To moist dog owners a collar is merely a means of putting identification on a dog, a training device, a safety measure, or simply a decorative item like jewelry. A collar can be any or all of these things, but it can also be a lethal device. The wrong one may kill your dog.

We'll cover the pros and cons and the specialized features of many dog collars, but first on the list is the choke chain training collar. This collar is a perfectly safe, highly useful training device. But it becomes a threat to the dog's life when the chain is used as a regular collar, as it often is today.

Its most lethal characteristic may be a name that's too long—choke chain training collar. Most people abbreviate the name to a shorter more familiar "choke collar." That phraseology gets people thinking of it as a collar and leave it on the dog all the time. But it's not a collar. It's a punitive instrument that would better be called "choke chain." Choke is what it does, even to death if the choke chain gets snagged on something and nobody is around to help the dog.

Maybe people would use choke chains as collars regardless of what they're called. They're neat, clean, odorless, attractive and they stay that way indefinitely. For that reason, I searched for a safe way to use them as collars rather than just harangue about their misuse.

I can't say I've seen choke chains on running hounds. Houndsmen are acutely aware of fencing hazards. But the breeds that hunt near their masters frequently wear choke chains.

The danger of this practice first occurred to me during a duck hunt on the Mississippi River. The Lab was far out in the swift current when I remembered the dog was wearing a choke chain. Debris had been floating by with regularity. Finger-like limbs on floating logs sometimes grabbed strings of decoys and yanked them out of the spread. It wouldn't take too much of a freak for a snag to hook the loose ring of a choke chain. The dog could be pulled under and strangled or drowned before the hunter realized what was happening.

Yet it is practical to use chain collars of some sort on waterfowl retrievers. Leather collars soak up water and dry slowly, keeping the cold dog wet around the neck. Frequent soakings will stretch leather" out of shape. Rot begins, and even the best leather collar is soon ruined. So it seems wise to find a safe way to use choke chains as collars.

Pointing and flushing breeds aren't exempt from being hung, either. Most owners of wide ranging pointers don't use a choke chain because they realize the fencing hazards, but that danger doesn't seem as great when the dog is seldom out of sight. The fact is, however, no hunting dog is always in sight. Nor is the hunter always paying attention to his dog. In a few moments when the dog's out of sight it could get caught on a limb or a wire fence, and hang itself.

I remember one Irish Setter I found hung by her collar on a picket fence. Her feet weren't touching ground, and all her weight was on her neck. She may not have lived very long if I hadn't found her. But had she been wearing a choke chain, and had the loose ring caught between the pickets, she'd have been dead long before I arrived.

Obedience classes for dogs are quite popular around the country, and the two most important training tools used in these classes are a leash and choke chain. I visited a class and watched the chokes being issued to dog owners. When I returned a few weeks later, I noticed most of the dogs coming to school wearing their choke chains. Most of these dogs are house pets, but even so, their owners can't watch them every minute, and many may not even realize the danger.

One young lady had two West Highland White Terriers tied near each other with leashes snapped to their choke chains. The two leashes became so tightly entangled that one dog strangled to death before the young lady could loosen the bonds and relieve pressure on its choke chain.

Once, when coming out of the water, a pup's choke chain caught on a snag. Before long, the other one had a leg caught under its choke chain which was necessarily loose when not being used for restraint. The pups weren't without close supervision, of course, but it illustrates the problems inherent with choke chains.

A friend also told of tying a poodle by leash and choke chain. His daughter left the dog unattended for only two or three minutes. During that time, the poodle became excited and wrapped its leash around an evergreen shrub, then panicked and tried to jump the bush. The leash was too short, and the dog strangled to death hanging over the evergreen.

Since regular chain collars are safe and clean, the answer might seem to be to urge owners to use regular chain collars. Many good ones are available.

All hunting dogs run the risk of being caught in fences. They try to push through an opening that's not wide enough, can't make it, and are hooked by the collar when they pull back. Sometimes a barb will hook a collar as the dog climbs between two strands of wire. In fact, dogs seem to invent freak ways of getting into trouble with fences. I've found most fencing troubles result in the dog's legs getting caught between twisted strands of wire, and their hides torn on barbs, but we can't do much to prevent that. We can try to avoid collar hang-ups, however.

Brass nameplates are available for almost all collars, and they should be used. Lost hunting dogs often end up at a farmer's house. Since free-running dogs may be a threat to livestock, the farmer views a lost hunting dog with suspicion. But if the dog is wearing a collar with a nameplate, the farmer will usually be glad to phone the hunter. Choose the four-line name-plate with room for name, address and phone number, if possible.

Blaze orange has conclusively proven itself to be the most visible color in the woods, therefore the safest color for hunters to wear. Dogs are in even greater danger from trigger happy hunters than are humans. Canines are down on four feet, like game animals. Blaze orange collars up to an inch wide are available and should be used when hunting any valuable gun dog.

Fox and coon hunters have an additional problem. They hunt with their canines in darkness. A hound on trail pays little attention to anything else, and if the track crosses a road, the hound will follow it—sometimes right in front of a speeding automobile. It's dangerous to driver as well as hound. Collars with reflective tape sewn onto them shine in the headlights and give the driver a chance to slow down or swerve away from the hound. Another collar that permits you and others to see your dog at night is a leather one that has tiny neon lights built into it. It operates off a 9-volt battery, and when you turn it on it blinks intermittently.

And finally, a discourse on collars wouldn't be complete without mentioning one that really isn't a collar at all. The flea and tick collar won't hold the dog, shine in the dark, or carry a nameplate. It won't help train the dog, either, but it will make the dog feel better and a comfortable dog is easier to train.

Remove the flea collar when running the dog in wet grass or weeds or when he might take a swim. Return the collar to the dog when he's dry. Moisture hastens the release of insecticide from the collar and has caused rash on wet dogs. If this happens, remove the flea collar until the dog's skin heals.

While eliminating the annoying battle against fleas by both dog and master, the flea collar might also help prevent mange. Dr. Leon F. Whitney successfully treated a case of sarcoptic mange by nothing more than tacking a Vaporona pest strip in the infected dog's house.
Every dog deserves the right collar—and a safe collar—for his particular needs and a master who's knowledgeable enough to make the correct choice.
Larry Mueller
Reprinted from Field & Stream
Copyright ©1971