Archive for the ‘Dog Identification’ Category
Have you ever looked at your pet dog’s nose? If not, please do so now. At first sight you may wonder, what is so great about it, it looks similar in all the dogs. No, you are wrong. The dogs have nose prints that are unique for each dog and never match with any other dog, just like our finger prints.
Please be informed that the nose print has been approved as proof of identity by the Canadian kennel club as early as 1938. A company in United States of America has come out with a product that can identify the dog by its nose print. The name of the company is “ID systems integrators”. They seemed to have developed a technique called “Dog nose ID”. Using this technique the company confirms that it ca n provide painless, noninvasive and tamper proof record, permanent in nature, for each and every dog.
The identification of the dog is must for the safety of the dog. There are many identification procedures in use such as collar tag, tattoo, nose print etc. But by far, the best one is micro chipping the dog. For many pet owners micros chipping may sound alien. Lets us discuss about the microchip, its database, its scanner and the companies that are marketing these microchips here.
The Micro Chip
Micro chip is nothing but very small computer chip. The size of the same will not be more that of a grain. The chip stores the identification number of the dog, which can be red using scanner. The micro chip has 10- characters and two hundred and seventy million codes. These microchips are easily inserted in to the back side of the neck of the pet, as they are loaded in a syringe. Within ten seconds the chip can be inserted and the pain can only be compared with injection prick. The skin forms a casing as the reaction to this foreign body, which secures the movement of the microchip. The microchip is made up of bio-compatible substance to prevent the rejection from the body of the pet.
The scanner for the microchip
These scanners are must to decode the identification number of the microchip. The microchip transmits the information through radio waves. Electromagnetic energy is used by the scanners to make the chip to emit radio waves. The frequency of the radio wave is different for different microchips. Hence the same scanner can’t read all the microchips. This was yester year problem as in the year 1996 universal reader [scanner] was introduced and the same was provided to all the veterinarian, animal shelter and other animal welfare organizations. This helped immensely for the reunion of many stray pet and their legitimate owner.
Data base of microchip
There are incidences that the stray dog captured was having the microchip but due to some reason the identification number couldn’t be decoded. In such incidences the microchip company needs to be contacted for help. Each company that markets the microchip will have the sale detail. Through that, one can find out the purchaser. In case the microchip was bought by veterinarian or animal shelter or any other organization, nothing to worry as it is mandatory for them to have the record of the animal to which the microchip was inserted. Using that information the stray dog can be handed over to his master.
Microchip companies
There are two companies that are actively marketing the microchips in United States of America. They are AVID and HOME AGAIN. AVID – this company claims to have sold few million microchips so far. At present 142000 pets those have gone missing were made to find their home using this company’s microchip at the rate of one dog per 32 minutes. Home again – this company seem to have sold 0.5 million microchips till date. Nearly 34000 pet dogs were reunited with their owner using their microchip details.
The dogs are lovely animal to have as pet. They shower hell a lot of affection towards the owner and his family. The loss of the pet dog is unbearable pain. Many pet owners will vouch for this. So it is the duty of the pet owner to protect the dog from possible loss. There are many methods to locate the dog, if lost. Let’s discuss about them one by one here.
Collar tags
The tag must have complete information about the dog such as the name, address and the contact number of the pet owner. The name of the vet should also be mentioned in that, if there is space. The tag should be attached firmly to the collar of the dog, so that it doesn’t get detached that easily. If the pet owner doesn’t like the ID tag, he can go for collar plates of sufficient size to have all the above mentioned information of the dog.
Top tag pet ID
This tag has 64MBb flash drives that are safely located in the waterproof cases. The whole set up will have attachment provision for connecting it to the collar of the dog. The flash drive will have the fed information about the dog which can be accessed with ease. The program is done in such a manner; one can easily retrieve the information. Hence the pet will be taken to safety and the owner will be informed at once.
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Pet protector system
This is something similar to the medic alert system in humans. This provides 24 hour service and functions nationwide. The company will have the complete information about the dog registered. All one has to do is to make a call to the toll free number of the company, that is provided in the color. The company’s representative will attend and do all the needful to take the dog to its owner.
Tattoos
This identification method is in practice for quite long time. Here the dog will be tattooed with a number on any part of the body, preferably the upper leg. If any one finds the lost dog with the tattoo, he needs to contact the national dog registry and inform the number noticed in the form of tattoo, which in turn inform the owner of the pet. The pet owner can also tattoo his contact number, but he should never change the number. The other disadvantage is that if the tattoo is not done perfectly, it becomes illegible after some time. Besides the procedure is painful affair for the pet.
Micro chip
This is one of the recent introductions. Here the procedure is very simple. The micro chip grain size] is inserted to the back side of the dog’s neck. All the information about the dog is fed to the chip. All one has to do is to just pass the scanner over the neck to find out the registration number. Using that number all the information required about the dog, can be found out from the database. Here one minor disadvantage is a quick swipe of the scanner over the neck can miss to locate the registration number. Hence the scanner needs to be moved carefully and slowly over the neck.
Micro chip and Cancer
There are some reports that these micro chips cause cancer in some dogs. But the manufactures of the microchips aver that they are absolutely safe. Many experts opine that one can’t rule out the possibility of cancerous growth triggered by microchips but the incidences are very rare.
