Very Scarey Incident

[Beaglemom]

Yesterday we had quite a scare with Princess (4.5 mth old bichon/pomeranian). She was playing with my cousin's young pomeranian, Cookie, who is approx 9 months old. Cookie is staying with my parents. Princess and Cookie love to play with eachother. They rough house a lot. We have to separate them throughout the day so that they don't get exhausted from all the play and are able to take their naps throughout the day. Yesterday, during one of their play sessions, my mom heard Cookie freaking out, screaming, etc. She ran to them and noticed that somehow, Cookie had gotten her jaw tangled in Princess' collar and Princess was being choked! My mom grabbed them both and ran into the kitchen. She couldn't get Cookie free so she placed them on the table and grabbed a knife that was nearby and sliced Princess' collar off. Princess took a deep breath. They were all okay, but traumatized. Both Princess and Cookie were scared but otherwise uninjured. I can't help but think of how worse it could've been. My mom called me at work shaking and crying.

Please, if anyone else allows their dog/puppy to play with others, remove their collars or get the breakaway type.

[Lissa]

That is scary. I am glad that everyone was okay.

I usually remove Dodger's collar when we are hiking and/or he's playing or swimming (even though his is one that is suppose to turn itself inside out if he gets snagged). I get a lot of disapproving comments since that means he is out and about without ID. I take his collar off in places we are both familiar with so there is no way he would accidently take off and get lost.

I have never left him alone when he's playing with other dogs because he is a scrapper and needs a referee!

[erykah1310]

That is scary!! Thank goodness some one was supervising!!
I have never heard of that happening!
Forsure now i will be removing the dogs collars when its play time, THANK YOU

[Prin]

That happened at our park once too. It's scary, for sure. I'm glad everybody is ok.

[rainbow]

I had that happen with my last two huskies when one was about 5 months and the other almost 14 months. It was a horrible thing for all of us to go through. That is why the two dogs I have now do not wear their collars when they are playing outside.

[Bushfire2000]

I'm glad it all worked out so well. Your Mom is one smart cookie to save Princess that way.

[LM1313]

Oh my gosh, I would be terrified! Thank God for your mom's quick thinking!

The only thing about taking the collar off at a dog park is what if the dog escapes? (Everyone's worst nightmare, I know!) But I guess you could have a breakaway collar just for the dog park with its own set of ID tags.

[Beaglemom]

I'm so glad that my mom was able to think quickly under those circumstances. I know that I probably would have panicked. I've been looking into the breakaway collars but have only found them in the US. I will be ordering them from there as I don't want to wait. In the meantime, Princess just got a new collar and will only be wearing it for her walks. The collar will be coming off while she is in the house or in the backyard. She loves to play with Cookie and Misty and we don't want to take any chances.

I'm also spreading the word about our experience. We don't want this happening again, to anyone. I've spoken with a couple of pet supply places and have recommended that they carry the breakaway collars for dogs. I"ve even mentioned them to my vet clinic. I will probably be printing up some information and giving it to them as well.

[doggy lover]

the scariest thing that happened to me with my last dog Travis was he loved popicles and one day I was feeding him one off the stick and he pulled it out of my hand. Before I could relize it was down his throat, I just opened his mouth real quick and there was the end of the stick. I grabbed it and pulled it out, a woman standing near by said that was quick thinking but I wouldn't have put my hand down there. Yeah he had a big mouth for a big dog, but I never bought popicles again he would get freezies. Glad that you dog is ok.

[dlp8945]

The same thing happened to me last summer with my two labs. One lab was 4 months and the other a year and my oldest got his jaw entangled in the youngest's collar and he nearly choked to death. My husband and I were on the situation immediately but the collar was so tight that we couldn't cut it off and it took us forever to find the breakaway button since the collar was imbeddind into the skin so tightly. Luckily, we were able to get the collar off just in time. It was the most scary incident I've ever been involved with concerning an animal.
We have Invisible Fence and the collars have to stay on but I check them regularly to make sure they are very snug (two fingers under). That incident scared me to death afterwards but both of us reacted quickly and actually were able to save his life. Needless to say we are very careful about collars.
Labmomma