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Think of this as a public service announcement. Because, as anyone who knows me knows, I love dogs. All dogs. Big dogs. Little dogs. Purebreds. Mutts. It doesn’t matter. If it’s got four legs and barks, I love it. But, of all the dogs in the world, I love mine the most.

If you have a furry companion (or two) who wears a collar on a daily basis, be warned! Ditch the collars altogether, if possible. Or, if a collar is needed (like here where the risk of your dog escaping the garden is high, so ID is very helpful), immediately invest in a breakaway collar. Like this one. Or any brand you like, actually, I’m not a shill for PetSafe or anything.

Why? Because your precious pup could get entangled in something…a branch, a fence, your other dog’s jaw…and be strangling before you know what’s happening. Which is exactly what happened this morning as I prepared breakfast for my rambunctious puppies.

One likes to grab the other’s neck. A very intense version of playing that we are working on curbing. (We’re going to have to work faster…)

This morning the boy dog got his lower jaw irremovably tangled in his sister’s nylon collar. So one dog was suffocating with a collar that was now a garotte, while the other yelped in pain because he couldn’t get free and was risking a broken lower jaw. Picture 50 pounds of combined dog weight flailing together in a heap on your kitchen floor. More than mildly terrifying.

img_5649Thankfully Island Boy hadn’t left for work yet, so we could both jump to the rescue. But even with both of us trying to free the dogs from each other, it still required the collar in question to be sawed off with a knife. (It was so tight that we couldn’t even get a scissors around it or snap open the plastic clip.) It was a horrible experience, and one that could have been more easily avoided with a breakaway collar.

The dogs both seem to be ok now, all things considered.

And I’ve spent the morning educating myself about safer alternatives. (Apparently 91% of vets report seeing multiple strangulation deaths each year due to collars.) And being grateful that Amazon delivers here. Until the new breakaway collars arrive, though, I have two puppies that will remain naked.

Do right by your fur babies, people. This is an easy fix to a potentially lethal problem.

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