Tattooing or microchipping your Border Collie puppy gives you peace of mind and protection if your Border Collie is ever lost or stolen. Some Border Collies have both.
These days most vets and rescue organisations scan all the cats and dogs they receive into their care to check for a means of identification to identify the owners of the whereabouts of their pet.
There are hundreds of heart warming stories of Border Collies and their families reunited simply because they microchipped or tattooed their Border Collie making their owners easy to find....
Microchipping ensures your Border Collie is identifiable if something ever goes wrong.
The benefits of microchipping include:
it is a simple procedure to perform
it is inexpensive
it does not hurt your Border Collie
it is a way to permanently ensure your Border Collie is identifiable as belonging to you
it cannot be lost (but in rare cases it can move)
the system is accessible Australia-wide 24 hours a day
Microchipping your Border Collie puppy gives it a permanent identity.
A small, silicon microchip, no bigger than a grain of rice, is inserted just under the skin of the shoulder area.
A unique identification number identifies the microchip. Along with your name, address and telephone number is entered and recorded in a central database. The microchip number is read using a unique scanner that most Australian vets and rescue organisations have so they can track down the details of the animal’s owner.
To further protect you as the Border Collie’s owner, you cannot check up on a particular Border Collie using the owner’s name, only the identification number.
These days, all Victorian councils require all cats and Border Collies microchipped before council registration is given. Many other Australian councils offer substantial discounts on the Border Collie registration fees to owners who microchip their pets.
Microchipping makes reuniting you with your Border Collie relatively quick and simple once it is found.
Up until recently tattooing was the common method of identification for pedigree Border Collies but it is not very popular today, except in specific breed club schemes.
While tattooing has its merits, the database is not centralised for quick access to a Border Collie’s owners. In Australia, tattoo schemes are used to track, identify and study genetic diseases within a particular breed. The Australian National Kennel Council is phasing out the use of tattooing for the purpose of breed schemes, as microchips can be used for the same purpose.
Tattoos are also still used to identify female Border Collie puppies when they are desexed. We all know how easy it easy to tell if a male is desexed or not, well a female is not so easy so a tattoo is an easy identification and record of the desexing.
It makes sense to microchip your Border Collie puppy so you know you have a good chance of being reunited if it ever goes missing or is stolen.
I guess the question one may ask is "Do these systems really live up to their name?"
I once had a pug who went to live at a friends house. She was in the habit of letting the pugs run around in her front yard.
It was not long before she noticed that the pug was missing and after searching high and low, putting up missing posters all around the local shopping centers, around her neighborhood, vet surgery and animal shelters. She still came up with no responses.
I was studying at the time and a few days later received a call from a vet surgery in a nearby suburb saying that they had my pug there. I informed them that my friend would be around to collect her. Apparently the people who brought the pug in, were worried about the pugs snorting and were concerned about the pugs breathing. They were not familiar with a pugs normal breathing habits.
As a part of their check up the vet scanned the pug for a microchip, then brought up the owners details from the national database and then questioned the persons about where the pug resided and who was the owner. I believe it was turned over to the police as a dog napping related issue.
Within minutes of the vet having worked out that the pug was a missing pug according to its microchip records they were able to contact us immediately and ensured a swift and safe return of the pug.
Tip: One of the most important things is to never tell anyone that your Border Collies are microchipped.
If people realize that your Border Collies is microchipped then the likely hood of your Border Collie being taken to a vet will be minimal.
Thus delaying the time of getting your missing Border Collie back sooner.
So yes we can recommend these systems and how well they work, but be mindful of how effective these systems can be if the records are obsolete so it is important to update ones records when there is a address or contact phone number change.