I recently was visiting with a breeder, competitor who had just brought a young male Doberman back from the trainer and the dog was playing in the yard with an adult bitch. He heard what sounded like a dog fight and ran out to find that the larger bitch had caught her jaw in the younger dog's choke collar. Before he could get them untangled the struggle had damaged the younger dog's neck so seriously that they were unable to save the dog. The obvious lesson is make sure that those choke collars aren't too long.
A few years back I had a male Dobie who loved to lay by the front gate. The gate was 2 meters high and was chain link from top to bottom. When I called he didn't respond and when I went around to the front I found him struggling to get up but his chain was caught on one of the bare ends of the chain link at the bottom of the gate. Fortunately he was calm enough not to panic and he froze when I spoke to him and it was easy to untangle but in a different situation with a different dog it could have been a much worse ending. From then on I took all the collars off my dogs and they only wear collars when I put on collars and leashes to go out for walks.
One other quick reminder. The flat nylon adjustable collars are often left too loose because people don't want to risk hurting a young dog. I've seen lots of dogs back out of these loose leashes in a panic situation and when they're frightened they can easily bolt and get into a wreck. The two black plastic prongs that slide into the receiving end of the buckle are also prone to breaking when they age so it doesn't hurt to check them occasionally.
Just a couple of words of caution prompted by my friend's loss. Always pays to err on the side of caution
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