I know this is probably preaching to the choir, but I was just baffled by this issue.
I was walking my dog this morning and a lady drove up and asked if I had seen her husky that got loose. I said no and we each continued on our way.
2 blocks later, I see the dog. It was super friendly, came when I called, and was having a blast playing with my dog. Even better news, it was wearing a collar! Until I started looking at the collar closer and realized there were no tags or anything else with contact info for the owner.
I ended up deciding to start walking home, to see if it would follow us. Luckily a few houses later, someone recognized it and was going to call the owner. But, seriously, what if we had not come across someone who knew the dog?
Especially, for a breed that is infamous for running away. Why you wouldn’t pay a couple of bucks for a tag, when it could be life/death for the dog?
/End rant
Or get them chipped. Any vet or animal control can read them.
Yeah but I can’t read the chip, I’d have to drive the dog to the vet when very likely the owner is nearby.
Really you should do both. The chip is useless, unless whoever finds your dog thinks to take them to the vet. Anyways, if my dog gets out I want whoever finds them to call me as soon as possible, not wait till their next off day to go to the vet.