My dog will be (and my past dogs were) tattooed and chipped, for the theft factor.

I don't worry about my dog getting loose/running away, because there is very minimal opportunity for that to ever occur.

I do worry about theft, to a very small extent.
My husband had a very expensive working dog stolen out of a boarding kennel. The dog was never found.

wow i stand corrected sorry to hear that i would of probably blown that place up hehe doing something to my dogs is like hurting my children you just dont do it

 Quote: michael hubert

tatoos and chips are for people who are too lazy to follow thru with proper training

Or whose SAR dogs work off-lead for the benefit of the public, or who have a car accident and the doors are opened by EMS personnel and a terrified dog bolts from a damaged crate, or who board their dog overnight at a broken-into kennel (an actual occurrence in June near where I live), or whose house is broken into, or whose vet personnel take the dog outside and drop the leash when the dog is startled and pulls at it, or ......

You had posted "I stand corrected" before I had finished typing.....

Oh hum.

Michael,
Am I really that obtuse?

Randy

 Quote: michael hubert

proper training is an investment for you and your dog.

Michael,
I agree with you 100% on this one.
I apologize if my earlier comment seemed harsh, but I can assure you that I am not a lazy dog owner or trainer and I am very careful with proper training.
I take precautions though (tattoos and microchips), just in case an accident were to happen.

I will always chip every one of my dogs. I know of two people in my personal life who were only able to recover dogs that were stolen because of that chip (since possession is 9/10ths of the law) as these dogs were stolen and resold. Since there is a standard of perfection for most dog breeds it's difficult to say anything distinct about a gsd, mal,(really most breeds) or in my case a black lab that would make them distinct to the point of me being able to claim with law enforcement it's my dog with any sort of certainty. A chip erases all doubts.

There are so many things in this world that can happen. Someone leaves the gate open, car accident, or like my house a tree discovers gravity works and crushes the fence while I'm at work freeing the dog from my yard (thank god my neighbor is a good person), etc... etc.

The only case I know of for a GPS collar really being helpful was for a neighbor in Colorado who had a dog who would randomly at several month intervals pull a houdini/superman leaping 7 foot fences and disappear into the night. Usually the dog would come home covered in fleas and ticks up to 5 days later. Turned out he had taken up prairie dog hunting on local cattle farms. Once they realized the severity of the situation (shot, plague, etc) they were able to finally get it through their heads that this dog could be a on leash dog only.

If you crate the dog in the car he can't get out in an accident.

If you lock your gate, people can't leave it open.

If you don't leave your dog alone in the yard while you're not home, then the fence could magically disappear and it wouldn't matter, other than being annoying.

I still don't get it....

In 25 adult years of owning dogs I can count on one hand the times a dog got loose and was gone for more than 5 minutes. In all cases, the dog was recovered by me in less than 15 minutes.

BUT these things STILL happened despite all precautions and were chalked up to human error. So my dogs are chipped and wear a flat hunting collar with a plate on it with my phone number.

I do think a crate can become compromised in a wreck and a wigged out dog can easily rip apart all but the strongest crates.

 Quote: Carol Boche

I have three of them and use them on my search dogs.

Carol what kind do you use?