Is your dog chipped?

[furrykidmom]

To chip or not to chip. I keep getting mixed opinions in PA. Here are the debates.
1. Everyone has different scanners. They may not have the scanner to match your dog's chip

2. What makes you think that if someone findss a purebred Boxer that they are going to know to take it and have it scanned. Assuming that they are not thinking "If the owner was not responsible enough to not let it get loose then they do not deserve to get him back." I am just repeating what people said to me.

3. Boxers are at a risk for cancer why would you put a foriegn body in them?

4. What are the risks of it migrating?

We keep collars with tags on our dogs. I really want to have them chipped but everytime I set it up someone talks me out of it.

 

[efb01]

All my dogs are chipped. As for them migrating, they can but usually stay in the chest-shoulder area. Proper scanning techinique takes that into acount and the dog should be scanned over the shoulders, down the front legs, and the chest area also. When I take my dogs in for their yearly exam I have the vet tech scan them to make sure the chip still works and also locate it to see if it has moved.

 

[sargejimenez]

When I got my dog chipped they gave me a tag to put on his collar with the numbers and the web site of the chip. If they don't have the right scanner they can look it up on the web. But I guess if he should happen to lose his collar it wouldn't do any good . You can also have a tatoo placed on the underside of their top lip. I had a dog once that had that.There are many different ways you can make sure your baby finds their way home, I guess it's each persons own choice as to what they use. Hopefully we won't ever lose our babies!

 

[Bruno&Belle]

I know that it's unlikely that my dogs will get loose, and that yes, if someone found them, they might want to keep a purebred dog. But I also know that if somehow they ended up missing, I would want to know that I've done everything possible to make sure they could find their way home again. I know that if our local shelter picked them up, they would be scanned, and I hope that there are still people out there that would want to see pets returned to their owners.

For me, any possible risks that could come with microchipping (none of which I've read legimate reports of) it's worth it for the peace of mind.

Edited to add - When I called the local animal shelter to see what type of chip they scanned for, I was told they had a universal scanner that read all types.