Dog Tags Can Ensure a Quick and Safe Return of Your Pet

The most effective way of being reunited with a lost dog is to ensure your pet’s dog tags have clear identification on them. The dog’s name is important, as a lost and frightened animal will feel some comfort when a kind stranger calls him by name, and your home phone number is pretty much essential. Since most dog tags have printing on both sides, you may want to include your name and address on the back.

The most common and cost efficient dog tags are plastic or metal ones that attach to dog collars. The drawback to these are that they can either fall off, or be removed by a pet thief, but they are definitely better than nothing. Plastic tags are weather resistant, lightweight, and cheap, and are sufficient for pets that are not very active or adventuresome, though the drawback is that they become brittle and hard to read over time. A metal tag will stand up to the elements better, but make sure it is made of a non-corrosive metal, such as brass, or they, too, will become too hard to read.

A common alternative to dog tags is a vet-inserted microchip. Though more expensive than a dog collar tag, these microchips are registered in a national database, and many city vets, pounds and animal shelters have scanners to read the information from the imbedded microchip. This procedure will cost anywhere from $15 to $60, and entails having a tiny transponder, about the size of a grain of rice, inserted under the pet’s skin, usually the scruff of the neck, and is as painless to the dog as a vaccination, with the possibility of a pain-free return should he be lost.