Our dogs are all chipped. Some are also tattooed- one from Latvia, one from Lithuania and one from Germany where there is still more common to tattoo. In Estonia it makes more sence to chip as some counties have made it mandatory that all dogs have to be microchipped so most breeders do. Plus alot of the tattoos seem to fade with time and become unreadable. I guess I might be able to decypher the one in my dobes ear but I would have to shave the bulldogs groin and I still dubt it would do me much good as it was hard to read when he was so young it didn´t have all that much hair on it.

It is a common practice to check the dog for a chip as one of the first things in shelters. The one I work in, we usually did the whole dog or at least the front end as it is not uncommon that the chips move around. I know a dobebreeder that constantly scans her own dog on shows and competitions as she knows where on the chest the chip is (it was inserted on the left side of the neck as usual) and many others can´t find it.

Around here it would be pretty much pointless to tattoo a dog without registration as there is no registry for tattoos. The local kennel union can find the dog from their registry but if the dog isn´t there... There is however a registry for microchips but unfortunately chipping and registering the dog there are separate things (and both cost so breeders usually just chip) and it is rather common that a dog is found they get a chip number but it is useless as it hasn´t been registered. New owners forget or nobody hasn´t even told them about it...