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Still buy collar if using harness?

3K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  houndmomma 
#1 ·
If I'm using a harness to walk my eventual basset, (or buddy belt - looking into those), do I still need to get it a collar to have on 24/7 with its tags?

Thanks for any collar/harness/lead advice. :)
 
#2 ·
Maddie wears a collar all the time with her tags, and only wears her harness when she's taken on a walk, or if we go somewhere where she needs to be prevented from pulling on the leash. She doesn't wear the harness all the time, only when needed.

So yes, I think your Basset needs a collar, even if you use a harness.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Hmmm.... good ??. i think there are lots of variations.

Worm is kept under lock/key lol, and he doesn't have tendencies to run out of the house. more like he's scared of the screen door falling back on him so won't go near it. so he runs nekkid when he is home. yeah, that means no tags on him. although he does have a microchip that could identify him if he were to somehow run away and get lost.

oh also i should mention he's in his crate when we're not home, so little chance of him escaping ie. via backyard, etc.

he only uses harnesses when we're out. so for us, no collar for our use.

he goes to 2 daycares, both require quick release collars, so he does have a couple for that purpose. and for agility class, teacher wants a flat buckled collar. but if we didn't do these, we prob wouldn't have any collars.

oh we take it back. unless they are interesting. lol. he has a monkey paul frank one that he wears to daycare. and he has a superman seatbelt collar lol that he hasn't worn yet. that one probably needs a picture.

we probably confused you more than anything!

ps. our personal preference and cuz we're a bit paranoid-- but I wouldn't leave Worm in a collar if I wasn't around. too easy to choke/get hung up on something if unattended. even when driving him home from daycare, if i stop into a store, i take the collar off him while he waits in the car. i will leave him with a harness in the car alone. but in the same vein i also remove any attached leashes. i think i was reading stories of how dogs hung themselves in cars and that freaked me out. harnesses are less likely to choke a dog if he were to get it caught in something, than a collar, tho prob it could still happen. so no, i guess i would not put Worm in a collar 24/7.
 
#4 ·
When we first started using a harness with Molly, we kept the collar on for the same reasons that -SAN mentioned.

But the reason we had switched to the harness was to avoid any pulling on her neck after her injury this summer. I didn't want any of us grabbing her collar and possibly hurting her neck, so I eventually took it off for good. Her tags are on her harness, and she is also micro-chipped.
 
#5 ·
No collars here...have two dogs that play constantly and I've heard horror stories of one of them getting their jaw caught in the other's and either breaking his jaw or the neck of the other....plus I have a fenced in back yard which they can get caught up in....Yes, I worry about them escaping without any info on them, but worry more about the above.....plus, Barney's neck area seems very sensitive....don't think it would take much to do some damage to it.
 
#6 ·
I keep collars on both Jake & Abby that have ID tags with my cell phone number and the county registration. Jake's collar is also engraved with his name and my cell number. Ellie will get an engraved collar when she is done growing and going thru multiple sizes. there are several companies that sell these engraved collars for about $20. I like them since they seem to lose the tags easily.

As for other harnesses, etc... once in awhile I use a "Gentle Lead" on Jake to remind him not to pull when walking (otherwise he will take my arm out of is socket) Ellie, so far (fingers crossed) has been very good on a leash. However, I do have a harness on standby if needed.
 
#8 ·
Thank you all. I think we'll be doing collarless in the house after reading all this. I know she'll come to me with a collar, but then I think I'll want to do a harness with a place for her tags that she wears when she goes out. She'll need microchipping, of course.
A friend of mine just told me a story of finding a basset wandering along the road in a Halloween costume - so she knew it wasn't a stray. She pulled over and saw tags and called the owner - he said she just meandered out of the house and he hadn't been able to find her. ;)
 
#9 ·
Thank goodness she was found. It must have been quite a sighting.

Personally I hate collars and tags. Mine are naked in the house and when we're walking in the woods and in the car. Izzy rarely wears a collar, she regularly gets her dewclaw stuck in the rings of her tags or the round bit where the lead attaches. One time when Lula was a youngster she went off hounding in the forest and came back without her collar. Thank goodness it was loose enough to slip off. That was warning enough for me. (They're chipped and decent recall and emergency stops need be)
 
#10 ·
Cooper and Lyla are usually naked in the house. It is safer and quieter! If we have people coming over, I put the collars on in case someone accidently lets them slip out the door. They are both chipped, but I think they'd be more likely returned quickly with the tags. They are more beautiful and fun to snuggle with without the collars (though I think Cooper would be stoked to have a Superman collar!)
 
#11 ·
Harvey came to us to with a collar that we changed to a bigger one as he grew out of it quite quickly. But then he started to develop a rash under the collar (especially under the neck where there is lots of skin) and the vet told us to not have him wear one in the house. At the end we just switched to a harness cause we were told it's easier on the neck as well. He does pull a little more when on the harness than with the collar but it's better than the rash he gets if we use the collar too often!
 
#12 ·
We decided to go naked in the house. I got her a travel harness for the car and I do find I prefer her on the harness to collar, because I don't worry about pulling on her neck. She does need a little gentle encouragement from time to time to keep walking. ;) She came with a collar, but I think we'll just use the harness, most likely.
 
#13 ·
I use to always keep collars on all mine - until this batch I have - I've found both Rickie & Page get theirs stuck in their mouth when I wasn't looking so I removed them. We're like Worm - they are kept under lock and key - I also have a chip in Page & Mabel - Lucy and Rickie are old enough they'll not run away - but the other two being puppies - I don't trust them in the time it takes me to blink.

Jen~
 
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