One ordinary day, your Boxer's collar may kill him. Please be alert when he's wearing it. I've heard enough sad stories to warrant writing about collars in this column.
Friends of ours, responsible breeders, were watching television one evening in the family room next door to the garage they had converted into a small kennel. There, in an exercise pen, their seven month old Boxer puppy strangled, without a sound, when his collar caught on the top of the pen; he had been jumping up and down in play; he did it all the time. A freak accident? Maybe, but the puppy died nonetheless.
In another incident, owners returned home from shopping to a happier ending, but one with the same potential for tragedy. Their bitch had snagged her collar (not a choke, by the way) on her crate door. She pulled and twisted in vain, and, in her panic, she almost suffocated. Her owners barely made it home in time to release her from what had obviously been a very slow torture.
Some years ago, I myself sold a bouncy male pup to a loving family. Since the family members were conscientiously afraid of cars and other dangers, they did not allow him to run loose. Instead, they tethered him on one of those "trolley-pulley" lines when they were home to watch him. The trouble was the pup took exception to the restraint and continually leapt in the air in protest. One afternoon, he jumped sufficiently hard against the line to throw himself over backwards. He broke his neck.
The point here is simple: Boxers are powerful, active, exuberant dogs. They do not like to be confined and are clever at finding ways out of the places you want them to be. Unfortunately, their antics may lead them to snag their collars on any number of unlikely things, and their panicked struggles to free themselves may lead to their deaths. If you allow two or more Boxers wearing collars to play together, sooner or later one will put a foot or a tooth through the collar of the other. The results can be devastating. You must also be careful when raising baby puppies. Those little heads can fit through the bars on many ex-pens and crates. The trouble is, they just fit through, and when they try to withdraw, they cannot. You can imagine the sad consequences.
Basically, your Boxer should not be wearing a collar unless you are in sight, either walking him or showing him, training him, or, above all, watching him. To those of you whose dogs wore collars twenty-four hours a day during their long and happy lives, lucky you. A lot of dogs weren't so fortunate. A tagged I.D. collar might be useful if your dog strayed, but what was he doing running loose in the first place?
Too many well meaning and otherwise responsible families have learned collar lessons the hard way. Too many sweet puppies as well as older dogs have died teaching those lessons. It is up to us to heed the warning.
Stephanie Abraham
P.0. Box 346
Scotland, CT 06264
