Sad story.....
As far as dog collars are concerned.....well I dont know....
My eldest dog is a mean, mean dog......only hears the commands he wants, selective hearing..:laugh:. Anyway, he doesnt like collars ( well he does know that I am here full time ), presumably he understands that he will be tied up..... He can get out of any collar/harness, I should rename him houdini ( it saved my bacon, once, before my conuco was properly fenced off, 2 "wolfs" got in and stalked me, my machete was 10 m away. Remedio got out of his collar that was chained up and sent the intruders into a hastly retreat ).
My rottie goes into "aggressive " mode when I take his collar off..... no idea why..... (not with me, but with the rest of the world ). So I take it off at night and put it back on in the morning.
I didnt really understand the comment about intruders, dogs and collars.
One would have to shoot the mutt first, before putting hands on the collar.
As for "hooking " it....... very delicate manoeuver. The dogs could yank anything out of my hands if they wanted......
We have a "Houdini" too, and that's exactly what Mr. AE calls her. Our female rottie came to live with us Jan 2014, after beginning her life in Santo Domingo with my mother-in-law, who couldn't control her when she got to be about 7-8 months old. She then spent about 3 years in the mountains of Ocoa at BIL's finca. She likes to kill other animals, so they did their best to keep her tied up most of the time. Finca sold, she comes to us.
We tried everything when she got here, because we were afraid she'd run away from her new environment. Every collar known to man and woman. She escaped. We even bought a halter type, the ones that go under the belly too, we were sure that would do it. Nope. First time she got away from that one she killed a pig. Since she came to us in heat, and we didn't realize, she got pregnant the first day here. Soon as the puppies were born, we started to let her have the run of the finca. Fabulous watch dog, except she barks a lot more than the male does. He tends to wait and watch what's happening before getting involved.
Nowadays, when we have company who are terrified of two big rotties running around, we still have to tie her up sometimes. Sometimes she is in a mellow mood and cooperates, other days she's Houdini personified.
She still is ferocious with other animals [not dogs though]. Since January she's killed a neighbors pig who wandered in under the fence, a few chickens, a guinea hen and a cat. Went after a cow, but Mr. AE happened to be right there and she backed off. Once they're dead, she sits herself down in front of them and guards her prey, and it's a nightmare to distract her away from them.
We brought one of last year's litter back to NJ with us. Daughter is a chip off the old block. Huge like her father, but otherwise just like her mom. She's living with an animal loving family [4 other dogs, many cats, a bunny and a bunch of birds] all these months that we're gone, and yesterday I received a FB message telling me that Lily came into the house with something in her mouth that turned out to be a baby squirrel. Later that day she proudly presented them with another one. Sigh.
PS. Neither of them wears a collar unless we're tying them up. The one in NJ has a collar on all the time, and a giant pinch collar goes on when she's going for a walk.