If you're anything like me, you probably have quite a few collars for your dog. And since I have a lab who just loves playing in the mud when I take him for a walk in the woods, I have to wash his collars more than I'd like to admit. One thing I always make sure I do when I change his collars, though, is put his ID tag on the new collar, and put the new collar on immediately. Why? Well, simply because I never let my dog go without his collar and dog name tags, since I live in an area where there are quite a few homeless pets, and consequently, a fair number of euthanasias at the local shelter.
Even though my dog is registered and microchipped, the microchip is not visible, so if my dog gets lost, the dog name tag makes it easy for the finder to locate me and return my dog. Dog name tags are extremely affordable, and you don't even need to get a stainless steel one that's engraved, but you can use a sharpie to write all the necessary info on it. However, I would highly advise you get a durable dog tag that's engraved, simply because the sharpie can fade and the information may become difficult to read.
To me, having a dog tag on your pet's collar is a no-brainer, but many people still underestimate its importance and wonder why it's necessary. Here's a story of something that happened just a few weeks ago. I was walking my lab, Max, around the neighbourhood, when I noticed a loose dog running towards me. The dog was friendly, well-nurtured, so he was obviously being taken care of, but there was no owner in sight. I quickly walked back to my house and leashed the dog easily since he had a collar. However, he didn't have a dog tag, so I had to spend a few hours walking around my neighbourhood with him, interviewing people to figure out who he belongs to.
It turned out that the dog, which I later found out was named Buddy, lived just one street over from where I lived. When I walked up to the owner's house, I saw an elderly man frantically searching for him. Apparently, Buddy was clever enough to open the porch door, which the owner forgot to lock before he came back from grocery shopping. The owner was extremely happy to get Buddy back, and thanked me for returning him before we parted ways.
Moral of the story is, a simple, affordable dog tag would have saved me hours of looking for the owner, and I would have returned Buddy back to his owner in a matter of minutes instead of hours. A simple piece of information, like a phone number, or street address can be extremely helpful for the person who finds your dog to return it to you, and potentially save your dog's life!
