Would You Rather Be a Helicopter Mom or Have a Dead Doodle?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I heard a very sad story today. A beautiful doodle who was adopted from the DRC died yesterday while in his fenced backyard with his Golden Retriever brother.

The two dogs were alone in the yard for about 30 minutes. When the owner went to call them in, she found them lying together, the Golden's mouth caught in the doodle's collar.  Whether the doodle choked to death or his neck was broken by his frantic brother trying to free himself, we don't yet know. The owner is heartbroken, as are his former foster mom and the entire DRC family.

Please, everyone, supervise your dogs when they are in the yard. A fenced yard is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't prevent all tragedies. A little bit of overprotectiveness can be a very good thing.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

How very, very sad.  My doodles spend lots of time out in my fenced in back yard and I check on them like every 5 minutes.  When they are outside I am usually cleaning or in the kitchen where I even watch them play, relax or sleep.  When my doodles are inside the collars come off immediately and when I crate trained them the collar would come off before they went into the crate.  I have heard too many sad stories about collars.

[Marianne *OZZY & ZOEY]

OMG how horrible and sad. Collars are coming off my dogs right now.  They get left home alone and I am sure they are playing inside too.  My heart goes out to this family.

[Liza, Halle and Finn]

This is so so sad and tragic! We were so lucky! We learned this lesson first hand! Our two doodles became hooked together during play, and as one started to yelp, the other tried harder to pull away! Luckily for us, it happened in the living room while we were near, but it was still very VERY difficult getting their collars unlatched as they were fighting to part themselves! Please keep collars off your babies while they are at home!

[Donna K & Quincy]

I read this yesterday and it actually made me feel physically ill. I feel so terrible for this poor family and can only imagine the pain they are feeling.

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

OMG  This was a very hard post to read.  I can't imagine how awful that must have been for the dogs and the owner.  No more collars.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

What a horribly sad story.  But thanks for this important reminder.  Until I joined DK, I never realized the danger of 2 dogs playing with collars on.  Now, whenever I take Finn for a playdate, the collars come off.  Even if you're there, it could be really hard to get two dogs apart. But it's not something I ever would have thought about before.  So sorry for everyone involved. 

[Pat and Traveler]

What a horrible accident!  My heart goes out to everyone involved.  Trav never wears a collar inside, and we've left Trav and his bro alone in the house, with no collars--but now I'm thinking I'll keep them in separate rooms when we're not home.  Poor, poor dogs--my heart breaks for them.