Frustrates me when people don't put dog tags on their dogs

Sorry for the rant...

For some reason, lost dogs and abandoned dogs often end up in our neighborhood. Our next door neighbor says lots of people abandon animals in our area in hopes they'll be adopted.

Yesterday I noticed a healthy, happy, friendly dog wandering around--it was too timid to come up to me, but did not have a collar.

The day before, I noticed an small, apparently injured dog--with no collar.

Six weeks ago, I found two large (80 lb +) white dogs in the neighborhood. They were very happy and friendly, but seemed hungry. Both came and visited with me, and made friends with my dog. One had a collar--but no name tag. They showed up several times--our vet came out with a handheld scanner to search for microchips. I do not know if she found any, but the dogs have not been back.

A few months before that, a Jack Russell named Jack came to visit us. He had a collar and name tag! After playing with our kids and pretending to be afraid of our dog for about an hour, he went home quite happily.

If you have a dog or other animal, please give it a collar and id tag. Don't use the cheap id tags made by the little engraving machines--they wear out so that the name is no longer legible (yep, been there). Those last about 2 months on my dog. If you're afraid to have your phone number posted, use a lost pet service. Recommendations below.

Personally, have my home number, my cell number, my wife's cell number, and the AKC CAR number on the dog's id. When she gets a new collar, I may get one with our home number embroidred into the collar. She's not microchipped (yet) as there were only 2 readers in the county we lived in before--the vets there never recommended microchips. Instead they tattooed an id on the dogs.

Ok, sorry for the rant. It just irritates me no end to try and help a lost animal, just to find that the owner didn't bother taking basic precautions.

My personal recommendations (I'm not affiliated with these)

nametags: I like epettags.com. They are the official provider for the AKC CGC (canine good citizen) program and the AKC CAR (companion animal recovery) program. I've only replaced one once--because we moved.

Lost pet services: I used to use Dr. Foster & Smith program. It was really good, and allowed you to store data about vet, etc. When we moved, I was unable to contact them to update records. It seems that a lot of the for-profit pet recovery services have gone out of business since I last checked, or have gone to an annual subscription fee. Now I use the AKC CAR program--one lifetime fee. I'm impressed with them so far.

Anyone else have good recommendations for pet recovery?

Again, my apologies for the rant. Just makes me angry!

I also have a tag from epettags. It hasn't worn at all after 4 years.

Better yet... get the microchip implanted. Collar gets lost or torn, the dog can still find his/her way home to you with some help from a vet/humane society/shelter.

Also, the chip may save you some money in license fees. My county allows microchiped dogs to get a permament license with a 1 time payment. No more running for licenses each year.

There are no license fees where I live.

However, I am tempted by the chip. There are more readers here than there were in NC.

Actually, my dog has only gotten out once--after our fence was damaged. The neighbor put her back in the yard (this was in NC). She has no desire to leave.

I just wish other people would put ID on their animals. I'll always call the owner if I can...but give me something!

Well my bet is on...

Most dogs you find in your area.. the owners don't want to be found.. :sigh:

Agreed. Sadly.

I just adopted a dog two weeks ago and the first thing I did was put a tag on his collar. I also got him microchipped when I brought him to the vet. He was found as a stray and was at the animal shelter for a month before my wife and I got him. What surprises me is that he is so quiet, cute and friendly and he is housetrained so why would someone abandon him. Certainly if he was missed he would have been found since he was at the shelter for a month. If that was my dog I would have contacted every shelter in a 100 mile radius. Since he had no tag I assume no one wanted him which is fine since he is now in a good loving home.

Carpenter said:

Well my bet is on...

Most dogs you find in your area.. the owners don't want to be found.. :sigh:

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Probably right. What I cant figure is why take em to start with? If they dont want the responsibility they shouldn't get pets. :thinking:

with cats, there is some slight controversy RE chipping. There is a form of cancer in cats called Vaccine Associated Sarcoma - also called Injection site sarcoma. This cancer is usually fatal, unless the cancer is in a limb where the can amputate, which is why cats are now normally vaccinated in the leg.

There have been a few documented cases of VAS found associated with the chip.

Now - I don't want to say it the chips fault - it seems that certain cats are geneticaly succeptable to VAS (My Tuxedo is one of them) - just about any injection into these cats can cause VAS - At first, they thought it was only the rabies shot, then they thought is was only adjuvinated (sp) shots - but they have found that even pure saline can cause it! (although at a MUCH lower rate). It seems quite rare with the chip, but it is something to think about

Tux is one of the fairly rare "non amputation" long term survivors - he was diagnosed amost 6 years ago, and has been cancer free since September 2002

MARNAV1 said:

Probably right. What I cant figure is why take em to start with? If they dont want the responsibility they shouldn't get pets. :thinking:

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Most people don't understand the responsibility of owning a pet. They look cute and get the "aahhh"'s when they are little but then they start growing up, eating more food, needing more trips to the vet, etc. etc. Most people don't realize how much money it takes to take care of your 4 legged friend.

I also think most people let them go rather than take them to a shelter because they don't have the surrender fee some shelters/humane societies want and/or they think they will receive a lecture when surrendering the animal. Most shelters I've dealt with are more than happy to help an animal out without any lectures. I also truely doubt they would not take a surrendered animal because you can't come up with the fee they want. The fee is to help offset their boarding costs until they can find a new home for the animal. The animal is much more important in their mind than a (usually) small fee.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets frustrated with lack of responsibility where animals are concerned.

My dog also came from a humane society. She now has her CGC and is a wonderful part of our family.

Our dog was a gift from my wife when I finished my doctorate. She told me to pick any dog in the world that I wanted (within reason). I did a lot of research, talked to several people, etc. One day we stopped at the humane society--and there she was! Now, over 7 years and two children later, she's still a huge part of our lives.

Ours is a Char-pei/Bull Terrier mix. We found her on-line at a shelter in the area. We were very lucky to be the first accepted application for her. According to the shelter, they never received so many applications for one dog before. We were a little leary with the bull terrier side of her, (Think Pit Bull with wrinkles) but after doing some checking and calling the shelters vet for some info, we took her home and she has turned out to be a very gentle/timid dog that took almost a year from the time we got her until she barked once. We still keep an eye on her because of her terrier side and keep taking to the vet for the skin rashes she gets because of her Char-Pei side, but all in all, a valued member of our family.

Don't get me wrong, my dad is a great guy but sometime he thinks weird (runs in the family). Whenever a dog at home or at his work place is not capable of doing it's job, he's like "well, I drive him/her to another street and let him/she go"

I was like wtf?!!! you u thinking out of ur *** again?!! He is so irresponsible!

One time, I actually saw a couple drove down my street and dropped of the dog and left...I was soo freaken pissed off!!! but I guess the better part got a piece of them, they came back and picked up the dog.

Sad, many people are very irresponsible.

We're all on the same page here.

We've got a lake cabin that gets it's share of throw away pets. I've had to kill three dogs that had obviously been someones "pets" -- they were so crippled and sick, they wouldn't have made it to the vets. I've taken a dozen or more to a shelter. Someday, I'll catch someone dumping a dog and will extract severe payback, no matter the consequences.

This pushes a real big button with me.

My dog eats his collars off. We finally caught him in the act one day, how animals figure out these moves is beyond me.

We had him chipped.

The dog with the injured paw was back over the weekend. If I see him again I'll call our vet and see if he's chipped. He has no collar but really does not want to come near me. He did, however, try to get into our garage. Cute little dog, however.

Was talking to some folks who live/travel in their motorhome year-round. They have "spy capsules" with their their cell phone numbers, description and license number of their motorhome and contact information for the person who receives their mail, etc.

Their dogs are also chipped.

Seems like a good idea to me.

Their capsules are actually pill containers from Walgreens. They were curious when I call them "spy caps" so I explained.

Some people go to quite a lot of trouble to keep their dogs from getting lost. It reminded me of this thread, where twosouls2gether tried to build a locator beacon for his father's dog, but had gas problems, lol.