摘要 |
The present invention relates to an animal safety collar and methods of operation. One embodiment of the present invention relates to an animal safety collar including a strip of flexible material, an extendable material, a first coupling device, and a second coupling device. The extendable material is coupled to either end of the strip of flexible material so as to form a loop. The loop's circumference may be temporarily increased by expanding the extendable material, causing the ends of the flexible material to move away from one another. This capability allows the collar to expand so the animal can slide out of the collar when it is inadvertently coupled to a fixed object in an unsupervised scenario. The first and second coupling devices are fixably coupled to the ends of the strip of flexible material, respectively. Therefore, when the extendable material is expanded, the first and second coupling device move away from one another. The expanding capability may be disabled by rigidly coupling a device simultaneously to the first and second couplers, thereby preventing them from moving away from one another. Therefore, the expandable safety feature may be disabled when an animal is in a supervised scenario such as a walk.
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