I have just returned from my long afternoon walk, yet again with a lost dog!  This is my 2nd dog this year that I have had to bring home due to it having no ID tag.  Now we know that it is a legal requirement to have a tag, earlier this year I had to bring home a black GSD with no tag and today I have a Weimerana. (Sorry if I spelt that wrong.)

I always hang around for a good half an hour when another dog approaches myself and my brood to see whether it's owner is calling for it or should turn up looking for their dog, or to see if the dog will just simply trot off back home by itself.  But this chap today as with the GSD just carried on following us back home across the fields.  He is now sat in my kitchen awaiting some news from my phone call to the police and RSPCA.

Obviously with a tag I could quite easily phone the owner.

My question is, as I am sure this has happened to other people. There is no real way of policing whether a dog has or hasn't a tag apart from through a vet, we all go once or twice a year (or at least should!) for our dogs innoculations, frontline, wormers etc. etc. if a vet notices no tag, should he have the power to insist on one being made up on the premises (Something like Pets At Home do) or report any untagged dogs to the police?

Or does anyone have any better ideas to stop this from happening.

We have found two escapee dogs recently, luckily they were chipped, they had escaped from there back garden hence no collar, i have to admit when my dog is in the house or garden he doesn't where a collar for safety reasons. My biggest concern was what we would have done with the dogs if noone had claimed them, there was no where to turn, obviously we would have kept them for the night, but what if my dog didn't get along with either of them?

Tattooing means you can ID even if they've lost their collar(which does happen)

Can jo public read a tattoo, or is it like the microchip just a number on a database to trace the owner from?

We know that by law all dogs are supposed to have a tag too, which makes tracing an owner so much easier for people like myself to re-unite.

Although microchipping and tattooing, are wonderful creations, I would always highly recommend them. And all of my dogs are microchipped! I once had a cat go missing, he was microchipped, we think he had got into someones van and been driven away, he turned up 50 miles away!  He had been missing for 9 weeks, I was happily re-united with him because he found himself in a vets assistants garden, he had been there for days, she finally decided to take him to work, scanned him and low and behold he was re-united with us.  We were ecsatatic!

But.......... over those 9 weeks, how many people probably looked at him and left him, with a tag he probably would have come home sooner.

A dog is more likely to be phoned through to the authorities if seen wandering around.  I feel if dog tags were kept in check by someone like a vet, it would save the police and RSPCA a lot of unnessesary time.

It is a number & letters but unlike the chip it only needs a pair of eyes to read it & all the police & dog wardens have the NDTR's telephone number(no matter what anyone else says)There is only one register for most tattoos(NGR, hunt & certain lurchers excluded)& the NDTR registrar will try to trace other tattoos even if they are not NDTR ones or registered with them(they will register foreign tattoes for example a GSDs SV tattoo)

Last month a stolen RR that had been missing for 6 weeks was returned to it's owner traced by the tattoo

The NDTR do issue tags with the NDTR telphone number on it

All the dog rescues are also aware of the tattoo & in law to keep or rehome or PTS a dog with a tattoo without trying to trace it's owner is an criminal offence(technically theft by finding I think)Just like finding a cheque book, car that can be traced back to the owner or keeper

Why should vets have more power Ours sell dog tags & mine all have at least three discs(puppy has 4 !)to help ID/trace them

Of course currently microchips are not treated as  permanent so they don't legally prove ownership

My dog isn't even 2 yrs yet and she is on her 3rd tag.  I think it must be when she dives in and out the bracken that she snags them and they just come off.  Luckily not lost her so it didn't matter

I got some really good quality brass tags with very clear engraving online from Pettags. 

The older ones are now 5 1/2 years old and were as good as the new one I got for the pup two years ago.  Unfortunately the tatto registry's and the chip tags have broken off on a couple of mine. 

My tags have my affix (shorter and easier to pronounce than my surnale) address,a dn phone number one side, and have 'I am tattooed and Microchiped, contact NDTR and Petlog'.

Mine always wear their collars and tags, as I feel the danger f them getting out the front door onto the road, or when I am out is greater than the danger to them of wearing their collars at home, or when on walks.

I agree 100% about Pet-tags' quality. My mum's golden's Pettag lasted his whole lifetime - 14 years - and was still as clear as when it was put on his collar.

I was dead impresed with how nice they came up with a bit of brasso when I had Lexi's new one (so that the others didn't appear shabby by comparison), sad aren't I :D

You do it too?

Oh Lord JG we are twinned in dogs :D

LOL! :D

After my new Weimarana friend spent 4 hours with me yesterday, he unfortunately had to be collected by the authourities, he has been collected from them this morning, and had gone on a 3 mile explore from his home. He did not even have a microchip! And had lost his tag as a pup and it had never been replaced. But a happy ending none the less. Hopefully they will now make sure he has a tag.  STill he had a nice little adventure!

My dogs are DNA identified, I notice that whenever this subject comes up it is rarely mentioned that DNA registers do exist and are used. If a tattoo or microchip is unreadable for what ever reason DNA is part and parcel of the dog and is always available and readable.

Perhaps Lyssa you might like to look into the DNA registers when you next have a "found" dog as well as the microchip and tattoo registers. All three  schemes identify a dog registered with them, and can reunite them with their owners.

Yes but it isn't exactly quick or easy as it would require a sample to be taken and then the database to be checked, not something you or I can do, and I suspect not something any rescue centere or Police station are going to do routinely. 

To be honest DNA is only of practical use in cases of dispute over identity not for helping reunite lost dogs with owners.

In answer to the original question - I think a vets time is far to valuable to be monitoring tag status!!  I have found and handed in 'lost' dogs in the past that aren't wearing a tag - generally the owners dont give a toss anyway or say thank you otherwise most of them would be better cared for from the start and wouldn't be wandering without proper identification...Perhaps these people should be fined by surgery's, police stations and pounds before having their dog back (unless tehre is an identification system in place - such as a chip) that might just encourage the useless owners of this world to get a grip and get their dog uniquely identifiable.
I have also noticed that some missing dog 'bureaus' offer a DNA profile of your dog to be done - However, upon reading the small print I noticed that there isn't a database held by these companys, merely a swab (that the owner takes) is kept in the freeze until an identification dispute arrises!  Well, any owner can do that by swabbing their dogs buccal cells with an cotton bud!!  DNA profiling is a timely and costly exercise and I am not aware of a central database that holds information for identification purposes of lost dogs??  Curious though!
Sarah

There are two data bases for DNA registered dogs the one for lost and found is DNATag

I have my 2 dogs and 3 cats microchipped and tagged

On the front of the tag I have my name and phone no  and on the back it has on I am microchipped, so pleased I have them all with ID

As last week one of my dogs managed to jump a 6ft fence witch he has never done before, did'nt think he could jump that high, we found out later he went to chase a cat even though we have 3

Anyway he was missing for 4 hours spend most of that looking for him and on the phone informing pet log'  shelters etc it got to the point where I was phoneing vets asking if they had an injured dog brought in as he has no road sense

Luckily someone found him and handed him in to a pet shop and they phoned me, he had managed to walk 4 towns away  and cross alot of busy roads I could'nt believe it that he got that far away

He's a very lucky lad and the fence has been hightened so no more adventures for him

In my area if a dog is found straing and gets to the council dog warden or dogs home the owner has to pay to get the dog irrespective of it having ID asit should not be at large alone.

if a vet notices no tag, should he have the power to insist on one being made up on the premises (Something like Pets At Home do) or report any untagged dogs to the police?

No!!! Vets are there to treat the animals....not act as dictators!

Thank you all for your thoughts on this subject. It's not something you really worry or care about until you have a lost dog come your way. If your dog looses it's tag or your dog slips out accidently with no I.D. that is fine and a fact of life. But I hope that this post may make people who purposely don't bother with a tag, think abut the inconvenience that it causes jo public and the proffessional. LOL