Protect your Great Dane with 3 forms of ID

Three things you can do to help protect your Great Dane if he/she gets lost

I can attest to the fact that losing a dog is devastating. My first dog ran away during a thunderstorm and was never seen again. This was before the days of microchips and digital tags.

You can bet that I protect my Great Danes three ways. A microchip, an ID tag that is strongly secured to the collar (I love boomerang tags) and a digital dog license tag. June is National microchip awareness month so here is what you need to know and do to get the most out of your Great Dane’s microchip.

The information embedded in a microchip

You might think that once your dog has a microchip that is all you need to do. It’s not! The microchip is only as good as the information you have supplied it with. Shelters and veterinarians say that only about 20% of microchips have current information or any information on them at all! That means 80% of microchips in pets are useless.

For example, you adopt your new family member from a rescue. The rescue will have their information attached to that microchip if there is any information at all. You need to register that chip number with either the chip manufacture or a third party that keeps and shares the information when needed. Martok is registered with three different services. Why 3? They don’t cost anything and each service is a little different I’ll go into that but first let’s talk about the microchip.

What you need to do with your dog’s microchip:

Identify the microchip number. it may be a collar tag or included with paperwork. If you can’t find it then ask your veterinarian to read the tag for you.
Register the number with a tag registry. It can be the manufacturer of the tag or a third party. Martok’s tag is an Avid tag. They require a one-time enrollment fee, some chips include the enrollment with the tag. Many third party registries are free.
Keep the information up to date and check it annually to make sure it is up to date.

Where Martok’s microchip is registered:

PetLink. It is free and you can register any manufacturer of microchips. When we had two Great Danes they each had a different chip type and I wanted them registered together.
FindPet. I found this place while researching for this post. They also have a free account level. What I found unique is in addition to multiple photos you can register your dog’s nose print. It is like our finger prints. I’m not sure how useful it is unless the person who finds your dog knows that.
PetHub. Which has partnered with many local animal licensing organizations. I’ll talk about the more below.

When your Great Dane’s microchip is scanned the number can then be searched in the AAHA microchip search, a universal chip lookup service. It will search 35 different services to find out which one that chip is registered with. When I tried this I found that one registry service timed out which is why I decided to register with two services.

Microchip pros and cons

If you need special equipment to read a microchip is it really that great? Unless your dog is picked up or taken to a veterinarian or shelter the microchip won’t help but it is still an important part of protecting them.

Pros

it can’t be removed or lost like a collar or tags
you can manage the information contained in the tag easily
no two chips will have the same number

Cons

can move within the body making it hard to find with a scanner
need a chip reader to get the number
easy to forget to update your information

Microchips are great but what if your dog is found by someone who doesn’t have a chip reader?

One solution is to add your dog’s chip number to their ID tag. But if you don’t have the space on the tag or didn’t think to do that when you had the tag made? There is a solution to have all the information you want digitally attached to your Dane by using QR technology.

PetHub is the first company to use QR codes to encode digital information on a pet tag. They allow you to make a full profile of your pet including vaccination records, insurance medications and more. They also partner with many city and county organizations so that you don’t have to use a PetHub tag. You can register your local tag with them if it is using QR technology. If your local area doesn’t use a QR on their dog license tags then get a PetHub one.

By registering Martok’s Humane Society dog license with PetHub his profile can be easily found by scanning his tag with a smart phone. their basic service is free with upgrade options that I haven’t used. And if you don’t have a local dog license for your Great Dane, get one. It is the only way to prove that you are the owner of your dog!

PetHub profile

I found a great interview with Lorien Clemens of PetHub at Wear Wag Repeat while I was writing this post. I’ve been using PetHub for years but learned much more about the company from the interview.

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