Can ME dogs wear collars?
Yes, but must be careful not to damage the esophagus such as a dog constantly pulling on a slip collar. Since many ME dog owners choose to train their shows and some compete in various sports with them, they use them but very carefully. Make sure if you have a professional trainer train your ME dog and they aren’t familiar with Megaesophagus that you watch training sessions and make sure your dog is being managed carefully.Â
One ME owners story with using a specific kind of collar:
“I’ve never used an electric collar myself (ps I don’t have objections to electric method, as long as it’s set to lowest receptive setting), but we have used citronella spray collar – exact same principal.
When we rescued our 2nd collie xxxx he was 5yrs old. xxxx wasn’t used to having a garden (rescued from a high rise flat) so with his new found freedom, came new exciting noises, new exciting animals (squirrels, cats, badgers, foxes, deer, herons,any birds) new people etc……..and he barked incessantly with excitement and nervousness when were not around. The poor neighbours were very understanding. We tried for a good 9 months to stop him doing it, by introducing him to all neighbours, they even came walking with him, just so he knew their faces and could associate with their voices. Still he continued, we tried several behaviour techniques, still he would bark and bark hour after hour.
In the end we used a citronella collar, alternative to electric. Everytime he barked, the collar gave him a spritz of citronella, the barking stopped in 2 days! He associated his barking with an unpleasant squirting noise and smell.
So for those who are uncomfortable with electric collar, there is an alternative which works on exactly same principal but with a whiff rather than a zap.”