Chipping lanes

My puppy was microchipped soon after we rescued her. She is now seven months old and I’ve noticed it has migrated from her down to her below her shoulder.
Might this present a medical problem?

And also, if she is ever lost and scanned, will a scanner pick her chip up as it has moved from her neck? Should I have her chipped again?

Charlotte White, by email

Chip, not snip

Hi there,

Here's my first question for the Think Tank! Where is the best place to
buy a grooming table for small - medium sized dogs to have at my
training centre to use when microchipping dogs? I don't need arms, or
for it to be adjustable or on wheels, as once it's in place it won't
move. More important is that it's sturdy and won't tip over or move, and
I can have it in a corner.

Would accept second hand if in good condition if one of your contacts
has one, but must be easy to clean.

Thank you!

Linda, by email

Bargaining chip

Hi,

I have recently adopted a Greyhound from a rescue centre that specialises in the adoption of sighthounds. She's not our first Greyhound/sighthound. We paid our "donation" to the centre and left with adoption papers and her free month of pet insurance from PetPlan. She is neutered and microchipped. This is where my problem now lies.

I sent off the adoption papers along with the fee to get my details registered to her microchip. I received a phone call from pet log today saying that the rescue centre have refused to let them change the details. I phoned the rescue centre and they said, "It was nothing personal, they do it to everyone to safeguard the dogs as they've had dogs dumped".

Surely it is in the dogs best interest to have its current owners details registered? Is there anything I can do?

Regards,

Lisa, by email




Dogs Trust's legal expert Trevor Cooper (www.doglaw.co.uk), advises...

As there is currently no law on microchipping it is entirely a matter for the owner at the time to decide whether or not to change the details on the database when the dog is transferred to someone else. If the details don’t get changed on transfer, then our argument for saying that chipping means that the person responsible can more easily be traced goes out of the window.

This becomes a little complicated:-

Rescues

This issue is most likely to arise with rescues. They want to make sure that a dog that they rehome is properly looked after and want to ensure that it that is not the position that they will be able to get the dog back. They believe that the likelihood of the dog getting back to them is increased if they retain ownership ie the legal title. Should the dog stray, the rescue will say that it should be returned to them and they can then decide whether or not to entrust the dog with the keeper again. The problem will come if the rescue moves or if they lose their records.

Breeders

For the same reason, some breeders do the same thing. There is often a clause used that if the new owner doesn’t want the dog any more that it must be returned to the original owner. However, in fact this kind of clause is unenforceable if ownership passes, because:-

A transfers ownership of a dog to B with that clause. However, B gives the dog to C ie. B breaches the agreement that it had with A. However A can’t get the dog back from C because they had no contract with them.

However, if ownership does not pass from A to B (ie if B becomes the keeper rather than the owner), then if B gives the dog to C, it is slightly more likely that A will be able to reclaim the dog as being the legal owner. However I really do not like this kind of arrangement and would try to argue for C in this kind of case as I would say that in fact ownership had passed from A to B.

What happens when the chips are down?

I recently bought a German Shepherd puppy and was looking for information on getting him microchipped. However, I came across no information with regards to how old a puppy should be before you get them chipped.
I was also shocked to find that there are in fact many places that do no have the appropriate scanning technology and some 'universal' scanners cannot even detect the chip.
I am all for the safety of our pets, which is why I looked into the microchip, but what happens if they do get lost and the institute that finds the dog then doesn't have the correct technology to detect the chip?
Isn't that the whole point of the microchip?
Kelly Howe, by email

More on microchips!

I have long been an advocate of having dogs microchipped, ever since our Lab Pippin bolted in the woods 15 miles from home when the dogs in a nearby kennel began barking. She was only 11 months old at the time. She finally flung herself at my legs seven hours later, a hot, breathless and exhausted but very relieved dog. Whenever the nasty thought sprang into my mind that she might have been taken by someone, I reassured myself that she had been microchipped so that, even if her collar was removed or just the dog disc on it, I would always be able to prove ownership.

Twice I have been followed back down our lane from a walk by a dog. The worry was that our house is only three houses in from the main road… The first dog was a golden retriever some years ago. He was wearing a collar with a dog disc but the engraving had rubbed and was illegible. In the end, I had to call the dog warden, whose first action was to scan for a microchip – none. If there had been, he would have driven round to the address. As it was, he had no option but to take the dog away in his van to be kennelled until his owners claimed him (hopefully).

The second time was this week, a young dog who, again, was wearing a collar but this time no form of identification at all on it. He was very keen to stay with me which posed me a worry but, fortunately, his owner appeared. I suggested that a dog disc would have been a good idea, so that I would have known where to return him (and also a legal requirement). That was like water off a duck’s back – instead, she assured me that he was booked to be microchipped, in four weeks’ time! Great to hear that, but no use to me without a scanner, and no use with a scanner for another four weeks!

As an aside, I would also like to emphasise the importance of having cats microchipped. I know that this is the Dogs Today Think Tank, but many dogs live with cats so this does apply to many households. Whenever I see a still body on the road or on the verge beside a road, I pull over if I can to retrieve it and take it in to the practice. Only once have I found a microchip so that I could contact the owners – they were, understandably, very upset but, at the same time, relieved to be able to stop searching and worrying.

Cats do also stray and, again, a microchip does make the matter of reuniting them with their owners so much easier. A cat was brought in to me in December one year which had been living with a couple near the hospital for two months. They had leafleted all their neighbours and put up notices in the local shops, but no-one had come forward to claim him. They decided it was time to have him vaccinated. I said that I ought to just check he did not have a microchip and nonchalantly passed the scanner over him, not expecting it to ‘ping’ because I have scanned so many stray cats without finding a chip.

This time, however, there was a chip and, to my amazement, not only had we as a practice implanted it but also the address registered against it was just round the corner from my home. Interestingly, his owners would not have seen the publicity about him because we live in the next village, and this cat had travelled along a main road which passes under the A12, then in to the suburbs before ending up near the hospital!

This also brings me to my final point. There was only a mobile telephone number logged against the microchip and, when I rang it, there was a recorded message to say that the number was no longer in use! I took it upon myself to call round at the house on my way home, thinking that they may well have moved away which could have explained why the cat had wandered so far. In fact, I made their Christmas! They were thrilled at the thought of having him home. The mobile telephone, it transpired, had been discarded because it broke, and they had forgotten to amend the contact details for their cat’s microchip record. So, please keep your details up-to-date.

Alison Logan, vet