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There is not much of anything in the world than the sight of a child who is grieving a lost dog. Teary-eyed and depressed, yet hopeful, she goes around the neighborhood tacking Xeroxed signs to telephone poles, pleading for the safe return of her beloved pet, all the time knowing that the odds are stacked against her and her dog.

Over the years there have been various methods enacted to try and raise the number of lost pets that are reunited with their owners. Dog licensing and tag laws are one way that local governments have tried to help, but they don’t work very well at all. If a lost dog has lost its identification tag it is nearly impossible for anyone to find the dog’s owner.

For many years the owners of show dogs have used tattoos to put permanent identifying marks of their dogs. The tattoo is placed on the skin of the inner thigh, near the abdomen and contains a unique number assigned by the American Kennel Club. The tattoos aren’t readily visible to the average person, however, and shelter employees seldom check for tattoos on the “strays” that are brought to them on a daily basis.

A newer method of dog identification hopes to put an end to the number of lost dogs that can’t be reunited with their owners, or at least reduce it significantly. A microchip is inserted under the dog’s skin near the shoulder. This chip contains encoded data about the dog and its owner that may then be read by a scanner. It is a more permanent method than a simple metal tag, less painful and inconvenient to the dog than tattooing, and has a higher success rate than any other method when it comes to getting lost dogs back together with their owners.

The method isn’t perfect; some microchips may shift over time and become unreadable to scanners and there is the possibility, however remote, that the microchip can become demagnetized. It is the best method developed so far and is now being used all over the world.

Insertion of the microchip is a simple and nearly pain free process for the dog. Unlike tattooing, which requires the dog to be restrained and often shaved, implantation of the microchip is similar to an injection. After a tiny pinprick, its over and the dog can now be identified at any shelter equipped with the scanning device. The information on the chip is unique to the dog and the owner and makes a reunion a high probability instead of a remote possibility.

Thanks to microchip technology, we may have seen the last child crying over her lost dog and that would be a Very Good Thing.

If you’re in the market for a purebred dog, you’ll need to find a breeder. This can often be as easy as opening the classified advertising section of your local newspaper, but you’ll want to be sure that the breeder you’ve chosen is reputable. There are several ways to help ensure that the breeder you’ve found is reliable, professional, and trustworthy.

Ask for References

Any good breeder will be able to provide you references of clients he has worked with in the past. These will be people who have purchased a puppy or utilized stud services and will be happy to share their experiences with you. Choosing a breeder that was used by someone you know is a good choice as well. If your friend or family member was happy with the service and treatment he or she received from the breeder, the odds are good that you will be as well.

Prepare to be Asked Questions

A good breeder will have as many questions for you as you have for him, perhaps more. Good breeders work to ensure that the dogs they breed are placed with the correct people. They may ask whether you have children, what size home or yard you have, and numerous other questions to help them let you know whether the dog you’re seeking is right for you and your family. A breeder that doesn’t ask these types of questions may be looking just for the money from the sale of the dog and is probably not the sort of breeder you want to do business with. A good breeder always has the best interest of both the dog and the clients in mind.

Guarantees

A good breeder will have had the puppies checked for potential health risks before ever selling the animal. Some problems, however, simply are not detectable until later in life. If you purchase a golden retriever pup, for example, and six months later discover that it has hip dysplasia (a genetic defect in the animals hip joints, it is often nearly undetectable until the animal is several months old), a good breeder will issue a refund to you, no questions asked. Genetic defects like this are avoided by the use of selective breeding (hip dysplasia in dogs has between a 25% and 85% chance that it is genetic in origin), but sometimes a pup will display the disorder even if there is no trace of it in either parent’s history.

Other Sources

Aside from looking in the newspaper or on the internet for a dog breeder, breeders can be found through veterinarian’s offices, pet supply stores, and at dog shows. Dog shows are a very good choice since the breeders that attend these events are often showing one of their dogs or are there to see the performance of one that they bred and sold in the past.