Every time I rescue a dog running around the neighborhood and they don’t have any ID on them – no dog tags, no dog collar, etc – it drives me nuts. Now I have no one to call and the pup is most likely headed to the pound in the hopes someone comes looking for them.
Admittedly, we let Sadie run around with no collar and no tags when we’re home with her. After ten years we’d be floored if she ever ran away or chased after anything off property. That said; we still leave a collar with personalized dog tags on her when we leave her home. We actually have two types of dog collars and dog ID tags we use for Sadie.
Around the house she gets a simple soft bandana rolled over with a personalized ID tag – engraved with her name, address, and our cell phone numbers – which has the two slots for threading it like a belt buckle, keeping it flush with the collar and not dangling like most. This makes it quiet and comfortable (really light weight) and gives us the peace of mind should anything odd happen and she’s found outside the house.
For walks or anything requiring a leash, we use the more standard nylon dog collar, but again we’ve personalized this dog collar by having her name and one of our cell phone numbers stitched directly onto it. This collar also carries her standard tags (rabies vaccine, registration, etc), but those can get worn or lost, and having this very basic and yet most important information such as her name and our number directly onto the collar stems from years of experience. Have you ever approached a dog on the loose who is either very excited, or quite possibly scared and confused? Getting a hold of them in order to read their tags is often difficult enough. Reaching under their neck in these circumstances can get dicey at best. In big bold clear stitching, anyone who might happen to find Sadie can easily and quickly see both her name and our contact number. Even if they can’t catch her, they might still get close enough to read this info and at least call to tell us where they last saw her. (Also, we use our cell phone numbers exclusively with her tags with the assumption that if she was ever lost, we’d be out looking for her when someone was ideally calling. Missing that call at the house or office wouldn’t help much.)
We’ve also sent pet tags and pet collars like this (they make them for dog, cats, bunnies, etc) along as Christmas gifts. For more information and examples of these sorts of pet id tags, pet name collars, personalized and engraved pet tags and collars, etc, check out our shop.
