Do think its great that dogs must be microchipped to have health screening

However in the majority of cases the people who bother to permanently identify their dogs are the ones who health test, the rest don't and will not bother. Think as usual this is starting at the wrong end, it is the general public, the pet buying public that need to be re-educated about buying a dog after that woman and that program did so much to send the pet buying public into the arms of the puppy farmer and byb who do not test and, no doubt, will not identify either.

So, it's great isn't it - those responsible people who are good breeders can now rest assured that more dogs will be routinely scanned by dog wardens, kennels and vets, because microchipping is moving to a whole new level. 

This may be of interest to anyone who uses Twitter (from the DEFRA website)

"Live dog microchipping Twitter Q&A, Tuesday 12 Feb 2013 at 6:30pm: The UK Chief Vet and the Dogs Trust will be answering your questions live. You can join in by using the #askdefra hashtag."

Yes of course forgot about the tattoo as id - not that u can see the tattoo on our foundation import boy anymore :/

Was that an ear tattoo?

Yes it was

'Is' I suppose I should say lol

I've sent you pics of a 4 year old bitch of my breeding and the clarity of her tattoo by the NDTR.  It was just a pic taken at ringside at a show, (with a friends decent camera mind).

My dogs all have ear tattoos, microchips and always wear collars and tags with my name and address and contact Telephone number, as well as saying on the reverse they are chipped and tattooed.

> and the clarity of her tattoo by the NDTR

We found a stray rough collie in France some years ago. It had a tattoo in it's ear but it was unreadable. Our neighbour, where we were staying, told us to take the dog to the vets in the next town rather than hand it into the local police (the police were more likely to just put the dog down). Fortunately the vet knew the dog and was able to contact the owner - but admitted the tattoo was no use :) Perhaps European tattoos are worse than here ?

My boy is tattooed only but I may get him chipped too, due to finding and returning to her owners a standard poodle recently.  Poor girl, I thought she'd been lost while skiing the day I found her but turned out she'd been missing for FIVE days.  Got spooked by fireworks when someone let her out of their timeshare ski resort unit at New Year's Eve.  So That's why she was so thin.  It was cold over those 5 days too, and it's a wonder she did not become a meal for the coyotes.  She was only 9 months old.

Anyway, she had a rabies tag so I could have called her Vet but that would have delayed finding her owners till Monday.  I found her on Sunday.  Her chip came with a tag to a 24/7 call service.  I didn't even have to take her to my GR breeder neighbour to be scanned.  It is a wonder she still had the collar on though, to which the tags were attached.  I called the service number, they called the owner, the owner called me back, broke speed limits to get here from their home a long way away from where I found her and they got her back.  I only had her about 3 hours.

She got home just that much faster because of the chip but also because of the call service. 

Had a puppy microchipped yesterday, had a phonecall today saying they had found it on the floor of the reception area ..so it fell out of her ...slightly worrying ...lucky they found it or I would have thought I had a chipped dog but wouldn't have !

well all i can say is that should NOT have happened didn't they check to make sure it wasn't lying in the coat after putting it in and scan the dog again before leaving to ceck it was in place.
i hope they rechipped with a new chip for free

yeah they did in the consultancy room, it fell out after in reception area whilst I was paying I guess. Apparently it is quite common just after its done

A friend called a vets to chip her litter, they were 7 weeks and she was told she couldnt have them chipped as they were too young and that they dont chip puppies untill 12 weeks. She had to go to another vets so she could have them chipped befor they started going to new homes.

unbeliveable the crap they come out with so i suppose they wont chip kittens,ferrets,rabbits or anything smaller like a chipmunk or chinchilla either iv had this a couple of times from people comming to get theirs done after their vets refused.

Of course the best one was a couple of chi's vet said they were too small and wait till their bigger.
At 6 months and other over 12 months i don't think they could get any bigger.