One of my twitter friends was asking if she should renew her dog’s microchip with "Home Alone", and thought maybe that the information in the chip.
Sadly, no. All that is in the "chip" is the number of the chip. When you dog is chipped, your vet should scan it and make sure it is working. Then during the annual exam, they should scan each time to make sure it still works and has not migrated. I’ve heard of chips ending up in dogs legs. Not a big deal, but not something anyone is working for.
Now everyone of my dogs has been chipped and I have been chipping them for a long time. I’ve also tattooed them. Hasn’t done a bit of good. First, my dogs don’t get separated from me very long. Marcie has made a few excursions and when she did, she found someone smart enough to listen to her and bring her back home. Kid you not, happened 4 times.
However, the 5th time Marcie got out, she was playing in the median on a 3 lane road and a lady kindly picked her up. Claimed she took her to a vet and had her checked for a chip but they couldn’t find it. I suspect the lady was not telling the truth, as my vet found the chip right away and she couldn’t tell me where she had taken her. Marcie had a very distinctive collar on but no tags as we were in the middle of agility season. It was the collar that got her home, not the chip. I had left messages with all of the local animal control officers with her description and especially the collar and they called me back the next day telling me which shelter had her. By the way, the lady DID put an entry into PetFinders describing Marcie and the collar so I was already pretty sure I knew she was at.
The moral of the story — tags DO work better than chips. Having a distinctive, custom made collar really helped us but she wouldn’t have had to spend the night in jail if I’d had a tag on her. And yeah, Maggie doesn’t have a tag on her right now, but then at the same time we wouldn’t miss her if she disappeared.
Okay, Maggie is freaking out over the local storms, I let her wander the house on the weekend, and I saw her all of 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Two of those times were for meals. We’re not doing the well together in agility either, mostly my fault.
Macy on the other hand is well tagged. I just have to find Maggie’s. They stay in cages during the day and are double fenced most of the time. At least one human is downstairs and can see the yard while they are in it when they are not double fenced.