Product Review: TazLabs safety collar
We have neighbor dogs. There are three, actually- I guess the other Golden wasn’t out on this particular afternoon. They sure do like to bark.
These are the same dogs that Skippy liked to think he could vanquish- I think some of the chicken wire fencing is still off to the right, where it was 100% ineffective in keeping him on the right side of the fence. Those were fun times.
Like Skippy, and Mulan and Emmett before him, Brody thinks barking right back at these guys is hysterical.
First he runs up to them.
After working them into a froth, he tears away.
Then he gloats.
He can do this happily for hours.
Fortunately for us, these dogs are all bark and no bite- no through-the-fence shenanigans, just posturing.
People don’t spend a lot of time thinking about collar-related injuries in dogs, but they do happen (gore alert!). Check out the canine mandibular avulsion fracture, if you’re not averse to some blood. Or just take my word for it- ouch. The other concern is strangulation, also terrible.
Breakaway collars for cats are very common these days, but similar safety offerings for dogs are harder to find.
The folks over at Tazlab sent us a safe-t-stretch collar to try out on Brody. There is no buckle, and the collar doesn’t actually break apart- between the two grey clips is a very stretchy piece of elastic that allows you to slide the collar on, and should the need occur, back off. (When you’re walking the dog, the leash clips together on either side of the elastic so it’s held shut.)
The collar certainly appeared sturdy and well-made, but I’m a skeptic, so I sat there and pulled over and over as hard as I could. I got a good 6 inches of stretch, which snapped right back to shut when I let go.
I’ve seen dogs get temporarily entangled once or twice at the dog park, and it’s very scary. Fortunately, none of those instances resulted in injury, but it’s very easy to see how it could happen. This is a great idea.
Brody surveys the land- a vast sea of entangling shrubbery and errant neighbor dog-jaws to stick his nose in. He can’t wait. And I can breathe a little more easily knowing I’ve reduced one more risk for him.
As an aside, my 3-year old inadvertently tested this for me this morning. He came up to me as I was getting out of the shower, holding up Brody’s collar. “How’d you get that?” I asked. “I tried to get him to come see my truck,” my son replied sadly. Like a gecko shedding its tail in the jaws of a predator, Brody easily eluded the unwanted attentions of his human kin. Ha!
