11/01/2025
THE DOG'S NECK
Many people are adamantly opposed to using a harness. I understand that, but our decisions should at least be built on knowledge and sound reasoning. I recently had somebody trying to argue with me that a dog's neck isn't the same as a human's neck (after I'd said it was in a video about not using slip leads). The discussion didn't go far because they chose personal insults over debate.
Had I not had to block them (twice), I would have told them this:
The dog’s neck may seem muscular and strong. It looks capable of having a leash and collar attached for walking, and that's exactly what we've done in our more recent history of dog-keeping. But if we could see inside the dog’s neck, we’d see many vital structures, almost identical to our own in 'design.'
Just as in humans, there's the oesophagus (food-pipe) and the trachea (windpipe) with the delicate epiglottis which shuts the trachea when swallowing (to prevent food from entering the trachea). We all know that the tightening of anything around the neck causes a restriction of breathing and in extreme cases leads to death, usually through cerebral hypoxia (starving the brain of oxygen). The position of the trachea is the same for all mammals (humans and dogs are both mammals). The trachea sits right at the front of the neck – you can literally feel it!
At the top of the neck sits a scaffold of tiny bones known as the hyoid apparatus; their job is to support the larynx, which, in turn, holds the vocal cords and helps with swallowing and breathing. Very close to the front surface of the neck (at about collar height) sits the thyroid cartilage and thyroid gland. The thyroid gland produces the hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which contribute to the correct working of every cell in the body. If it gets damaged the thyroid gland never regenerates, so I’d give serious concern to looking after it.
Around the same area as the thyroid gland, there are also parathyroid glands. Their job is to regulate calcium. Calcium regulation is crucial for the correct functioning of internal organs. Just as in humans, and all other mammals, other crucial components include the jugular veins (returning blood from the brain) and the vagal nerves (vagus nerve), carrying vital information between the brain, heart, digestion, and immune systems. At the back of the neck, the dog has seven cervical vertebrae which form the top of the spine. Yet again, this turns out to be exactly the same number as in the human neck. In fact, the only mammals that do not have seven cervical vertebrae are sloths and manatees. That’s around 6.5 thousand different mammalian species with the same ‘design.’ Do you still think we are so different?
In fact, the main difference between the human neck and the canine neck is that humans carry their head directly above the shoulders, whereas the dog has an outstretched neck, carrying their head in front of them. Surely that means their neck must be super strong, doesn’t it? Well, NO. Running the length of the cervical vertebrae is the nuchal ligament. This amazing piece of anatomy allows the dog to have an outstretched head, or easily walk with the nose against the ground. It’s not that the rest of the neck is super strong, it’s that they have a substantial (compared to humans) nuchal ligament taking the strain, rather like the chains of a drawbridge. If you ever give your dog a ‘Paddywack’ chew, what they are chewing is a bovine or sheep nuchal ligament.
Medical conditions of the neck include laryngeal paralysis and tracheal collapse which, if not caused by, would certainly be exasperated by neck pressure. Furthermore, a study by Pauli (2006) found collar pressure significantly increased Intraocular pressure (pressure within the eyes). The study found no such effect when using a harness. A more recent study (Carter et al., 2020) tested various collar types and found all of them to carry a significant risk of injury to dogs that pull, even at low forces.
Quite a ‘design’ fault you might think. Or perhaps canines simply did not evolve to have their necks constricted by humans.
