Brady is our first dog…we got him a few months after we got married, and moved to Denver soon after that.  Being a pet, he naturally wore a collar at all times.  He was also a very energetic and playful puppy, and when we were in Ohio we lived in an apartment complex he had many “doggie friends” that we would arrange playdates with LOL.  So after a bit we decided to get another Cardi to keep him company, and Molly entered the scene…a pretty little tri girl from Carolyn at C-Myste.  They would wrestle pretty endlessly, sometimes loudly, but one time…very scarily.  You see, Brady’s teeth got caught on Molly’s collar.  He panicked, she panicked, we did eventually get them apart but not before Dave got bit accidentally.  Thankfully, they were both OK, but collar accidents are real and from that point on I swore off of collars altogether except for trips.  Naturally most show dogs don’t wear collars anyway because we’re trying to keep their fur looking nice.

Fast forward to when we moved BACK to Denver, and Nash gets lost for most of a day.  We’re living in a densely packed neighborhood, and a loose dog is most likely to either get hit by a car, or picked up by someone else.  If they end up at a vet or shelter, then the microchip will be handy, but a random person picking them up has no way of locating their owners without collar/tag.  In Nash’s case, he was picked up by people and wasn’t that far away but things would have likely been so much easier if he had a collar with a name/phone number.  It would have saved us time and much worry.  So…we are now a collar house again.  I found these cool tags:

They slide right onto the collar so don’t dangle/jingle or discolor the fur.  They also fit onto rolled leather collars, by sliding on near the buckle (so collar has to be big enough that you don’t need to use the two tightest holes).  Up at the Eagle shows I found some nice rolled leather collars that came in different colors, so I got pink, tan, and red.  Now hopefully…if anyone ever happens to get lost again, they can be found quickly.

As a quick aside, sweet Nash will no longer step foot off our front porch unless we’re going for a walk.  We hang out on there and will let the dogs go in/out as long as we are there to watch them…the porch entry is from the side so it’s actually a really nice little area.  Nash used to occasionally go to the foot of the stairs to look at things, but now even if his toy falls down the stairs he won’t go down them.  I guess he doesn’t want to take a chance at being lost again.