A Microchip for Permanent Identification of Your Dog
2008-07-29

A Microchip for Permanent Identification of Your Dog 

The Necessity of a Microchip For pet owners, there's rarely a more frightening experience than discovering a pet missing. In the case of a lost dog, there's often a frantic search throughout the house or yard, followed by a few dozen anxious phone calls to neighbors and local animal shelters.

After that, the search for a lost dog turns to a slow drive through the neighborhood alleys. Sometimes the initial search efforts are rewarded, but unfortunately a lost dog may remain lost for several nerve-wracking hours or days. Millions of pets are becoming lost each year, especially people’s new dogs.

Tragically, few are reunited with their owners. Many lost pets end up in shelters where they are adopted out to new homes or even euthanized. It is important that your pet has identification or a pet tag at all times. In order to achieve this purpose, choose a fence for your new dog. Collars and tags are essential, but they can fall off or become damaged. Technology has made it possible to equip your pet with a microchip for permanent identification and the microchip method of identifying your pet became popular for regular pet owners after the AKC endorsed this method of identification.

The Benefit of the Microchip A microchip is a small rice like, permanent radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted under the dog's skin and read by a chip scanner or wand. Implantation is done with an injector that places the chip under the loose skin over the dog's shoulder. Micro chipping is easy and painless and can be done by a shelter or your veterinarian .

The benefits to "chipping" your dogs are many. Once the microchip is inserted under the skin it is there for life. The chip is only activated when it is scanned, so there is no continual computer parts going off in your animal and each one are fitted with an anti-migration cap to ensure that it won't be off floating around in the body.

Every chip holds individual information, so what is encoded on to the chip remains the same once inside your dog. Also, within each chip is an antenna and a capacitor inside a very tiny glass tube. All three components are what make the chip work. How it Works A microchip is about the size of a grain of rice. It consists of a tiny computer chip housed in a type of glass made to be compatible with living tissue. The microchip is implanted between the pet’s shoulder blades under the skin with a needle and special syringe. The process is similar to getting a shot. Little to no pain is experienced -- most pets do not seem to even feel it being implanted. Once in place, the microchip can be detected immediately with a handheld device that uses radio waves to read the chip. This device scans the microchip, and then displays a unique alphanumeric code.

The pet must then be registered with the microchip company, usually for a one-time fee, so that your pet can be traced back to you if found. Things You Should Know

 • Microchips are designed to last for the life of your pet. They do not need to be charged or replaced.

• Some microchips have been known to migrate from the area between the shoulder blades, but the instructions for scanning emphasize the need to scan the pet’s entire body.

• Your pet can be easily identified if found by a shelter or veterinary office in possession of a scanner. However, some shelters and veterinary offices do not possess scanners. 

• Depending on the brand of microchip and the year it was implanted, even so-called universal scanners may not be able to detect the microchip.

• Microchip manufacturers, veterinarians and animal shelters have been working on solutions to the imperfections, and technology continues to improve over time.

 • There are many different types of chips and chip readers, but these are standardized internationally except for the USA and Hong Kong, so if you are taking your pet overseas you may want to give them a second microchip to comply with the country’s standards.

• Make sure that you supply a second contact number with your details when micro chipping your pet. If you change your number or are uncontestable for any reason, who knows what may happen to your pet. If you don’t have a second contact, then put down your vet clinic. They’re not likely to go anywhere, and will have details for you and your pet already. However, no method of identification is perfect. The best thing you can do to protect your dog is to be a responsible owner. Keep current identification tags on your pet at all times, consider micro chipping as reinforcement, and never allow your dog to roam free. If your pet does become lost, more identification can increase the odds of finding your beloved companion.