Although when i get my dog i will be microchipping it when it is 12 weeks old (along with his final jab) i am also going to consider buying one of those barrels that you unscrew and put ur information inside, but i was wondering how reliable is this because how many people would think to look inside the barrel and find out who the dog belongs to?
             i will also be getting a tag with just the dogs name on, but i have been told by many of my dog owning friends that if someone finds the dog they could take it and keep it, and because they know its name the dog will follow their instructions if u catch my drift.
             a website suggested putting on the back of the name tag that there is more information in the barrel and the dog is microchipped.

can somebody please put my mind at ease.

have you thought of getting the dog tattoed aswell as a chip

as a chip can't be seen and todate i've never had a dog scaned by a vet unless i've asked them to do it my point being a chip only works if your dog is picked up by the police or handed into a pound
if your dog was found by someone who might be less than honest at least with a tatto it is visable and can't be removed there are scheme's where they tatto a number on the dog and they hold your details which can be updated as and when you move change phone numbers so on

just a thought all the best

david

a tattoo would be a very good idea, but where do they put the tattoo on the dog and does it hurt them at all?

Many breeders have their litters of pups tattooed by the National dog Tattoo Register.  they have a network of tattooists, and there is likely to be one near you.  You can find the deatails at: http://www.dog-register.co.uk/  They can even do cats.  The modern equipment used has tiny numbers which will fit in most ears.  The pain involved would be like having your ears pierced.  I find pups and older dogs object to being helf tightly rather than the tattooing itself.  When one has been done and put on the floor it is eager to see what you are going to do to the next one.

By law your dog must wear an identification tag/disc with YOUR details on it; it is not necessary to have the dog's name on it.  Mine have my name and address and home/work phone number on the front and the vet's phone number on the back my dogs are also tattood.  It is much easier to have a brass disc or a brass plate on the collar than a  barrel IMHO.

Just this morning I found a dog wandering in th emiddle of the road; it did not have a disc on it; I had an appointment and so caught it with a lead, put it into my dog cage and when I returned took it to the local vet to be scanned; it did not have a chip, it did not have a tattoo; I wandered around the town (one I am unfamiliar with) and fortunately someone knew to whom he belonged.  Needless to say they were somewhat less than overenthused on his return telling me that he was always getting out and when I explained it might be a good idea to have a disc, there was just a shrug!

Tattoos take second, are no more painful than chipping however I am not sure how good they are with certain colours/hairy ears? :D

ok thanks for the help, theres still one thing im wondering about if i did get a tattoo, would i have to keep the area shaven, the dog i am getting is a staffy so it is only short haired.

My last puppy was tattooed when I got her at 8 weeks. At that age, you saw the tattoo & then you saw the dog!!! Now, you'd have to be looking for the tattoo to find it & I can't read it now (but my eyesight's not what it was!!) I'm certainly not going to shave her ear tho! I had some of those barrels, the ring that held it to the collar (keyring type) was just not strong enough & I lost them within a few weeks. they can be difficult to open & are really fiddly. I'd go for an engraved disc with a strong ring.

ok then thanks, youve pretty much confirmed what everyone else has told me about barrels,i have looked in a few places with id tags that can be engraved with enough characters to get my name, address and home number on, and i havent found one yet so if u know any websites or maybe shops in the coventry area, could you please tell me about them:D.

Your vet will probably have them in the Reception area.

Also try a pet shop or somewhere that cuts keys.

With regard to tattoos , I believe they can also fade in time... some dont, some do.... just something to bear in mind :)

Hi I got some from Here

I got mine done by a company called Pettags online.  Just over £5 for one.  I had one done for four of mine 3 years ago, and they are as good as new.  The brass ones are really strong, and they are engraved, and the lettering is blackened somewhow, and this does not waer away so wasy to read (once you getr the mud off, lol).

when it says to have 'your details' on it, how much do they mean ? is it ok just to have a phone number ?
my puppy is very small and to fit my entire name and address on a tag would involve lily dragging her neck along the floor with the weight :D she is chipped too

sarah
x

My dogs just have our home phone number on one side of the disc, and mobile number on the other. There is also a small tag saying they are chipped, attached to the collar.

liberty

I purchased the tags for my two from here
http://fp.identitag.f9.co.uk, very resonable prices too

one side has: mobile numbers and home number, other side has 'i have a microchip please scan me'
The second tag has house number and post code and my name= needed one with address details on for training but trainer says it was alright for house number and post coded as does the kennel  club

Cordelia

Ill make sure i check those websites out, and ill nip round to my local keycutters, im still wondering whether i have to keep the area of the tattoe shaved aswell, because on a website it said they are usually on the inner side of the leg or on the underside of the stomach, so it might get a bit cold for the dog in winter with them being main body parts. but ill just get her micro chipped, and get her a tag. and ill have to do a bit more research on the tatoeing, cause if they do fade like lel said then its a bit of a waste of time and money, and if i do have to keep the area shaven ive got to consider how the dog will look and feel.

thanks for all the help.

Here in the UK we generally have our ears done ( the dogs that is) :D.  get on the National Dog Tattoo Register website they have loads of info and a contact number.  In most dogs you do not need to shave the ear unless the dog has very hairy ears! :D

Mine have not faded in 3 years.

oh thanks,  thats good to know. ill check that website out now. i wouldnt have a problem with having to shave the ear then cause its a staffy and theyve only got short hair.

Dogs are usually tattooed on the inside of the right earflap. There is no need to keep the area shaved - a wipe with surgical spirit cleans the area enough for the tattoo to be read. Mine are all tattooed, and after 8 years they are still very clear to read.
:)

it must be something with america having it done on the stomach or leg then, cause all of you are pretty sure that its on the ear, and id rather believe u lot.
  

most tattoos Ive seen in practice have been in the ear. the one exception is the APBT. back in the days of the DDA, they had to be done on the inner thigh. I guess to prevent removal through ear cropping. Something that I would be a little concerned about. Although it is very unlikely, there are some sickos that would cut of a dogs ear to remove a tattoo. I have seen some staff and bandog types with ears that have been cropped by "someone". obviously not a vet as the proceedure is illegal here.
I only have my dogs chipped, and they have ID collars with a tel no on them, and to inform of a chip being there. It is actually against the law NOT to have an ID tag on a dog at all times!

Hi Sarah,
   By law it actually states that ID discs have owners name and address on - phone number is optional.  Which I do think is a bit daft - I mean it would be a lot quicker to phone an owner than go round to their address surely!
  Hilda

It is rather silly isn't it. Much easier to phone, than get the street index out to find where someone lives, and hope they're in, and not out looking for their errant pooch :)

liberty law-breaker :D

Edited to add. What if you lose your dog when away somewhere, are people really going to drive 100 miles to return the dog :rolleyes:

Hi

4 out of five of mine are tattooed and they are not readable once they are a few years old.  All are microchipped. 

All have tags, I put my surname and phone number on one side and vet and phone number on the other. 

Whilst the law states that you should have your address on the tag I will not do this as it would be very easy, whilst I am out for someone to read the tag, know I am not at home and pay me a visit.  This is an old law which came in when most people still left their doors unlocked when they went out, and in my opinion needs updating.

EDIT.  I used to have my pups tattooed before they left me so that if anything happened they would be traceable back to me.  However the NDTR would not contact the breeders regarding dogs so I started keeping them all in my name and not transferring to new owners.  I don't know whether it has changed now but if you didn't send in the transfer documents, only the litter tattoo registration they were not put onto the system, both methods thus useless for what I was trying to achieve.

thanks for the help everyone, im gonna stick with a micro-chip, a tatoe, and an id tag, might sound like a lot but its worth it in the end really

My hubby has started to slip our dogs collars off when he takes them into the woods for a walk (they wear half-check collars when on the lead) because he's concerned about the risk of someone stealling them by catching hold of their collar while they are rooting about in the trees.  My dogs are microchipped and also tattooed, but I'm concerned now because we would be seen to be breaking the law when our dogs aren't wearing their collars with the tags on them (you're damned if you do and damned if you don't aren't you?) :(

If someone wanted to nick your dogs collars would make little difference IMHO.  They can use slip leads to catch them.  I would never run my dogs free in half/full check collars it is far too dangerous.  They have flat leather ones to run in so that they don't run the risk of choking etc.

They never wear collars when they are at home, to be honest I never considered the risk of them getting tangled up on anything when they're running free (good point though).....think I'll do as my hubby does and let them run without collars on.  Isn't it terrible when you have to worry that some nutter might be loitering in a bush to steal your dog? I saw on the TV that dogs are actually being kidnapped and returned when a ransom (or recovery reward) is offered, there are some awful people in this world aren't there? :(

My dog trainer told me of an occasion where her friend awoke in the night to find the house on fire. Obviously she got herself and family and the dogs out fast. Unfortunately she did not have house collars on her dogs. Was eventually traced cos of microchip, but it would have been
1 returned quicker if had collar i.d.
2 if it had had a collar on she would have been able to grab it and stop it from running off.

I used to let her be collar free at home, but now she has a soft house collar on at all times....just in case i need to grab her.

Well my five have all THREE also.  The more ID the better I think.

but how long does it take to do a tattoo ?

im just imaginging wriggling screamy little doggies... :(

sara
x

from what ive now found out the tatoes are only supposed to take a couple minutes maybe less, and apparently because dogs have much thick skin it doesnt heart them very much. can anyone tell me how much it is to get a micro chip please.

thanks for all the help

It takes 5 seconds (the tattooist counts) to do a tattoo.
:)

does anyone have a picture of a dog tattoo ? im intrigued...

if u go to this link it has a picture of one, http://www.dog-register.co.uk/

awww concentration camp dog ! :(

One of the major benefits of the system, Lilylaru, is that it is visible identification.
:)

See the NDTR site.

what is normally tattoed on the dog? a number? a name?

They tattoo a reference number. The letters are (I believe) the tattooist's reference, and the number IDs the individual dog. And 'Head Office' doesn't need to be told the whole number to be able to identify a dog - part of the number, and the dog's description, would be enough (or so I was told).

When I had my adult bitch tattooed at the same time as her pups, she sat and wagged her tail while it was done!
:)

I also have quite a few photos of my dogs and those bred by me where you can see the tattoos.