Marking of puppies

[ursula wilby]

With a new litter of ten, I am once again faced with the problem of identification of each individual puppy. I normally cut their fur in differant places, like right back-leg, neck-base etc. One year I tried nailvanish but that was a total waste of time I felt. The marking was never clear enough for me to identify each puppy at a glance. I have seen differant breeders using differant collars. To me there is the danger of the puppies getting caught up in each others collars, so I would feel very uneasy about that. Even if I was to use the ones for cats, with elastic pieces. Any methods out there I am not yet aware of?

[Mariana Åhnberg]

I have seen that a lot of breeders in sweden use a kind of paint, I dont know what sort it is but somone can probably tell us, they ads a little spot with different colours on the back of the puppies..

[ursula wilby]

Just so that you dont all think I am way over the top with my fear of collars and strings...I have one rottweiler breeder who put two four months old puppies out in a stable while she went shopping.
Both wore collars.
There was nothing dangerous in the stable (or so she thought). When she came back, the puppies had been playing and jumping and there was a nail in the wall. Not all that high up and one of the puppies got caught there. The nail had hooked behind the collar and the puppy was hanging there strangled.
A vet-friend of mine working in a nearby animal hospital has had dogs come in dead due to collars.
These dogs/ puppies had been playing and one of the dogs got its bottom-jaw caught in the other ones collar. Tearing and pulling and getting in a panik, the dog with the collar ended up with its neck broken.
So there is a danger there.
I think you can let dogs and puppies play for years and years wearing collars, without anything happening (I used to). But then once is enough.
And the rottweiler puppies, I had looked at only a couple of days earlier.
So these are NOT "rat-in-the-pizza-stories" but actual cases.

[ursula wilby]

I think Marcella, it is as you say, important to have the strings tight and yet not too tight.
And also that they are breakable.
I think I shall go with the cutting of fur to begin with...safest bet.
I may try the string + stitching when they are a bit older and dashing about.
They are still just laying there...:-)