If you have ever gotten a dog microchipped (or adopted a recently chipped dog) you know that the chips always come with a collar tag saying the dogs chip number and the 1-800 number for the chip company. Home Again (one of the two major chip companies in the US) also sells decorative tags in their shop that are a little nicer than the plastic ones they give with the chips- but have the same info- chip # and a 1-800 number. I never really gave much thought to these, because if the person can read the collar tag I would just rather have them call me. After all my cell phone number is also hanging off that collar, so if you find my dog feel free to cut out the middle man and go straight to me. If the dog wasn't wearing a collar when they go out, or slipped their collar then of course scan the chip and call me.
Then it was pointed out to me that the chip is actually a theft deterrent. A collar tag says to the would be dog napper "this dog is chipped and therefore easy to trace." If someone picked up my dog that had just gotten away from me and was tempted to keep it, they might see the collar tag saying chipped and decide to do the right thing and return my dog. This is bordering slightly on paranoid for my taste- but out of an abundance of caution I have started taking it seriously. Now when I order tags if there is space I am putting the word "microchipped" (I am not replacing the word "Reward" something that is always on there to encourage swift return, I am just adding if there is space).
I just ordered Nova a Home Again tag and put it on her buddy belt with her rabies tag. As you can see above I got a blue one to match her blue rabies tag. The chis are too small to wear anything other than a small ID tag on their collars so I put their rabies tags and now for Nova a home again tag on their buddy belts. Kerri actually just wears a small ID tag on her buddy belt when we go out, but she is not a flight hazard like Nova is. I am still wondering if I should order Home Again tags for the other dogs. After all they are the two that anyone might ever want to keep, if a dog napper got Nova into their car I imagine they would be begging me to take her back in about 10 seconds. For Nova I just put every piece of ID I can think of on her because I am so worried about her bolting away from us (really Ben, she is never going to bolt while I am around alone). The other dogs go naked for safety when they are home alone (Nova too is naked except for a breakaway collar), then wear collars with just an ID tag with my number the rest of the time. When we take trips hiking or camping is the only time I put the rubit with their rabies tags on them (Copley's on the collar and Kerri's on the buddy belt) but maybe I should be ordering Home Again tags for these times too. That also begs the question- is the word "microchipped" on a regular ID tag as effective as a tag from the actual chip company? All things to ponder.
What do you guys think?
P.S. Microchip your pets, it's always a good idea.
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