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A wolf collar (also known as Italian: roccale or vreccale, Spanish: carlanca) is a type of dog collar designed to protect livestock guardian dogs from attack by wolves. Wolf collars are fitted with elongated spikes to stop wolves from attacking dogs on the neck. Such collars are used by shepherds in many countries including Italy,[citation needed] Spain[1] and Turkey.
Ancient Greeks used such collars to protect their dogs from wolf attacks.[2]
In Latin the collar was called mellum or maelium or mellum or millus.[3][4] Marcus Terentius Varro wrote that the farm dogs should have spiked collars for protection against wolves and other wild animals.[5]
War dogs in ancient Greece and Rome had collars with large spikes.[6][7]
- ^ Charles Bergman, Jorge Sierra (1997). Spain's Wolf Wars. International Wildlife. 27 (2): 22–29. (subscription required).
- ^ Dogs in the Ancient World "The dog was companion, protector, and hunter for the Greeks and the spiked collar, so well known today, was invented by the Greeks to protect the necks of their canine friends from wolves."
- ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Millus
- ^ Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, mellum
- ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Collare
- ^ Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 144, 1888, p. 699
- ^ United States War Department (1943). War Dogs. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 5.