Chain Collar Safety Do you use a chain collar for your dog? It can be dangerous because the collar could catch on rugs or other protrusions in your home and cause your dog injury or death. Put this kind of collar on only when you are training the dog or taking it for a walk.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Answers

A friend of mine's father was a dog catcher here in Miami a few years ago.

One call he was given was to pick up a vicious doberman that was terrorizing a neighborhood. when he arrived, the neighbors all pointed to one house saying the dog owners lived there and the dog was not fenced in. It would come running out whenever it heard someone outside nearby. sure enough, the dog came running out when he walked over there. He slipped the restraining collar on a pole over the dogs head and led him quite easily to the back of the truck. The owners came out yelling that it was their dog and that he had tags, etc etc.

After he got the dog into a cage on the truck, he realized that the dog was whimpering something awful. Against all concerns for his own safety, he opened the cage and examined the dog, finding a small choke chain on its neck, smaller than the dogs neck and so hidden by its fur.

he cut the chain off, and the dog just smiled and licked him up and down, wagging the stump of a tail in pleasure at having the pain go away.

The owners were adamant that they should have the dog returned to them, saying they would keep him tied up from now on.

He refused, called the police, and had the owners ticketed for animal cruelty. they were furious, of course. He took the dog away to the pound, and called another fellow who owned two dobermans and treated them as family. This guy rushed down to the pound, paid for the shots and took the dog home with him. That dog immediately took to the family, was very obedient to all family members, never fought with the other two, and kept all strangers away from the two babies in the house.

Needless to say, the original owners were furious that they could not get their dog back. Guess they just didn't get to the pound in time, huh?

The two dobies that our friend had were called Zues and Apollo. this new one was named Athena. We called her Choker. the most loveable doberman I ever knew. But, only to friends of course!

She had a permanent indentation around her neck from that collar, and would only allow one person, our friend, to put anything around her neck. It was rare that she had to wear a collar of any kind. She would walk right beside the strollers when the kids went out, and no one was allowed near those kids if she didn't know them. Not that she barked or bared her teeth, she just 'got between the kids and anyone else,' her looks being enough to discourage anyone from coming closer.

Pity she had to be 'fixed' but that's the rule for pound dogs.

She's probably long gone by now, that was back in the early eighties. She and the other two were the only dobies that I ever liked. All of them were the red kind, not the usual black that you see most often.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001