Collars risk causing neck injuries in dogs, study shows

skinnydipper

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twiggy2 said:
Harnesses are not really a lot better especially as people seen to think they are fine regardless of fit.
The front pull harnesses create a constant twist in the dogs frame and effect the whole body constantly.
Like anything fitted to any animal incorrect fit or use does harm
Click to expand...

This study is about collars.

Could you share some studies which look at the risk of harm from wearing a harness, please.

? start a new thread re harnesses
 
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SAujla

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Which type of collar is best? I use a nylon padded collar because I can have her details engraved on it and don't then need a tag. Clover doesn't pull on lead though now (took some training mind), she does wear a harness in the car. I was advised on here a seat belt attached to just the collar is a very bad idea
 
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My childhood labrador’s harness caused friction and we ended up with fatty lumps under it. Parents thought a harness would be kinder… I sorted out her training one holiday for them and she was fine in a collar after that.

I mean…surely this is a training issue? I have rarely ever had to pull on a dog’s collar once beyond initial training. It’s there, on the end of the lead, but it’s not doing anything - like the pony the on the end of my lead rope. Following me because those are the rules, no pressure required.
 
skinnydipper

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maya2008 said:
My childhood labrador’s harness caused friction and we ended up with fatty lumps under it. Parents thought a harness would be kinder… I sorted out her training one holiday for them and she was fine in a collar after that.

I mean…surely this is a training issue? I have rarely ever had to pull on a dog’s collar once beyond initial training. It’s there, on the end of the lead, but it’s not doing anything - like the pony the on the end of my lead rope. Following me because those are the rules, no pressure required.
Click to expand...



That's one of the problems with collars/something round the neck, people pull and jerk them.
 
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Clodagh

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skinnydipper said:
This study is about collars.

Could you share some studies which look at the risk of harm from wearing a harness, please.

? start a new thread re harnesses
Click to expand...
I am not sure I’d be able to find them but there has been a load of studies on harnesses.
Imo it’s valid to mention them on a collar thread.
Collars being cruel is like muzzles being cruel, if the dog is trained to wear them it’s fine.
 
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Clodagh

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I have gone back and read the article and it does say it’s dogs that don’t know how to heel or not pull that suffer. I always think, when I see a pulling dog, that no one can be enjoying the walk, neither the dog nor its owner.
I also saw slip leads were included under collars.
 
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misst

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Druid it is purely my fault I have let her get away with this. She is extremely stubborn and excitable and terrier like and all my other dogs have always walked nicely from the go get when taught. She has the nicest nature in every way except the excitement at the start of a walk. It took me 9 months to house train her, she took ages to learn sit, stay, off, etc and she is pretty good now. It is the beginning of the walk only and TBH I will just use a little harness the first few minutes. She weighs 6K so not difficult to hold onto and she has a winter coat with an inbuilt harness that she walks on better than a collar in very wet weather so i will cop out and just put the harness on. After 5 minutes I can transfer to collar and she will be fine. She is lucky to have a lot of time off lead too. Oddly her recall is pretty reliable, it is just the pulling at the start. I accept I am a bad owner :cool:
 
druid

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misst said:
Druid it is purely my fault I have let her get away with this. She is extremely stubborn and excitable and terrier like and all my other dogs have always walked nicely from the go get when taught. She has the nicest nature in every way except the excitement at the start of a walk. It took me 9 months to house train her, she took ages to learn sit, stay, off, etc and she is pretty good now. It is the beginning of the walk only and TBH I will just use a little harness the first few minutes. She weighs 6K so not difficult to hold onto and she has a winter coat with an inbuilt harness that she walks on better than a collar in very wet weather so i will cop out and just put the harness on. After 5 minutes I can transfer to collar and she will be fine. She is lucky to have a lot of time off lead too. Oddly her recall is pretty reliable, it is just the pulling at the start. I accept I am a bad owner :cool:
Click to expand...

I was replying in general, not specifically to you. Sorry if it sounded that way!
 
CorvusCorax

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I'm trying to keep up with all the multiple posts on the subject, one thread or a merged thread might be less confusing.

My young dog is very well trained and scored 92/100 in obedience in a trial last year. However she is very strong and prey driven.

I have a broken bone in my foot and last week she pulled me over quite heavily after a cat jumped out of the hedge. I have two elderly parents and I am no use to them in traction, so I swapped her big wide padded collar for something thinner and more severe until I am more mobile, but like anything I put on her, it has been conditioned and she loves sticking her head through it. If she associated it with a bad experience rather than a fun walk and food, she'd let me know.

If she chooses to ignore a command she understands and gets a boink on the neck, to me that's better than her killing someone else's cat or badly injuring me.
 
FinnishLapphund

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I thought this was already well known. I've been using mainly harnesses on my dogs ever since I went to a lecture by the Swedish dog behaviourist/psychologist Anders Hallgren already back in 1994, and came home with among other things his then newly published small book (32 pages) Back problems in dogs (I think it's available in English with that exact title). It's based on a study he did in 1991 on 400 Swedish dogs, and 91% of the dogs that either had been pulled hard on while wearing leash + collar, or themselves had been pulling hard in their leash + collar, had some sort of damage in their necks.

But even though using a simple harness is my preferred first option, I still didn't only use harnesses on my dogs. In general I do think it matters more how you train a dog than what you put on the dog, but at the same time, I don't believe one option suits 100% of dogs, and owners, in every situation (CorvuxCorax gave a good example of a good reason to need to temporarily change what she uses in the reply above mine). So instead of saying don't use collars on your dogs, I would perhaps prefer to say that use what works for you, and your dog, but be aware about how using a collar can affect a dog physically.

My late Finnish Lapphunds had each a set of both harness + leash, and half chokes + leash, because sometimes it was nice to be able to just pull a half choke over each head and go, without having to fumble with harness buckles, and besides, once they've learnt to be reasonably well-behaved, and not to pull on their leashes, they spent the majority of each walk on slack leashes regardless whether they wore their harness or half choke collars anyway.
(Actually, if I am to be precise, they also had a third set each with car harness + leash.)
 
skinnydipper

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FinnishLapphund said:
I thought this was already well known. I've been using mainly harnesses on my dogs ever since I went to a lecture by the Swedish dog behaviourist/psychologist Anders Hallgren already back in 1994, and came home with among other things his then newly published small book (32 pages) Back problems in dogs (I think it's available in English with that exact title). It's based on a study he did in 1991 on 400 Swedish dogs, and 91% of the dogs that either had been pulled hard on while wearing leash + collar, or themselves had been pulling hard in their leash + collar, had some sort of damage in their necks.
Click to expand...

I came across Anders Hallgren's paper when I was reading yesterday.
 
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ycbm

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Why was a study needed to prove that putting anything around a dog's neck and then jerking it or allowing the dog to pull at it could cause neck injuries? Have academics been paid to do this stuff?
 
Tiddlypom

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Nothing wrong with a collar as long as the dog is correctly trained to walk in it.

If the dog isn’t trained I’d still much rather that any fluffykins we encounter was on a collar and lead rather than running amok without one because owner had heard somewhere that collars are cruel.

Harnesses may not pull on the neck but they can and do affect the gait, so should be used judiciously, if at all.
 
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skinnydipper

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ycbm said:
Why was a study needed to prove that putting anything around a dog's neck and then jerking it or allowing the dog to pull at it could cause neck injuries? Have academics been paid to do this stuff?
Click to expand...

I agree, a study shouldn't be necessary. Have you heard of 'leash corrections'?
 
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Clodagh

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The trouble with advocating never having to inflict inconvenience on an animal is it can be dangerous to others. Bits in horses mouths can cause pain and injury, but most people still use them as bitless does not generally give the same control.
If by yanking a collar your dog doesn’t run across the road after a cat then personally I’m all for the yank.
There’s idealism and there’s the real world.
 
Cortez

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Some of my dogs are very well behaved and don't pull, some of them are young, enthusiastic and not so well behaved (yet) and are learning not to pull. Some of them wear collars, some of them wear harnesses, one of them wears both.

Of COURSE constant pulling and/or yanking on a collar is bad, which is why training your dog not to do that/not yanking it is the goal.
 
CorvusCorax

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If big dogs tow people around in collars/slip leads then they can't be that painful. The word is 'risk'.

I see loads of people being towed around in harnesses too. I have use harnesses for (sports) protection training because it gives much more freedom of the head and neck and allows the dog to be 'strong'.

I will use whatever I feel is appropriate for the individual dog in the individual circumstances, using equipment I have been trained to use and have conditioned the dog to, and I wonder about the variables in some of these studies or if those who have written them have experience with a wide variety of breeds or types of dogs.
 
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