Breakaway Dog Collar for Around the House (not for Lead Walking)

I recently was told about some horrid accidents where dogs had died by getting tangled in each others collars while playing.

Have a look around the internet and you will find numerous reports. It obviously does not happen a lot but why take the risk?

I was advised not to let my pair wear collars around the house BUT we have had incidents in the past where they have been accidentally let out by delivery drivers and in the UK it is a requirement most dogs should have ID in public.

You can get breakaway collars for cats and smaller dogs and also safety breakaway clips for lanyards. Any of these may be suitable for something for your dog. Our dogs are too big for any collar I have found so here is my current solution using hook and loop which was very easy to make.

WARNING: It is up to you to decide if the break force required to separate this collar is suitable for your dog and the dogs they may play with.

The collar is created from some 10mm wide "hook and loop cable tie" which can be found in the usual places (Craft shops, Amazon, Aliepress etc) and is available in long 5m or 10m reels for very little. This has hooks on one side and loops on the other.

UPDATE: I used the blue because it was what I had. I would now use something brighter as these do work and so come off quite regularly when the dogs are clowning around together in the garden.

You can get wider BUT I picked the 10mm because you want this to come apart at the join and the wider you use the easier it is to overlap too much and make it too hard to break.

It is not meant to be used to restrain the dog, so the width should not cause a concern, as it does not need any more strength than enough to hold the ID tag.

As with any collar, it should be loose enough that you can get around 2 or 3 fingers comfortably alongside, between it and your dogs neck.

As it is not being used to restrain your dog, you do not have to worry about your dog pulling it over their head so you can probably get away with it being looser than normal (depending on breed).

I am finding a "hooking" overlap, between the two ends, of 15-20 mm is enough for our huge hounds but you might want to experiment for your dog.

Do not make it too much and it wont "break" which is the whole point.

Could not be simpler

Cut the length based on the above, The hook and loop cuts easily with a reasonable set of scissors.

I found cutting an extra peice of hook and loop about 80mm long was useful to lock the tag into a particular position on the collar as shown. (UPDATE: this was 30mm but it does not have enough grip for our dogs)

If you do not do this the tag gets separated every time you are take the collar off, which is just annoying.

Make sure the extra peice of hook and loop is on the inside when the collar is in place. i.e. the tag ring is threaded through the main collar loop. This way the ID tag will only come off if the whole collar comes off. While it has not happened to me I would guess that it will be easier to find an ID tag if still attached to the collar and there is little value in the collar being on the dog without the ID tag.

Update: sigh... this was a good idea but expect to have to reposition the tags into the extra piece section if your dogs have been playing. The extra piece seems to stay on OK but the tag ring can get dragged through the hook and loop join until it comes free.

Update 2: I posted this in the "No Sew" (and they do work) but I'd now recommend adding a stitch or 2 to hold this extra hook and loop piece in place. I suppose if you want to try and stay with the "no sew" goal you could try a strong glue or even slide some suitable heat shrink over the ends of the attachment peice. I have not tried any of these options yet.

I am leaving mine on our dogs all of the time.

We walk with Halti/Easy Leaders but we have always found a traditional collar was also needed as, when younger, our older dog could reverse out of the Halti when being a pratt.

Having 2 collars around their neck while on a walk is not causing her or us a problem.

I would keep a lead with a collar attached somewhere handy so it can be put on quickly if you suddenly do need that level of dog control in the house.

Hope you find this useful. Any feedback is welcome.