Young German Shepherd won't stop tugging on our other dog's collar.

[mommamiame]

Hello! My parents have semi-recently adopted a German Shepherd mix and Pit Bull mix. Both are now around the age of 8/9 months now.

I am aware having two puppies at once isn't ideal... but we're committed now. Recently, our German Shepherd has picked up a bad habit of tugging on our other dog's collar. She will usually do it during playtime, but it will almost always escalate. At this point her recall isn't nearly good enough and we typically separate them from each other.

Is there anything else we can do to stop her from doing this? I've recommended private training, but is a breakaway collar something to consider so neither of them get injured? Thanks for any help.

 

[mikecrb]

@mommamiame Having no collar on during play is the safest. Keep slip leads around for quick control. I don't want to scare you, but a friend of mine lost a foster to a broken neck when another of her dogs got caught in her collar. My friend was in the room and saw the situation and still couldn't stop it in time, and it was freaking awful. You can definitely institute a quick time out whenever the shep grabs at the collar or neck, then let them resume. If you're very consistent, your Shepherd will learn that collar grab= no play. But honestly, until you have this under control, I would really recommend no collar during play time.

 

[matyr4christ]

@mikecrb This is the way. No collars on in the house to prevent broken necks and jaws. This means being extra good about preventing front door escapes. And make sure pups are microchipped.

 

[mikecrb]

@matyr4christ Good point! I definitely think all pups should be microchipped.

 

[mommamiame]

@mikecrb Thank you, that's exactly something I was afraid of. I'll let my parents know and we'll do that.

 

[shell65]

@mommamiame Get on it quickly. Our dogs were rolling around playing once and the jaw of one got caught up in the other dogs caller. Neither could get away. They were freaking out and biting each other. Mom tried to interfere and was bitten pretty bad. My dad had to "spin" one to get him loose while I held the other dog still. They were totally fine with each other as soon as they were free,but it was scary and could have been worse.

 

[kittyc]

@mommamiame If you sew at all, you can write on a piece of waistband elastic your emergency details, sew it in a loop that won't just fall off, and because it's so stretchy it should slide off the head if it gets caught on anything. Quieter than a collar with tags too.

 

[oceanwaves]

@mommamiame My dogs don't wear collars in the house. Collars are only for outside.