i'm not sure which i want my dog to have,i would like to show her,

All my dogs are tattooed & shown

Tattooing was started by GSD breeders & is done by dog people & non profit making & only requires a pair of eyes to read rather than the dog having to be taken to a scanner to have the chip read

Having a tattoo will not stop you showing your dog

Why not both? Some downsides are:

Microchips - they can move but are supposed to be better these days, scanners can fail, police stations rarely have a scanner if your dog is taken there, if Joe Bloggs finds your dog he will not even think to get him scanned for the chip to be found, Joe might like your dog and keep him.

Tattoos - they can fade, someone finding your dog might not think to look in the ear, they might notice a tattoo and have no idea who to contact, they are extremely painful when done.

My dogs did not find the microchipping very painful although the needle is large they reacted in the same way they do to vaccinations. The brave dogs didn't notice, the wimpy dogs cried. The tattooing on the other hand was extremely painful for all the dogs and their ears clearly ached for hours afterwards. We knew one tattoo didn't come out well very soon and the tattooist re-did him and notified the tattoo register.

Some of the microchips have moved slightly in our dogs, none of the tattoos have faded (yet, they were done several years ago).

Whichever you use, if someone has taken your dog you can prove that it belongs to you.

If your lost/stolen dog was seen by you in the street you would have to get a chipped dog to a reader (vets or similar) to prove it was yours, if your dog is tattooed you have the readers in your head and so does the other person (hopefully no blind people involved ;) ) so you have immediate confirmation of your ownership. 

My dog was tattooed and the discomfort seemed to be no more than that of vaccination and all forgotten after a treat :D  Five years old and no fading yet :D

I have one m/c dog & one tattooed. The m/c one didn't even notice when he was done. The other was tattooed when she came to me at 8 weeks so I don't know how much it hurt but her ear was very puffed up & red for a few weeks. Now you can't see the tattoo ( she's a breed with erect ears) because the hair has grown over it, think you'd have to shave the ear to read it. I think it would be far less traumatic to read the chip than to struggle peering inside an ear ( tho' I believe you can have them tattooed in other places). In future I'll have mine chipped I think.

I have all mine tattooed, and one is also chipped - I know he's a wimp, but he found chipping at 15 months old (he's not bothered by ordinary injections) far more painful than tattooing at 6 weeks! All the tattoos are still legible, even after 9 years. Tattoos do not affect showing in any way.

I've got to get my pup tattooed, but all my Boxers have been tattooed.
My oldie that died 3 years ago at 10 yo had her's done at 18 months old, her tattoo
never faded and was still perfectly readable when she died.
She was the biggest wimp out and yes having her ear tattooed did seem to hurt her.

My current oldest Boxer now 6yo was done at 3yo (done same time as I had her pups done)
she didn't even feel anything and she hates the vets looking into her ears before the tattoo
was done, so I thought she'd feel it. It's still readable.

My middle girl was done as a wee pup, and as she's brindle and has hairy ears it's a little
more harder to read, but you can still see she is tattooed and identified.

I think alot is down to personal choice, but I'm more than happy with tattoo method.
I think you should be able to have choice re the identifying method that you want for your dogs
and not be forced either way.

All my Boxers are shown and I agree with Jean, it's never once affected their placings.
:)

Tattooing is not very painful it takes seconds & they do not fade especially now they are done in black ink When my Import GSD died at 15 her tattoo was still legible & that was in green ink done at 6 weeks in Germany.I have had lots of dogs done & none are more wimpy that the adult GSD & when done as puppies they will be back & playing immediately afterwards. I have never seen any puppies with infected or puffy ears afterwards & these were GSDs which I believe you have Anwen(?)It only takes a couple of minutes to clean the ears(all dogs should have their outer ears cleaned on a regular basis & trimming a bit of hair off can be done at the same time. Only part of the tattoo needs to be visible for the registrar to find the owner unlike the chip whcih needs the full number to be available

Microchips do move they also can fail to be read even if they don't move I have also seen dogs(this was at Crufts)who had been chipped & had to be redone because the chip had come out(it was clearly visible half way out of the hole in the neck of the SBT who had been chipped at Crufts)

You might want to do a belt & braces job tattoo, chip & of course the mandatory ID tag. Both the Tattoo register & mircochip firms(whichever firm the chipper gets their chips from as there are several commerical companies doing chips)provide a collar tag showing that the dog is tattooed/chipped. You can get the tattoo/microchip number added to the KC docs as well

I have both, and they always wear tagged collars.

Three of my dogs were tatoo'd as 7 week pups and i could not read any of the numbers by the time the dogs reached 3 years.  I micochip.

Sharon

Hi,
My dog was tattooed at seven weeks old.  He is now almost 4 and the tattoo is still very clear.
So, as far a tattooing goes, it all depends on the tatooist and the quality of the inks used.

For the record I intend to have the 'Gas-Bucket' chipped as soon as I can get around to it.

If I am unlucky enough to 'miss-place' him, I can only hope that he is found by an honest person who can either read the disks on his collar, look in his ear for his tattoo number, or take him to the vets to get him chip scanned.

Don't know what else I can do.
   :rolleyes:

Harry C

LOL Harry you could always follow the smell ;)

Karan1, who ever did your dog tatto couldnt have done it very well if  the dog was in pain for hours after that. When my dog was done i was at our friends house who was the breeder and when the puppies were done one of them didnt even make a noise and they were foghting and playing with each other 30mins after. And with microchipping the microchip can move around the body and can cause infections it can also come out of the dog. Like someone said it all depends on the tattooist and at what age you do the dog.

sarah xxxx

I'm saying microchip your dog. You must remember that it is a VERY slim chance that the chip will move down and A LOT more dogs are reunited with owners through micro chipping rather than tattooing.
Also, if some one steals your dog and they see a tattoo they may cut your dogs ear off so it can not be identified (there have been a lot of cases of this) where as they wont know if your dog has been micro chipped.

Also, if some one steals your dog and they see a tattoo they may cut your dogs ear off so it can not be identified (there have been a lot of cases of this) where as they wont know if your dog has been micro chipped.

Lots of one eared dogs around are there ? I think not  One Greyhound was found last year after being dumped dying from neglect by it's owner who had attempted to cut it's ears off

In order to amputate a dogs ear the dog would have to be dead or unconcious & why would someone who stole a dog cut it's ear off ? it would make the dog unsellable & tthat is why most dogs are stolen. On the other hand most chips can be felt & removed quite easily or the other method is to put another chip along side the first one & the information is not readable(this has been proved in trials done several years ago)

As for lots more dogs being reunited by microchip that tattoo can you give me the precise figures you have & their source ? Four GSD puppies were stolen in the NE of England & had they been chipped they would have been sold on, however they were visibly tattooed & were returned in less than 12 hours & these dogs had been stolen to order

A mircochipped cavalier has been missing after being stolen for over a year, odds on she has been sold on & the new owner will never know that the dog has been stolen unless for some reason the dog is scanned

Are you aware that there are 1000's of very expensive cycles, plants, motorbykes, zoo animals  etc on the Petlog All the most valuable plants at Kew gardens are microchipped so when figures are quoted on implanted chips are quoted remember they include all the inanimate objects as well

What makes you think thieves do not know about microchips & that they do not have scanners ? if they are prepared to cut off a dogs ear removing a chip would be childs play there is  lot of money involved in stealing dogs to order

A dog that we found in France had a tatto, but it wasn't readable. Fortunately we were recommended to take him to a local vets where they recognised him - otherwise he might have been put down very quickly :(

Daisy

French friends told us that in France it is compulsory for dogs to be tattooed.

It is, I think. My daughter did her work experience in a vets in France a couple of years ago. One of the things that she hated was when they tattooed the puppies - she said that they squealed so much :( Apparently they don't really have rescue centres much and if dogs are lost they have often been put down before the owners have time to find them :(

Daisy

If they sqealed a lot the tattooist & assistant are at fault

The one thing people forget to do is clean the wax of the dogs ears Someone at our club complained they couldn't read the tattoo on their dog I cleaned the ear witth baby wipes & yes the tattoo was perfectly visible, it did take 10 baby wipes as the dog who was three had never had his ears cleaned & they were filthy