Dog Collar Tag and Dog Microchip: Why Dogs Should Have Both
I think most of us would agree that it’s important for our dog to have a dog collar tag in case she should stray or get lost. Today, the dog microchip has become a popular way to identify your dog as well. In fact, some people use dog microchips instead of dog collar tags. But I think it’s important that a dog have both a dog collar tag and a dog microchip.
Why do I think it’s important? Because one-third of all pets will become lost during their lives. And — according to one statistic I saw — 95% of those lost pets will remain lost. That second statistic might be excessively high, but even a 50% rate of nonrecovery is too high.
My belief in the importance of both dog collar tags and dog microchips was reinforced over the weekend when two lost dogs came onto our front porch over Friday/Saturday night to get out of the snow storm we were having.
Two Stray Labs — with No Identification
The Two Lost Labs on the Porch by Our Front Door
The first clue I had that something was amiss came around 6:15 Saturday morning after Faith and Mac came in from peeing in the back yard. Instead of heading toward the kitchen for breakfast, they went to the living room window that looks on to the front porch and began barking like crazy. After turning on the porch light, I looked out and saw two black Labs lying on the porch near the front door.
When I went out to investigate, I found two friendly, sweet, and adorable dogs who seemed to be best friends. We knew they hadn’t been dumped in the neighborhood by someone who didn’t want them anymore. The Labs were too well groomed and too well cared for. They were dogs that someone loved, and we both could picture how upset the dogs’ caretakers must have been because they were missing.
One Lab had a green collar and the other had no collar. I checked the green collar for a dog collar tag, but couldn’t find one. Lisa and I figured that the dogs lived somewhere nearby, had come onto the porch to get out of the storm, and would leave later in the day to go home.
They did leave, but they came back later in the morning and settled back down on the porch, cold and wet from the snow.
Lost Labs on the Heated Pet Pad (View Through Screen of Living Room Window)
Now Lisa and I decided that the Labs must have come from a distance during the storm, had become disoriented, and couldn’t find their way home. So, after feeding the dogs, we made up some Dog Lost posters and drove up and down the neighborhood putting them in people’s mailboxes. By the evening, no one had called. We fed the dogs again. Then Lisa got out the heated pet mat from Allied Precision, Inc. that we’d gotten for Faith when she was living on the front porch in the winter, set the pad up on the porch, and put a comforter over the pad for the dogs to sleep on.
The dogs stayed Sunday as well. Sunday night, when the temperature fell into the low 20s, we brought the Labs into the finished basement for the night. (We Lab-proofed the basement first, though, in case the dogs liked to chew on things.)
Monday morning, we decided to take the Labs to our vet at Taylor Animal Hospital to have them scanned for dog microchips. After we got them into the van, I started backing out of the driveway.
Suddenly, Lisa, who was in back with the dogs, cried, “Dan — stop! I found a dog collar tag. Or, at least, I think it’s a tag. It’s so tiny I thought it was a copper decoration on the collar.”
The letters and numbers on the dog collar tag were so tiny and faded that Lisa had a lot of trouble reading them. But at last she could make out a name and a phone number. Forty-five minutes later a man and his ten-year-old daughter arrived to bring their Labs home.
Lost Labs Waiting for Their Sunday Breakfast
It turned out that the dogs had strayed pretty far — a couple of miles at least — after jumping over their five-foot-high fence. They had outgrown their dog collars, the man told me. The green dog collar was just a stop-gap until he could get new ones that fit. The dogs also had a history of jumping over their fence and straying. But despite the dogs’ MO of escaping from the yard, getting new dog collars and dog collar tags didn’t seem to be a high priority for the man.
The Labs hadn’t been microchipped, either. So if we’d actually taken them to the vet’s, we wouldn’t have found a dog microchip in them. And if Lisa hadn’t spotted the teeny weeny dog collar tag, she would have put an ad in the local paper trying to find the dogs’ caretaker. And who knows what would have happened after that.
So all this brings me to my main point: Why your dog should have both a dog collar tag and a dog microchip.
Dog Collar Tags Are Good — as Long as They Don’t Come Off
A dog collar tag is good — as long as it doesn’t come off the collar. Dog collar tags are a reliable, time-tested way of identifying your dog if she should go astray. But sometimes the tags can come off the collar. Or, in the case of one of the Labs, the dog might not even be wearing a collar or might slip out of her collar.
If your dog doesn’t have a dog collar tag, you can get one at just about any pet store. Petsmart and PETCO — as well as many independent pet shops — have machines that can make a customized dog collar tag for you for under $10. That’s a small investment for preventing a major heartache or tragedy.
If you don’t have a dog collar tag for your dog, it might not be necessary to run out and get one. You might be able to use your dog’s rabies tag instead. A lot of vets put their name and phone number on the tag. If your dog gets lost, whoever finds her can call the vet. The tag has an ID number that’s matched to your dog. By looking up the number, the vet can find the name, address, and phone number of the dog’s caretaker. Our vet gives the person who found the dog the option of contacting the caretaker himself or herself or having one of the Taylor Animal Hospital staff contact the caretaker.
A Dog Microchip Is a Good Backup to a Dog Collar Tag
A dog microchip is a good backup to a dog collar tag. If the tag comes off the collar — or if the dog went astray without her collar — the dog microchip can identify the dog’s caretaker.
What Is a Dog Microchip?
What is a dog microchip? It’s a Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip (or tag) about the size of a grain of uncooked rice. The chip consists of two parts: an integrated circuit that stores and processes information transmitted from a radio signal and an antenna that receives and transmits the radio signal. Each RFID chip has an identification number on it that’s unique to that particular microchip. Using a chip scanner, someone can transmit a low-frequency radio signal to the RFID chip. The receiver in the chip receives the radio signal and sends back the chip number, which the scanner reads.
The microchip is encased in glass, which doesn’t react with the dog’s tissues. The vet injects the dog microchip under the dog’s skin, between her shoulder blades. The procedure is both quick and painless. I watched our vet inject a dog microchip into Mac. The procedure was over in a second, and Mac didn’t even know it was happening.
The average life of a dog microchip is 25 years — much longer than a dog’s life. And you only need to get your dog microchipped once — even if you keep moving all over the country.
Dog Microchips and Lost Pet Recovery Services
By itself, a dog microchip is useless and its unique identification number is meaningless. It’s the lost pet recovery service that makes the chip and its identification number meaningful and ties the chip to the dog.
Lost dog identification services brand their own dog microchips. Different vets and animal shelters use different brands. For example, Taylor Animal Hospital uses the Home Again lost pet recovery service. After the vet injects the microchip into your dog, you register the dog with the recovery service. Information consists of such things as:
- Your dog’s name
- Your name
- Your address
- Your phone number
- Emergency contact information
Then you pay an annual fee to the recovery service to keep your dog registered. (Often, the vet handles the first payment for you and also sends in the paperwork for you.) Once the staff at the recovery service receive the registration information, they enter it in their database. After you give them a few days to do that, you call and activate the recovery service for your dog.
Because the lost pet recovery services have web sites, you can go online to change registration information about your dog. For example, if you move you must put in your new address and phone number.
You’re also not tied to a single lost pet recovery service. If your vet used a Home Again dog microchip, you also can register your dog with other recovery services. Generally, any scanner can read the information on any brand dog microchip.
Some popular lost pet recovery services — each with its own brand of dog microchip — are:
How Lost Pet Recovery Works
Lost pet recovery works in two ways.
First, when you have your dog microchipped, you receive a tag to put on the dog’s collar. The tag has the recovery service’s toll-free number on it along with the dog microchip identification number. If someone finds your dog, he or she can call the toll-free number and give the recovery service employee the chip number. A recovery service employee, in turn, contacts you to let you know your dog was found and explain how you can recover her.
Second, if your dog doesn’t have its dog chip tag on its collar, the person who finds the dog can bring it to a vet or an animal shelter. The vet or animal shelter worker scans the dog, gets the identification number, and gives it to the recovery service, which then contacts you.
You owe it to your dog — and to yourself — to make sure if she gets lost she can find her way home.
Tags: collar tags, microchips