On Friday, November 11, 2005, I fed and cleaned the dogs before leaving for a few errands, as I knew I would be out half the day.  After I arrived home, checked the dogs, as usual, they were quiet except for Vixen..  Now you have to know Vixen, she is a barker and a loud girl. She was yapping by her water bucket and I just figured she was being her normal self, saying "Hi Mom", drinking water and looking at me.  About 10 minutes passed and Vixen was still drinking water at the same position and making a whimper sound, I thought was kind of strange.  So I went outside to the kennels, as something did not seem right about what I kept hearing.  Somehow, the water bucket clip went over her two lower canines and all around the lower jaw, and she was trying to get if off by swaying back and forth with her head down.  Vixen is a good size girl for being only one year old.  Immediately the two dogs that are kenneled with Vixen were let out. I then tried to get Vixen loose by trying to get the clip off her bottom jaw, but was too much for me to do alone, as she was now crying so loud and I could see she was scared to death at this point, as well as in pain.  I had no idea how long she was like this.  I called Des at work  frantically, he could not get home in time, so I called my wonderful Vet Tech, Stacey, she came out within a few minutes with wire cutters, cut the bucket from the kennel panel, picked Vixen up, put Vixen in her truck and drove to the Vet's office which is only 5 miles from home.  Vixen was sedated and with a little jelly, the clip slipped right off her lower jaw. 

For years, we've used these clips on exercise pens at dogs shows and gate latches with no problems.  Used once on a new bucket and Vixen does her thing. Today Vixen is fine, but we now have a smaller clip on her water bucket. Our Vet said that in all her years of practice, she never seen anything like this.  Neither has anyone else. So the reason we are posting this on our site, is to let everyone be warned about what could happen with these big size clips. Never in a thousand years would you think this could happen to you!! (Picture below is the actual clip)