Our Microchip Process

By Sharon Leeman

According to statistics, one in three pets become lost at some time in their life…

One step you can take to help your dog find its way home is to have him or her microchipped and keep your microchip registration up to date. If you are not familiar with a microchip, it is a tiny device — about the size of a grain of rice — that’s implanted just underneath your dog’s skin (usually between the shoulder blades). It’s no more invasive than a vaccination and can be done when the dog is awake. Installing a chip takes only a few seconds, and your dog shouldn’t feel more than a slight pinch. That’s why when a dog enters our rescue, one of the first things we do, along with getting an intake exam and Jackson Saville updating vaccinations, is microchipping any dog that has not already been chipped. If a dog comes in unaltered and has a spay/ neuter scheduled in the first week or so, the dog may be microchipped then, just so they don’t even feel any pinch at all. Either way, you don’t have to worry about them being sore or having lingering pain from the procedure. Microchipping is completely safe for both pets and humans.

You won’t be able to feel a microchip and won’t know it’s there, but when viewed under a special scanner, the chip emits a radio frequency that reveals the name of the microchipping agency along with the microchip number. If your dog is picked up by animal control or taken to a shelter or veterinarian, they have a scanner that will allow them to read the chip number and microchipping company that it is registered with. As long as the information is up to date, the microchipping company can then notify you that your dog has been found and where he or she is. Of course, that only works if the owner’s information is there.

In the past, SEVA GRREAT provided the microchip numbers and registration information to the adopter when the dog found its forever home. We still have some dogs with chips from that past practice, and they are only registered and up to date if the adopter did it and kept up with it. If you have one of the dogs adopted under our prior practice, it is important that you register and keep your information up to date. Otherwise, the microchipping agency will know your dog has been found, but they will not know how to reach you.

Our practice was changed in 2015 for two reasons. First, we felt the need to have the dog chipped during the time he or she is in foster care. After all, they are just as likely to be lost then as they are in their forever home, and some of our dogs are in foster care for months. Second, we wanted to be sure that any SEVA GRREAT dog that was lost could find its way home to our rescue, even if we have lost touch with the adopter and/or they did not register the chip or keep the information up to date.

Our current practice is to register all our rescue dogs as soon as they are chipped with the microchipping company. If the dog is already chipped from a prior owner, that number is also entered into our microchip database. From that point forward, even after the dog is adopted, all dogs will show SEVA GRREAT as the primary contact. When you adopt a dog, you have the option to be added as the secondary contact and your veterinarian can also be added. This is noted in your adoption contract, and we ask our home evaluators to point out this clause to our adopters when they complete the contract. The information that can be stored at the microchipping company is two email addresses and two phone numbers, along with the vet practice’s name and phone number. There is no place to add a mailing address. To set it up initially or to have it updated takes only a minute and can be done by contacting our Microchip Coordinator at adoptions@adoptagolden. com. People change phone numbers and email addresses frequently and notifying us of those changes is not the first thing people think of, which once again is the reason that the dog remains with SEVA GRREAT as the primary contact.

Most microchip agencies are national, so even if your dog gets lost while on vacation or when you are moving, you can still be reunited. With the military presence in our service territory, deployments and reassignments are common. Most microchip agencies are members of American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). Their LookUp Tool (Microchip Search (aaha. org) can search hundreds of databases. In fact,

we encourage you to give it a try and see what information is returned and to see where your dog is registered. You will need your dog’s microchip number to do this, and it should be noted on your adoption contract, along with other paperwork you should have received when you adopted your dog.

You may feel that your dog’s ID on a collar serves the same purpose. While we would never tell you NOT to put those tags on a collar, remember that collars can be lost and broken. If your dog gets out without a collar or loses it along the way, authorities have no way to contact you if they find your dog. Plus, your tags and collars have personal information (name, address, phone number) on them which you may not want shared with anyone who might find them. A microchip number, on the other hand, is useless to everyone except the microchip agency. They are the only ones who have your personal information.

It is not common, but it is possible for a microchip to move from between the shoulder blades to other parts of your dog’s body. This does not harm your pet, but if animal control or a shelter does not scan your dog’s full body, they may think he or she is not microchipped. Most veterinarians will perform a full body scan, but just in case, to ease your own mind, you may want to ask your vet to scan your dog when he or she has an annual exam. That will let you know that your dog’s chip is where it is supposed to be.

Although we feel strongly about microchips for our SEVA GRREAT dogs, this information is applicable to your other pets (cats and dogs alike) that may have been rescued from another group or purchased from a breeder. We would like to see all your pets microchipped and registered to keep them safe and sound. If you would like additional protection for your dog, you may want to consider a collar with a GPS locator attached. The GPS will tell you where the dog is, and the microchip will tell authorities where to return your dog. However, GPS collars are a discussion for another time.