Your dog would have to be close enough to be in that situation first. I cant think where my dogs would be in a situation that would warrant this.

However my dogs are taught to have their collars grabbed roughly as puppys....."just in case", as it could save their life one day

Exactly, if I felt it necessary to grab a strange dog's collar then I'd have good reason for it. If you don't want people doing it then have a rock solid recall or keep the dog on lead so it's not necessary. I took my mum's pup for a walk yesterday and an off-lead Staffie kept jumping up - it was in play so we just waited for the owner to come over but had the dog been aggressive I would've grabbed its collar and marched it straight back to the owner, why should a dog on-lead be pestered because someone else couldn't recall their dog? The guy would have no right to be angry at me.
My two are fine being grabbed by the collar though they're often in their Ruffwear harnesses with handles which are a bit more convenient to grab. Only situation I can really see someone needing to use them is an emergency, e.g. dog got loose and bolted towards a road, so I'd be grateful to someone helping out.

When my son brought his puppy here the other day, my neighbour was in here.
Pepsi of course was very curious and wanted to sniff, play and investigate the pup.
My neighbour got hold of her collar and pulled her away saying "oh no Pepsi, you mustn't hurt the puppy" I went ape. Surely the pup and Peps should have had the chance to get to know each other, who says Peps will hurt the pup (there were enough of us here to monitor the situation) and what right did she have to get hold of/chastise Pepsi.
I said all this as politely as I could through clenched teeth

Nobody has ever had the need to grab my dogs collars, certainly not whilst they've been adults anyway (they may have done when Jed was a pup and his recall was rubbish). I dont think they'd particularly mind as they are used to me taking them by the collar.

I have restrained dogs by their collars before without even thinking about it. One incident I recall involved an Am Bull who was making a nuisance of itself, Flynn was getting irate and I could foresee something escalating, no owners in site. I took hold of its collar to stop it harassing my dogs, in hindsight I could've got bitten.

The only reason I would take hold of a dogs collar is if I thought it was in the best interests of all concerned, particularly my own dogs and TBH, I wouldnt care what the other owner thought - their problems shouldnt become mine in the first place.

Basically, i'm in agreement with Smokeybear!

I've taken a dog by it's collar before if it's needed it; like if it's owners are having no luck in recall. I've never had anyone take my dogs by the collar, there have been times where it would've been easier for them to do so though but alas some people don't think..

I do have a problem with my older sister though, she's not a dog person and has before split dogs up from a play because she thought they were fighting properly and has took them by the collar and pulled them away from one another - of course she got shouted at by me..

this has happened to me and i was not happy. About 3 years ago i was walking phoebe in the forest and she was on her lead. A ladyy was walking 5 little dogs with no leads who came running over to phoebe and started yapping around her ankles, I got phoebes lead very tight and tried to carry on walking when the woman came over and grabbed phoebe by the scruff of her neck. I lost it, told her to let go before i broke her arm and get her out of control dogs before they were drop kicked in to oblivion.
I would never of hurt her dogs but i would of broke her arm if she hadnt let go. Phoebe just looked totally confussed by the whole thing.

I would have absolutly no problem with somebody getting hold of her if she had ran away ect and i would do the same if i saw a dog. I wouldnt grap a dogs collar that has come over to phoebe as ild be far to busy keeping her under control

Just bog standard, pro active training really that most good instructors will train for! I quite agree.


I agre

It is frightening to me to read of so many dogs on this thread who would "freak out" if anyone touched their collars and owners who would happily use physical violence on others!

Great minds think alike!

Pets as Therapy Temperament Test Extract

Owners need to be able to demonstrate that they can restrict their dog by holding its collar or holding him/her firmly.

Why?

P.A.T. dogs need to be able to accept restraint from their owners in case of an emergency in the establishment or if the owner needs to withdraw their dog quickly from a patient or client