I’m sure there are a few things in this life that you wouldn’t mind losing, (I certainly could do with losing a few pounds off the waistline) but losing one of your dogs, doesn’t even bear thinking about.
It can happen in so many ways: an open door, an unlocked gate, a romp off-lead in a field. In a split second, your pet can go missing. Sometimes a pet finds its way home on its own. More often, though, a lost pet remains lost.
The main cause: lack of identification. You can greatly increase your chances of finding your wandering pet by making sure it has identification at all times. The standard collar and identification tag are a must. But you should also consider the added insurance of a modern microchip, a permanent identification technique that successfully reunites hundreds of pets and owners every year.
A microchip is an invisible form of identification. The chips are the size of a grain of rice and contain a unique ISO standard number. This number is recognised world-wide. The chip is implanted under the skin between the pet’s neck and shoulder. A special scanner can then read the number right through the animal’s skin. Nowadays, when a lost pet is brought to a veterinarian, pound, or animal shelter, it is automatically scanned. The number is checked against a computerized registration database, and the listed owner is contacted immediately. As with an identification tag, it is important to keep contact information current with the database. There is no harm in outfitting your pet in the belt-and- suspenders combination of tag and microchip. You can even put an additional tag on your pet to say that it has been microchipped.
However, one problem that is regularly encountered with found microchipped pets brought to dog pounds, animal shelters, and veterinary surgeries is incorrect contact information on the database or the microchip is not registered. Registering the microchip is the responsibility of the owner.
Right now that task couldn’t be easier with Petlog – The UK’s Largest Lost and Found Database for Microchipped Pets
Why not download the new My Dog UK App onto your smart phones, brought to you by Petlog, who have created the Petlog Lost Pet Alert – Petlog members can mark their dog as missing on the database straight from their phones, and Petlog Premium members can send an alert to authorised agents within a 30-mile radius of where their dog went missing. The app is free and also has advice and info about microchipping, as well as lots of other great features – such as finding dog friendly restaurants / hotels / shops etc
The Kennel Club are offering the upgrade to Petlog Premium for the special price of £7.50 (online) during NMM – which allows you to update your details as many times as you like for the lifetime of your pet, as well as other benefits.
Let’s all get behind the statement that we are a nation of animal lovers, by making sure we protect our dogs, by having them microchipped. Go ahead, start making your plans now, you can always start that diet you have been contemplating, next week.
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