Collar Color Code needed?
July 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth and Doug Simpson
We are so tired of hearing stories about people who randomly approach other people’s dogs and assume they can pet them. The owners even ask them NOT to approach and the stranger does it anyway – often saying “oh, dogs love me, it’s okay”. Why does everyone think they have doggie magic and dogs won’t bite them?
I remember being taught from a very young age NOT to pet someone else’s dog without permission. I even forgot that rule once and was promptly bitten – lesson learned the hard way. So we have a solution…
For those of you who have ridden horses in the show ring you are taught not to come behind a horse with a red ribbon on their tail because the horse will kick. If you do ride up on this horse and you are kicked then it is your fault because the message was clear and you ignored it.
So if dogs were to wear color coded collars then the stranger would have a clear, universal sign about the dog’s temperament. Green collar means ‘safe to approach’, yellow collar means ‘in training, not predictable’ and the red collar means ‘DO NOT approach under any circumstances’.
The biters could even wear a vest with lettering on it that says ‘DO NOT APPROACH!!’ I don’t know how long it will take for the world to catch on but something has to be done. Should we start a ‘Collar Color Code Campaign’? What do you think?
In my opinion if a dog’s temperment doesn’t allow for strangers to pet it, the dog should be kept at home, it obviously has no right being in our society.
I disagree with this 100%.
Untamed dogs just like untamed gorillas have every right to share our planet and our society…but if you keep one as a pet it’s 100% your responsibility to keep society safe.
Agreed with Marko
Keeping a dog locked away from the world isn’t the answer.
The best policy is always to ask the owner. If they do not and go in for a pet it is the owner’s responsibility to warn.
Just like I’m sure not everyone likes the proverbial pat on the back, not every dog likes to be pet by strangers!
If the dog is a biter they should be muzzled. Simple as that. I think that’s a clear indication to everyone that they shouldn’t touch the dog. And why can’t the owner just ‘man up’ and tell the person before they pet the dog not to touch it? Why not take some responsibility yourself? You don’t want someone touching your dog just say so. If it puts people off that’s too bad. A mangled hand would put them off even more and your dog would be put down. There’s always going to be people who are going to try to pet without asking so just don’t be afraid to say something.
I would have to agree with Laura’s absolute logic. Preemptive actions make sense, suggesting later that ‘they should not have done this or that’ is mute after the fact. And how does colour coding become obvious to all people? .. isn’t quite common for dogs to fashion collars of all colours bearing no other meaning than..well a coloured collar. Yeah, the muzzle would certainly offer a pretty clear message over a red collar … now a red muzzle, well say no more