Today a dog followed a cyclist onto the campus of a large organization. He was a friendly, well behaved young labrador with a shock collar but no tags - clearly he'd escaped from the safety of his nearby home and wandered around until he found a human to follow.
The organization's security team called animal control, per their standard procedure, but a kindly employee who lived nearby offered to take him home instead, concerned that if the owner couldn't be located the dog would be euthanized. She took him to the local animal control t0 have him scanned for a microchip and registered a report that she'd found the dog in case the owners called in looking for him. He wasn't microchipped and there was no identification noted on the shock collar.
Many people assume that because they keep their dogs behind an invisible fence, they don't need to tag and microchip them. Unfortunately some dogs are too curious, or are naturally inclined to test their escape artist skills, and ignore the shock as they make a break for it. In other instances the battery in the collar goes dead, enabling the dog to dash for freedom without paying a price.
Once the joy of being able to roam free wears off and a dog finds itself in unfamiliar territory with no real idea of how to get back home, a lack of identification can mean the difference between a happy ending and yet another animal unnecessarily euthanized in an overburdened shelter.
Even if you think your pet can't get out, you should still consider making sure they have some means of being identified in the event that they actually do. Licensing and identifying your animal makes it more likely that it will be returned to you if picked up by animal control. Assuming the contact information held by the microchip company is up to date, microchips can help reunite you with your adventurous pet even if they have lost their tags.
Right now the search is on for this beautiful boy's owners - flyers have been posted in the neighborhoods near where he was found, animal control has been notified, local vets are informed of his whereabouts and a notice has been posted to craigslist. How much faster and easier would a return have been if he'd been tagged and chipped?
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We agree with you all dogs should be microchiped and or wear identification on their collar. Microchipping is and easy painless process done by the vet, that does not hurt your dog. Before microchipping and before Invisible dog fences we had a Golden who ran away and was gone for 2 days, we were frantic and he had identification. We eventually got him back but only because some nice person who found him called the vet on the tags, to check who the ownes were. Since then we have microshipped all our dogs. We now have an invisible dog fence or they also called electric dog fence, electronic dog fence underground dog fence, in ground dog fence, radio fence, hidden fence or perimeter dog fence and other names. They have many names but all basically work on the same idea. To keep you dog enclosed in an area that you determine by using an under ground wire connected to a transmitter and a dog collar that connects to it by radio waves not electricity. As I said we have one and have for the last 7 years and it has worked fabulously. We have kept our 3 Big Golden Retrievers ( who are also microchipped and wear their dog tags on their dog fence collars) safe inside a 5 acre area and they have never ventured out. They have freedom and are safe from cars and wandering off which Golden Retriever’s tend to do. The electric dog fence has given us tremendous freedom from worry, without having an unsightly wooden or chain link fence around our property. They are portable too we take it with us when we travel with our dogs. We would RECOMMEND THEM HIGHLY to everyone with a dog. For more information go to
K9 Electric Dog Fence & Dog Products
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