders that have the tattoo gun and have done my dogs for me. We have one or two people holding the dog down and they can do them just fine without sedating. It doesn't really hurt, but it feels funny plus they have to be on their back so they sometimes fuss a little. I have never asked around with tattoo artists, but sounds like some of them will do dogs too.
You can read more about tattooing here: http://www.nationaldogregistry.com/
If you have a tattoo done you should register it there too, so vets and others who find your dog can find your info. Also the NDR sells tattooing equipment for anyone who feels artistically inclined to help tattoo dogs. lol
If you have the vets do them, they usually have a specific agricultural code through the county that they have to use. Otherwise if you have someone else do it you can put whatever you want on the tattoo. I have seen people do reg numbers or a kennel name, and sometimes even symbols like a star. In Canada, to register a dog they have to be IDed with a chip or tattoo, and they have strict requirements on what chips to use. The typical American Home Again and Avid chips aren't accepted anymore. If you tattoo you have to apply and pay for a "series" to use. Then you add a number in sequential order. Also if the dog is Canadian born there is another letter they have to add to signify the year born.
Here is a picture of a tattoo, and where it is on the leg. It's on the inside upper thigh, near the groin.
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I have never tried these but I do like Premier products. For those who want to be able to have a collar on for ID but prevent an accident like what Dr Jo had these may be a good compromise.
I have the Keepsafe collar for Piper and I really like it. She doesn't wear a collar at home but when we go other places and she is in an expen I will put it on her just in case she's somehow able to get out. You can also still hook a leash to it and walk them with it, however I don't trust it with Piper because it's not a martingale and she could slip it if she really tried.
I also use Boomerang Tags on all her collars because I can't stand the jingling of regular tags, but they also won't get hung on anything like hanging tags.
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I feel like I need to keep a collar of some sort on Cory and Jayden in order to keep them safe when I answer the door…especially since I'm monitoring a 3 year old grandson at the same time. We haven't had any problem with the dogs and their collars at this point. (Unless you count the fact that Cory destroys Jayden's collars by chewing on them and trying to drag him around the house by his collar - a ridiculous sight since he is several inches taller and about 9 pounds heavier than Cory.) However, while reading this thread, I am getting worried. Someone is always home when they are out of their crates and we'd hear them cry out. But the Keepsafe collar sounds like a good alternative. Are they still secure enough to hold back the dogs at the door?
Pat
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But the Keepsafe collar sounds like a good alternative. Are they still secure enough to hold back the dogs at the door?
Pat
You can hold them but you would have to make sure to grab around the buckle or they would pop open. It's not that hard to find the buckle and grab around it, I do it all the time with Piper's, but you do have to take the extra time to check and it may be harder with two basenjis.
Since someone is always home with the dogs a better choice may be the Playsafe collar, it is designed for daycare type settings. It won't open by itself but it has velcro tabs that can be pulled open easily even if the dogs are tangled up. The advantage would be that you could use it to hold them without worrying about it accidently opening. But it's not really designed to have a leash hooked to it so you would have to put a regular collar on them if you were going to take them out.
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I suppose we really have to go "all out" with ALL of our loved ones. Does every city, county, etc. check for chips or tattoos? What I mean to say is that we do everything to protect our human children and family members from harm by getting to know our neighbors, letting our friends into our very personal lives, and asking officials to keep our loved ones in their sight. I know it sounds very silly to some, but to keep all of the people mentioned (family, neighbors, officers, friends) aware of who you are and who your "dogs" are may be very beneficial - especially by letting them know through small conversation that your pup is tagged in a special way.
I live in a very small town outside of St Louis. I have always made sure that my children are street smart. Being a part of this forum, I have been made very aware that I need to be pet smart too. After reading the posts here, I will be sure to let my surrounding neighbors and the chief of police know our dog's descriptions (they know our children already) and that our dogs are chipped. (I'm still consider tattoo-ing and will inform them of that as well).
Hmmm…I hadn't even thought of that. Our town isn't too neighbor friendly...and I don't really know why. We only know a couple of our neighbors, and only one of them knows our dogs at all. I mean, he knows they are Basenjis, and he has helped us catch a non-basenji stray we had staying here for awhile. Maybe it is because everybody has big properties, ours being the smallest at one acre, most around 5-10 acres? We haven't talked to any of our neighbors in months, and I am sure most of them don't have any ideas how many kids we have, let alone dogs. I guess we are kind of private people in our town?...we wave when we drive by...but everybody REALLY stays out of each other's business to a point of ridiculousness...
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Hey Kelli… what do you use for the tattoo number? I always used their AKC number, including "AKC" but of course that makes for lots of letters and numbers in total
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My boyz have their akc # tattoed on them with "AKC" and a little heart - so they always have a heart on. :p
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I use "MGL" which is the tattoo series the CKC gave me. You get a 3 letter series assigned to you when you apply for it. Then I just do numbers afterwards in sequential order. Mojo is MGL1, Cleo is MGL2, etc. I didn't want to double chip them, so I use the tattoos for Canadian registration. CKC requires specific chips, and those are not usually readable in the US. Hopefully they will unify in the future. lol To register with CKC the dog has to be perm ID'd, with either CKC approved chip or tattoo using appropriate registered series. Canadian born dogs use an extra letter that denotes which year they're born, and they do 3 numbers, so it would look more like MGL 001B, with B meaning the birth year 2001. (I don't actually remember which letter was for that year. lol) This is all from memory, it's been a few years since I've looked at the paperwork. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
The AKC number makes a lot of sense. Sure is a lot of numbers though to get on little legs! lol And the folks I use aren't tattoo artists by any means, just occasionally do them for dog people. They couldn't do the nice neat tiny numbers like the Jones girls do.
I wonder if anyone has ever used a phone number to do tattoos? Sounds like probably the easiest thing for a lay person to realize and work with. And most people could use a cell number that's portable no matter where they move.
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Since someone is always home with the dogs a better choice may be the Playsafe collar, it is designed for daycare type settings. It won't open by itself but it has velcro tabs that can be pulled open easily even if the dogs are tangled up. The advantage would be that you could use it to hold them without worrying about it accidently opening. But it's not really designed to have a leash hooked to it so you would have to put a regular collar on them if you were going to take them out.
That looks like a great alternative and I do think I'll give them a try. Although the dogs wear regular collars in the house, we always use martingales or sporn harnesses when we walk them.
I found the website interesting and was fascinated by the dog cold weather gear. Don't need it here but it was still fascinating. Those of you who live where there is snow - Would your dogs really wear a long legged, full body snow suit? Check out the Arctic Fleeces.
http://www.faithfulpetproducts.com/CoatsFloatsBoots.html
Pat
