Hi! Usually I'm on this forum whining about my 4 month old insanely bitey black lab Rosie. Today I'm asking about Rosie and her collar - she scratches at it constantly. She has done this pretty much since we got her. She wore a collar at breeders. We put one on her as soon as we got her. She is not itchy anywhere else, and doesn't scratch when collar is off (which isn't often because she's so darn bitey we need a collar on her during the day). I have tried two different collars on her - first one was like nylon woven material, the second is more polyester fabric - she scratches at both. I have made sure they are not too loose/too tight etc. She will scratch when you try to take her out the door for a wee, scratch the second she comes back in. Scratch when you are walking down the street. More pronounced when on leash but still does it off leash as well. My question is, is she really itchy? Or is this just some kind of weird habit for her? If so, how do I go about getting her to stop?
Maybe try checking under her collar at the skin, if it looks irritated there may be something wrong. My beagle did this when we first had him but he stopped after a while, he'd never worn a collar before so I think that was the reason. My beagle also did this with his harness and still does this to this day Never found a way to stop him now. My lab never had this issue, sorry I havent been much help but maybe if her skin is irritated a trip to the vet might be a good idea?
Agree with Lucius. Make sure all the scratching has not irritated the skin. How many fingers can you get under the collar? Have you tried seeing whether you get the same reaction using a different material? A leather collar? Or a woven cotton material? What are you doing about the mouthing? How are you using the collar? Ideally it would be useful to get the collar off the dog while he is inside so that the obsessive behaviour with the collar can be avoided.
I understand. I'm just trying to work out an alternative to her constantly scratching. You can put a limited slip lead on the dog when you need to prevent her from doing something--hopefully that is not every minute she is awake. A limited slip lead has a mechanism that prevents the lead from fully tightening on the dog.
