Puppy Love 5 - get me back home

Today in our new Puppy Love series we're looking at ID and getting your dog back generally if they go walk about. The best tags - the cutest, the most stylish, the longest lasting and most endurable for active dogs who like to go through hedges and through water, clever devices to stop them making a noise when your dog drinks/eats and clinks against the bowl.
Plus any other ideas and gadgets for helping you feel really secure that you stand the best possible chance of getting your dog back if it's lost.
What would you recommend Liz our ad sales lady buys for her new pup?
Beverley Cuddy, Editor

A dog disc, or collar with identification details engraved or written on it, is not only important but a legal part of dog ownership, so it needs considering and sorting out ready for that first foray outside. In fact, it is something we as dog-owners have to be mindful at all times.
For example, we moved house in November, so high on my list of priorities was a new dog disc for Pippin with our new address details. This became a chance to brush up my knowledge on current requirements for the information needed on a dog’s disc. The Control Of Dogs Order 1992 requires your dog to wear a collar with the following information engraved or written directly onto it or bearing; a disc engraved with your name and your address including postcode.
Interestingly, it is optional to include a contact telephone number! Not only does Pippin’s disc have our home number but also my work number which, for me, is the veterinary practice where I work and therefore ensures contact with someone around-the-clock wherever I might otherwise be.
I am often remarking to people that I think it might not be a good idea to include your dog’s name because this will reassure your dog that the stranger talking to him is a friend. By law, your dog’s name is not a requirement.
Pippin’s disc also has ‘I have been microchipped – scan me’. She does wear a separate disc with a similar message, in case she should lose her legal disc whilst lost but, in theory at least, any dog picked up without an owner should be scanned for a microchip if identification information is not otherwise available.
A disc meets legal requirements but, practically, is only going to act as identification whilst it is both on the collar and legible.
Dog discs used to be simply circular but now come in all shapes and colours up to the most fancy. The Internet has, needless to say, widened the choice. After years of going to a local trophy shop, I ordered Pippin’s disc from a web-site and it arrived the very next day – no return trip needed to collect it from the shop. I did, however, have guilty feelings about not supporting a local business but, as you may have experienced, time is at a premium when moving house!
I do think that it is a good idea to go for deep engraving, whether on a collar or disc, because this will last longer. I found a dog in our lane once, but could not contact his owners because his disc was so worn that it could not be read. The barrel he was also wearing on his collar had come undone and the piece of paper inside with his owner’s contact details had, at some point, fallen out (which is probably why this form of identification is not mentioned in the legislation). The split ring carrying the disc is also a weak point – it will readily wear through with the constant swinging of the disc. I have also known the hole in the disc to wear through so that the disc drops off the ring! It is therefore important to regularly check on the state of your dog’s disc and/or ID information on his collar. It is not yet a requirement for dogs to be microchipped. This is a totally different form of identification with its own advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that the chip cannot be lost like a collar or disc. Disadvantages are that the chip can migrate or malfunction, and it cannot be instantly read like the information carried on a disc or collar, needing a scanner to reveal the chip’s number before ringing the central registry. The final pitfall is that all your information registered against your dog’s microchip must, obviously, be kept up-to-date or else it will not be possible to contact you.
Alison Logan, vet

As no one has yet mentioned the excellent Indigo collars I'm obviously going to have to! They don't advertise with us (grrr), so this is a completely altruistic gesture on my behalf - but Indigo please do start telling pet people about what you do!!! The agility world know and love these tags, but they'd be just as great for pet people, too!
They make a really robust engraved tag that threads onto a collar so that it is never going to fall off when your dogs repeatedly jumps through hedges! I used to get so fed up buying new tags for Tess as she was always pulling them off and going around looking like an unloved stray. (Plus they don't tinkle against your dog's bowl when he eats!)
Beverley Cuddy, Editor