While out on paper rounds i pass through a small rural villiage, i saw a collie cross by the road, (quite busy, fast road) I stopped and coaxed the dog towards me and put a lead on it (always have spares in the car) i looked around but couldnt see anyone round, no houses nearby. the dog had no collar on, but was quite friendly and looked in fab condition, i had to get the deliveries done so put the dog in the car and finished them. I then drove around and asked whoever i saw if they recognised the dog, one lady did and directed me to a small farm, when i got there they came out and asked where i found him, i told them and they thanked me, apparently they just let him out for a wee, but he must have run off. Luckily he is now safe back with his owners, still amazes me why people cant put a collar on the dog!! is it really so hard! it was lucky i found the owners, otherwise he would of ended up at the police station, i doubt he was micro - chipped!

Personal bug bear of mine.  I take it you mean wearing tags, as I often have picked up a stray dog with just a collar :D

My lot are collared and tagged, tattooed and Microchipped!!!

No the dog didnt have a collar or anything, i would of thought it was a stray if it hadnt of been in such great condition.
I agree there are downfalls to collars getting caught, but letting your dog out by itself is asking for trouble!

Having seen a working dog nearly hang its self on its collar, mine never wear a collar round the house or if they are working. However they are microchipped and are never left on their own to be able to 'escape'.

We had one incident where two pups where playing and one got the others collar  wraped round its jaw, younger one was being strangled, both dogs and us paniking, luckily we only use cloth half checks, and being a young puppy had a small one of which the scissors easily went though.  Now they never where collars in the house, or the car.  It's one of those things that only has to happen once and you won't let it happen again.  Likewise a breeders dog hung himself when he jumped out a window and got himself caught, they found him dead unfortantly :( Will not risk that.

I stopped putting collars on mine after my first Munster was picked up by the dog warden.  He was out on a walk with me trotting ahead as he usually did, a member of the public thought he was out on his own, took him to their house phoned the dog warden & he was picked up in the van.

Naturally not being able to find Addison made me panic, I ran around trying to find him and then eventually walked back home.    Phoned the council kennels who proceeded to argue with me that "Yes they had a Munsterlander bought in but he had only 1 telephone number on his tag" (I always put 2 numbers on the tag incase I was unobtainable on one number, there was always another contact number!)....to which my reply was "How many Munsterlanders do you get into the kennels"?   

If the dog warden & pound cannot be bothered to thoroughly check the dogs ID, why bother having it????    Now I don't collar them as it wears the hair away around the back of the neck, I use slip leads and microchips!

I don't agree with collars on dogs or cats, too dangerous.  Microchips and slip leads for us (dogs that is not cats !!!)

It is the law that a visible means of identification is on the dog when out and about so microchipping is no good. If the collar is fitted correctly and out with an owner then not many get hooked up on anything. Indoors most dogs should have their collars taken off just to let the hair breathe for awhile. Bit like taking your corsets off. :-)

I have to agree with the poster, a few weeks ago we found a lab who had no tag on her collar, luckily we caught the vet popping back into work after hours and the dog was scanned otherwise we would have had to call dog wardens.

By law your dog must wear a collar and identitication tag with the owners name and address on it. The only dogs exempt are dogs at work. Be aware there is up to a £5000 fine if you dog is caught without correct identification on.

My dogs do walk and run loose with collars on, but if they got out the house  by escaping they wouldn't have a collar, I'm afraid that a dogs life is more important then £5000.

I agree my dogs life are worth more than £5000, it is a word of warning for the people who walk with no identification!

We use slip leads too :)

I have had one dog catch a well fitting collar on the tiny valve on top of a radiator luckily only a few feet away from me - so that put paid to house collars (although didn't use them regularly anyway).  Another time when playing rough (as BSDs do ;) ) one caught his upper canine in the collar ring of the other       result, tooth ripped out of his head - according to the vet he was extremely lucky that the huge root didn't go through to his nasal cavity or even damage his eye  :(

So they are microchipped as their form of ID and thankfully being the breed they are they don't go far off on walks as they like to keep the "herd" together - which means I can always see where they are and have a regularly nipped bum :P

Regards, Teri ;)  

i dont let my dog wear a collar indoors after she got it caught and nearly strangelled herself, but i never let her out for a pee or walk without her collar as i would want a quick return by someone havin a number to phone, than for them to either not bother pickin her up cos she;d look like a stray or takin ages to get her scanned.

Also we nearly ran over a dog last yr who was sitting in the middle of a windy road in the middle of the night. He had no collar on and we unneseccarily spent an hr trying to find out where he belonged. Otherwise we would have had to take him home an hr away and take him to vets in morning. 

Having had a dog hooked up on a door-handle indoors while wearing a correctly fitted collar, our dogs never wear collars around the house, but never leave our premises without a collar on. We use fences and gates to keep our dogs in, these seem to work quite well!

Snomaes

I quite agree, fences and gates, also teaching dogs to stay back and letting the owner go first out the door. It's all down to training.:-)

i think it comes down to the individual owners i never coller my dogs indoors as we had a incident with my jr who was nearly strangled by his collar but with 3 dogs my garden is pretty secure so they cant stray out of it but when there on walks they have there collars on and are microchipped

No collars for mine - it's far too dangerous.  I took our pups collar off after I had to get help to rescue him from deep inside a hedge where he had got 'hung up' on sheep fencing.  As working dogs they won't wear collars and I use slip leads.

I go to every effort to make sure that mine are secure and cannot escape including a double gate system.  We can't account for the unpredictable but they are microchipped.

It's a question I have asked before but I would be interested to know when the last person was fined for not having a collar on their dog.

My dog has never worn a collar indoors, but she always has one on for her walks (and is microchipped too).  If she was the type of breed to escape from the house and run off (which she isn't really) maybe I might put a collar on her, but safety should always come first.  I don't really think you would be fined if your dog had escaped the house without a collar - a one off (as long as it did no damage to anyone/thing while out).

Fiona

Mine dont wear collars indoors as they play alot and have got caught tangled up when they did wear them.  I dont use tags either as they seem to come off fairly easily when my dogs are investigating the bushes so we have just bought new collars that has our surname and my mobile number embroidered on them in nice bright yellow lettering. 

My dogs never wear collars in the house but I always put one on the when we leave for walks, it comes straight off as soon as we get back though.

I quite agree with not having collars on in the house - but as I posted in " Panic in the park" I still find it difficult to believe that the bloke+ dog I encountered just before I realised I'd lost my keys had brought his dog to a main dog walking park, which is surrounded by busy roads, without either a collar or a lead or even a piece of rope- and then complained the dog was disobedient! To me this is downright irresponsible and negligent, apart from being illegal.

personally what I find annoying is those people who use flexi leads to walk to the park, field etc and let the dog on a long leash until they get to said destination so they can wander across the road at will or chase a cat etc.  I have come close to knocking over two dogs from them rushing into the road.  They should be banned!

flexi leads shouldnt be used on footpaths next to roads!  u may as well not have a lead on ur dog in that case cos ur not stopping ur dog running into the road either way! 

Flexi leads are a huge bug bear of mine, it is usually extended to 15m with a very small yappy dog on the other end, who may as well be off lead, and the owner usually has no control over it. We have a flexi lead that we use for training - quite handy for recall or stopping some bad habits - but I hate them. I once thought about bringing a scissors with me and cutting them!!!!

When my dogs are out road walking they wear canvass half check collars - we have a licence system here in the Isle of Man, so the dog can always be traced by the licence tag. When we walk in the forest areas they never wear collars as they go into all sorts of undergrowths etc.  and they don't wear them in the house ever.

My point exactly everyone but down in Devon there seems to be an epidemic of flexi leads.  We only use them when we are up on the moors and the sheep are about just to be on the safe side but never near a road!

Hi ManxPat,
I see that you have a licence system on the Isle of Man. Do you have to pay for this? What a good idea.:-)

Oh this has just reminded me that Raffie needs a new tag. His has completely disappeared to goodness knows where.
I have only ever had my phone number on though and not my address...is this illegal?

Mine all have collars that i use for walking them with or training or if they are going for a ride in the car all of them have a tag with their name on one side and our address and phone number on the other, and they are also microchipped and Moss has one of the petback tags aswel where are details are stored on a database. I always take their collars off in the house, i just feel far safer with them having tags on so i know if they are lost then found at least i have some chance of them being returned.