Do people in England really call them “dog collars”? I have never heard them referred to as such, the correct term being “clerical collars.” This seems disrespectful, and it certainly says a lot about the lack of civilization in not-so-Great Britain these days.
It goes back at least as far as the Sherlock Holmes stories (which were written in the 1880s and 1890s, mostly).
I suppose it's mildly disrespectful, but originally in only a playful way. The term makes a distinction between the Roman collar, which has a "collarette" or collar cover (or is worn under the cassock or soutane), so that only a little square cutout shows at the front -- and the Anglican collar, which goes all the way around in a white band, and thus looks more like a dog's collar. The term is used for the all-round Anglican collar.
Even hardened Anglicans ocassionally call the all-around "dog-collars" "Roman Collars." Anglican priests also wear the Roman cassock, or something very like it, and until the 30's, frock coats and "gaiters," clerical breeches, looking like tight golf knickers with round buttons up the outseam. But no one mugged them!
But nothing should surprise anyone about the disgusting behaviour of England's yobbos, not after their activities at soccer matches. They have nothing to do, no education, no manners, plenty of alcohol and dope, and a good deal of Mum and Dad's money + the dole.
And they are just as disgustingly tattooed and pierced as the American yobbos on display at your local Wal-Mart, just maybe not as fat.
We are "PC-ing" ourseleves to death these days.
My father has been an Episcopal minister here in the U.S. for over 50 years -- and I've always known the term "dog collar" for them. I consider it a familiar, not disrespectful, term.