Microchipping: Helping Lost Dogs Find Their Way Home

It’s every dog lover’s nightmare: their beautiful pooch has slipped his collar and although they look everywhere, they can’t find him. Little do they know that he’s sitting sadly in a dog pound in the next state, having been on a very long walk. Since he has no identification on him, how will he ever find his way home?

Microchipping to the rescue! If the dog in our story had a tiny microchip inserted under his skin, the dog pound would be able to scan it, look up its number in a secure database and get in contact with the worried owners in a very short time.

Microchipping involves placing a small microchip under the skin of your dog, usually on the neck. This chip is encoded with a unique number and your contact details are stored against that number in a secure microchip registry. The procedure is safe, not expensive and causes little pain or discomfort to your pet.

If you move house, or change your phone number or other details, you can contact the registry office and update them. You can even transfer the dog microchip registration to a new owner if you sell your dog.
Local councils and pet shelters often operate these registries but there are many private agencies that operate them too. There may also be a national registry in your country.

Vets, animal shelters and council pounds are allowed to operate special pet microchip scanners that can read the number from a chip. If your dog is lost and is taken to one of these places, they can scan the microchip to find the number. One quick call to the microchip registry and you can be reunited with your pet!

There have been many happy stories from around the world of people and their pooches being reunited through the microchip--sometimes after many years!

You might even find that your local council requires you to microchip your dog as a condition of dog ownership and registration.

Microchipping is often done at around eight weeks of age, before the puppy goes to its new home, or at the time of desexing (around 6 months), but it can be done at any age, as long as the puppy is not too small. Some local governments may require that your dog be microchipped by a certain age--for example, 3 months.

Don’t wait until your dog gets lost before you think about microchipping your dog. Why not get your vet to insert a microchip next time you visit for vaccinations? Microchipping could save you a lot of heartache and help you find your friend quickly if he ever decides to stray.