Dog chips, really do work

K

Kevin Weir

Well-known member
I just got in from driving around for the last 4 1/2 hours looking for my retriever. At about dark, I got a call on my cell from a pet recovery service and they had a fellow on the other end of the call who had found my dog and researched a bit and was able to track me down.
Seems that he called the sheriffs dept. in the county we just moved out of and they said call this service associated with the chip. They in turn called our old phone number then tracked us down on the internet by finding my wifes apple sauce business and then my cell number. They then contacted me, put both of us on line together and the guy that found Knight stayed on line until I got to his house. And it turns out this fellow has a 14 y.o. son and they both are starting waterfowling. They only got to hunt the last day of our season, 9 inches of snow but still went out anyway. So it seems I may have a new set of partners sharing the blind this fall.
So, that ID chip was worth the little investment after all. I'd now recommend it to all dog owners.
 
My wife's micro-chipped Cocker Spaniel ran away. Nine months later we got a call, dog was 200 miles away!!!



I'll have to try harder next time :)
 
Nice story Kevin,and great new friends that would take the time to track you down.I have the chip company number on the dog tags as well as my cell and home phone,mainly for when I'm hunting away from home and they get lost.
 
I chipped my labs, and we chip all of our puppy's before they go to their new homes. Its the only way to truly identify your dog, As I tell people who buy a pup , their dog has a VIN number . LOL
 
Great story Kevin. It sounds like that guy really went the extra mile in an attempt to find you, thats the king of guy I would like as a hunting partner any day. I now chip all of my pups, hopefully I never need the service but my youngest is a bit of a wanderer if I leave the gate open.
 
Yep, I got the impression that he and his son were only interested in strong outdoor ethics and doing things "the right way". I mean, how many of us would start tooling up for a new sport complete with hunter ed and all the gear and knowing that your timing would only allow you to hunt the very last day of the season, complete with all the snow and ice? I told my wife about him and she whole heartedly agrees that we should get to know them much better.
Funny thing about that dog running away. I put him into the yard then went for a shower. The whole time I kept feeling something was wrong, but I couldn't put a finger on it. Then when I came out it only took a whistle out the door to realize what was wrong. And then I should have realized to start looking towards the wind. Instead I looked to the north and east, into the neighborhoods. Where was the mutt found? Poking around a MacDonalds trying to score some snacks, due west into the wind. And he'd made it across 5 lanes of traffic at rush hour to get there. Guess the nuetering was a waste of money. Oh well, at least he's home now.
 
I had the scare of my life last weekend. My wife and I don't have kids so our dogs are our kids. Plus since we train and run field trials we buy very expensive (over 3k) puppies who sleep on our bed. My wife is down in Oregon with her sick mom, so I'm home alone with our three dogs, 9 year old Yoda, 23 month old Alex and 19 month old Gus. We have a two acre fenced in yard as a part of our 40 acre dog training property, so we are pretty far from the nearest County road. I am so used to my older dogs staying at home that I didn't bother to close the gate when I let them out to air after breakfast. We have a doggy door, and I didn't think too much of it a Yoda and Alex returned awhile later while I was working on the boat. It was only after an hour or so had passed when I wondered why Gus wasn't back in the house. I went outside and whistled, he always comes a running when I whistle, no Gus.

I jumped in the truck praying that I wasn't going to find him dead by the side of the road, Goldens are real stupid about cars and that danger. I went down to the highway a mile away and there were some volunteers picking up trash who said they saw a Golden with a Lab sometime before. I found the Lab, but couldn't lure him into my truck but no sign of Gus. Now I worried that somebody might have stolen him. In addition to myself being heartbroken, my wife would have divorced me if I lost our pup that way. I found a guy burning a slash pile who had seen him earlier at a neighbor's. That guy had found him and put up in his garage for safe keeping. Whew! This story is between you and me, ok?
 
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Kevin,

I'm glad to hear the chip did it's job and your dog is home.

We have chipped out dogs for a number of years but have only had one that ever needed it. We had a beagle puppy that was part Houdini. She just wanted to get out and put her nose to the ground. The first time she got out there was a fresh snow on the ground and I tracked her to a neighbors house. One or two times we got a phone call. Besides the micro-chip Misty also had on the little tag on her collar so the people could just call an dhave her DIN.

Tom
 
Tom,
Like you hint at, usually the tags are all that is needed. I had just not gotten around to updating Knights tags so that was why the guy called our old home town. And that phone number of course is disconnected. The insurance of that little micro chip paid for itself.

I hope we all have good stories when our dogs make a break.
 
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