It’s National Pet ID Week, are you prepared, or is your dog prepared if she suddenly goes missing? Did you know one in three pets will become lost at some point in their lives? That is a scary statistic. We lost one cat, and it still haunts my mom. Today I want to howl a bit about how to help your pup safely be returned home.
Microchip Your Dog
The simplest way to permanently provide your dog with a form of identification is a microchip. Most good breeders either microchip puppies before they go to their forever homes, or require new owners to have them microchipped within a certain amount of time. Getting a microchip is practically painless. The chip is about the size of a piece of rice which is encoded with a unique and unalterable identification number. A microchip is implanted just under the skin, in the scruff of the neck. One needs a scanner to read the chip.
A few important points on microchips:
- Have them tested at every vet visit to ensure they work properly.
- Keep your information updated as it is no good to have a chip if you moved and didn’t change your address or phone number.
- Not every country has the same type of microchips, or locations where they are placed. If you move out of the country, check with your veterinarian to make sure you don’t need a second chip.
Once your dog has a microchip, it is helpful to hand the tag on the collar so anyone finding your dog knows they are chipped. Most chips come with a tag, but there are some fun options you can purchase online as well. Bailie likes her chip tag, “have your people call my people”.
Tags On Your Dog’s Collar
It’s National Pet ID Week, so of course we want to make sure our friends are all easily found if they get lost. We are chipped, and we also wear three tags on our collars.
The Basic ID Tag
The basic ID tag is a real no brainer. Mom has found several dogs over the years, and none of them had tags. Rather than being able to simply call the owner, she had to call animal control. Most people who find a lost dog will call the number on an ID tag, but whether they go to the trouble of calling a vet or animal control if there is not tag, is questionable.
Our favorite ID tags are the Silver Paw Pet Tags. Bailie has had hers for almost five years and it is good as new. They are not cheap, but they last a lifetime and the writing on the back side does not wear off like on cheaper tags. Regularly check your dog’s ID tag to make sure the information is correct, and still legible.
The Dog License
Our second tag is our dog license from our city. Technically, you are required to license your dog in most cities, but most people don’t bother because it is an expense. We are licensed because if we end up with the cops, they will see our license and know exactly who we are. It is another way for us to get back home quickly. We keep the license sandwiched between our ID tag and our chip tag.
A Microchip Tag
As previously mentioned, we wear a tag with our chip information on it. If we are found, the human will know we have a chip. Mom says she prefers to be quadruple safe when it comes to finding us, and overkill is just fine!
Don’t Like Jingling, No Problem
There are people out there who dislike the jingle of collar tags. My mom happens to love the jingle. Normally, she tunes it out, but when she is wondering what we are up to, she always uses the jingles to know where we are at at the moment. If you don’t want jingles, you can purchase collars with a plate that holds your information.
We don’t like jingling when we do our nose work, and the tags can get caught on things we are sniffing too. For this reason, we each have a collar with our information on the metal plate.
Accidents happen to even the most careful and responsible dog owners at any time. Is your dog well prepared to be found should she go missing?
You two sure look adorable in those pretty collars. Yes, proper ID is the only way to go so pick a winner everyone!
ID is so important. Our cat we lost had an ear tattoo but it was no longer legible. Never found him.
Great advice! I am clapping my paws in apaws! I am chipped, but my sister Lyla is not. She got lost a couple of years ago, but it was all good for her! She slept with the people that found her with their male pomeranian in their bed! The tramp! Maggie got lost once and ended up on I-95 after she dug out of the yard during a storm. A trucker saved her and she ended up 60 miles from home. Her rabies license got her back to Mom. One cannot have too many ID’s on a furry baby! XOXO, Sparkle
Wowzers! Now I know where that one in three stat comes from! How absolutely terrifying. I can’t imagine my mom if we ever got lost. Glad you are chipped and id’d, it is so important as you know.
to be well prepared for this worst case is very important… a good good friday to you and a happy easter
Isn’t every Friday a good Friday? In Europe it is such a holiday my mom says, but here it is a regular day. Can’t wait to go hunt for Easter eggs this weekend!
We are all chipped..and make sure to wear our collars all the time. Thanks for the important reminder!
xoxo,
Arty, Jakey & Rosy
Not every dog is prepared, so we want to remind the humans.
I have the no-jingle type tag and I am microchipped. Mom would die if I ever went missing.
My mom would die too if we went missing. She still thinks about the cat we lost and wonders what happened to him.
I got BJ at the Humane Society of NY and they chipped him. It slipped from his neck to his shoulder so they had to scan a little further down to read. His tag microchipped.
Duncan was chipped by the shelter I got him from.
All I needed to do was to update the information.
Lots of people forget to update the info which is important.
We did all this for our Little Bit. We never lost her, but we were ready if we did.
Have a woof woof day and weekend you two. My best to your smart mom. ♥
It’s much better to be prepared and not need it than to need it at anytime.
This is one of my biggest worries for Luke, because he’s so afraid of strangers. So I also like to have an embroidered collar on him, thinking perhaps if someone can’t get right close to him, they’d still be able to see the larger information right on the collar. But he also has a microchip (which the rescue we got him from did), and tags. I do need to find his microchip tag though, because that got lost. I know they gave us a spare, but I need to find it.
Yes, if no one can grab a dog is would be hard to read a normal tag. I would guess your vet could help you get a new chip tag since they know what chip you have.
It’s smart to have so many forms of ID. We have a dog up the street that gets out on occasion, and we know to take her home and lock her back in the yard, but if no one is home here and she’s wandering, she has a collar.
The big thing to remember, if you have a dog, is that if you get a call from a number you don’t recognize, it might be a spam call, or it might be someone calling to tell you they found your pet. Many a time i’ve found a lost dog and called the number and it’s been hours and several messages left before they listen to the messages i leave and call me back.
Another reason those ridiculous robo calls need to be stopped. Mom has not answered calls for business thinking it was a robo call but it was not. If we were missing, she would definitely answer any calls.
Thanks for sharing this important message. Lovely tags and collars.
My mom is addicted to collars!
Merlin was microchipped as a pup at the breeder. He is registered (licenced) which is a legal requirement in South Australia. He has a tag with his name and our numbers on it and he even has two tattoos on his ears, one for microchip and the other is for desexed.
Germany was big on ear tattoos, but Mom says as the dogs get older they are hard to read with the fur and stuff. Glad he is chipped.
Like Jan K, I bought an embroidered collar for Ducky to wear. She plays so hard at daycare that she lost her tags there once. That’s when I decided on the embroidered collar. Shadow and Callie used to lose their tags out in the yard all the time when they were pups. I can’t even count the number of times I had to buy new ones! But they -were both microchipped and so is Ducky. And I have an extra set of Ducky’s tags for her regular collar, just in case.
I don’t even want to think of the possibility of Ducky being lost – I’d go out of my mind!
My mom can’t imagine losing us. Losing a cat was tough enough. Katie lost her tags at a dog park once I have been told, but otherwise no dogs at our house have lost them. Whatever you need to do to make sure Ducky never gets lost is what you need to do.
Proper ID is the only way to go. Better to be safe than sorry.
“Hoppy” Easter to you all. 🐰
Proper ID is so important. Chips are great too, but if a non pet person finds you, they may not think about a possible chip, so we have chip tags too.