Quote: Ray Fajardo

Ingrid,
Did the vet do the tattoo? Is sedation is required?

No, just a strong person or two ;-) I actually had it done at an AKC dog show.

FYI,

I just took this shot of Poe's thigh tattoo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/3702903890_79afcab097_o.jpg

Not the best photo since I did not have help and the fur obstructs it a bit but this tattoo is 8 years old and still readable.

Thank you ladies for all your input.
Ingrid,
that was going to be my next question...Nice picture...I'm imagining that it probably only took a couple minutes to do...I should probably get it done ASAP before my pup gets any bigger and stronger, he is in his low to mid 80lb range.

Wonder if the local tattoo shop will be of any assistance...

My older GSD is tattooed inside his thigh in addition to having a chip in him. No sedation was required......once I got in his face and explained to Thunder that he couldn't eat the guy that was sticking him in the leg. I, and a vet tec held him down.
The younger GSD and the JRT are chip only.
USA and the WDA will accept a chip as long as there is a reader present and you've filled in the info on your entry form.
IF a chip is all your going to use then you or your club should have a reader. That's not the responsibility of the judge.
BTW, my older dog's dam (Lens Vikar) was imported (ear tattoo) and had a drop ear because of a hemotoma? in that ear.

In the next year or two, GSD's in Germany will no longer be tattooed. They will all have an SV-certified chip inserted by a breed warden.

Of course, the chips used in Europe are different than the ones used in the US. So, if you are getting a reader for a trial or show, you will need to have one that reads both formats.

Ray,

Have you looked for a Schutzhund Club in your area? The breedwarden for many of these clubs do ear tattoos. My pup has an ear tattoo done by a breedwarden and a microchip from a vet.
Also a local working dog breeder or trainer can probably help you get him tattooed.

Your pup sounds like a lot of dog and a Schutzhund club might be a great resource for successful work for him.

DNA profiling through AKC doesn't tell you who the father and mother of that particular dog are unless they also happen to be DNA profiled by the database. By requiring this identification from newly imported dogs is makes it more difficult for crooks and outright liars to paper hang.

Paper hanging is when someone takes a dog and adds a false (or stolen) registration to that dog to increase it's value or deceive the buyer or seller of a dog. So for instance say I buy a GSD from a importer. That importer takes the paper for that GSD and applies it to a BYB GSD he bought from somewhere else at a much lesser rate. He tats the pup with the import GSD's number and hands over the pup to me non the wiser. OR say I sell a pup on limited registration with a contract stating that the dog must me altered by 6 months old. The buyer buys another dog on full registration, switches their identities and has the other dog neutered sending me the paperwork from the vet saying that my puppy named "Fluffy" was altered. DNA and chipping makes this much less easy to accomplish.

The main problem I have with tattoos over chips is that they're very easy to alter and duplicate. I know, I've done a fair number in various forms of livestock where we alter a tattoo as a herd identifier because we purchased an animal or we accidentally duplicated an individual animal identifier tattoo. I've never heard a person yet who was able to take a knife to a dog or any other animal to dig out a well placed chip or found a way to make the chip not produce information from the outside of the dog.


The two typical tat styles are hand and clamp. Hand either electric or non electric is the people tat type and is easy for someone with a steady hand and neat handwriting. However it can be a little more difficult on a dog whose moving. Clamp or pin is the pliers method and personally while I know people who have done a goat thigh with them I've never had the guts to do anything but very thin membranes like ears and lips. It's very fast and near impossible to really screw up unless you put the letters in upside down. Be aware tattoos on young animals can and do fade and can stretch in funky ways. I've found it to be more true of hand tats which tend not to handle stretching as well as pin tats.

Best of luck with the pup.

 Quote: Melissa Thom

I've never heard a person yet who was able to take a knife to a dog or any other animal to dig out a well placed chip or found a way to make the chip not produce information from the outside of the dog.

We have had a few in rescue with chips removed - it leaves quite a mess. (They have a specific method but I won't post it on a forum).
The same way as racing greyhounds are occasionally dumped with ears removed, generally to stop identification after cruelty or neglect - selling on a stolen dog with major scarring or ears missing is probably harder.

I tattoo as a back up for the microchip.

In England there is only one tattooing organisation, they train their tattooists - they all seem fairly honest. Short of purchasing the tattoo equipment yourself you wouldn't be able to replicate numbers. Also all tattooes are unique, sequential and traceable to the tattooist.

Onyx is TV1357 - TV identifies the tattooist, 1357 the number of dogs tattooed to date by that person.
Storm is SOL1016 - SL = tattooist, O means he was tattooed as part of a litter (so can be traced to breeder).

Bob,
but surely you could still see the tattoo even with the hematoma, no?

Where can someone locate one of those readers?

Charlie,
I think thats a good idea so long as they also have been DNA'd with the SV.

Melissa & Tanith,
Thanks, those are very thorough and informative posts.

You can buy a reader from a chip manufacturer. They're usually a couple hundred dollars for the base model. Just make sure you buy one that can read chips from all manufacturers.

akc car I recall designing one at a pretty fair price.