Microchipping of Skye Terriers

The Skye Terrier Foundation
The Skye's The Limit - A Bright Future for our Heavenly Breed

Skye Terrier Missing For 51 days:
The Importance of Microchipping Every Skye

By Anne Henderson Brown, Rescue Chair

Yes, it can happen to everyone of us. Our beloved Skye can become lost or as awful and impossible as it may seem, stolen. As you know several Skyes have been stolen in the past three years and a handful of others have been lost. It was a blessing, indeed, that 'Blackwell's tale has a happy ending and he was returned home after 51 agonizing days - agonizing both for his family, those of us who love him, and for 'Blackwell' himself. If only dogs could talk.

What can we each do to protect our dogs? You may feel an identification collar is sufficient but collars can be removed or even fall off. Many of our Skyes don't wear collars to avoid breaking coat. A collar also means that someone must be able to get close enough to read those small ID tags. We do recommend that when traveling, every Skye wear a buckle collar with current ID information. We suggest that two phone numbers be listed on the tag - the first your home number and the second the number of a friend or family member or your cellular phone number. If your pooch is lost during a natural disaster or catastrophe or when you are away from home, another phone number may be helpful. We, however, do not believe that a collar is enough. Tattoos also are another possibility but, we understand tattoos can be altered. Microchips are the third option & perhaps the best option currently available.

Microchips are very small capsules, about the size of a grain of rice with a pre-coded microchip inside. They are inserted generally under the skin near the shoulders with a larger gauge needle.

Currently most shelters in the US scan every dog who comes into their facility. We are told that 'owner' give- ups as well as road kills are also scanned. Many veterinarians also have microchip scanners and routinely scan. A microchip is positive identification that you are the owner or breeder of the dog. Each microchip company has its own registry service. AKC also has a Companion Dog Recovery Service. Owners must be sure that their dogs are registered and the contact information is kept updated and correct. There is a nominal annual fee to register the chip. As breeders, we microchip every puppy we have bred and every Skye we own. We prefer Avid microchips because Avid maintains contact information on the veterinarian who implants the chip as well as the breeder, forever. They also will include the new owner's information when the puppy moves to his new home. We like this system because, as a breeder, we are responsible for the life of our 'kids'. We want to know if any of our babies are lost, found in a shelter or show up in Rescue. We want someone to contact us as well as the owner, if a tragedy does occur. 'Blackwell' is one of our babies owned and very loved by Liane Langbehn. Because he was micro-chipped, his identification was immediate and positive, once he was scanned and his release to Liane's Mom was instant. We thank God that he is now safely at home and recovering from his horrible experience. A special thanks to Liane, Matthew, their family and friends for all their efforts, for never giving up and going many, many extra 'miles' to find 'Blackwell'.

Skye Terrier Rescue microchips every rescue Skye before placement if not previously done by the shelter. We also scan every Rescue Skye and look for tattoos. To date we have never found a Rescue Skye who has been chipped but have had two Rescue Skyes who were tattooed. Unfortunately the tattoos were not registered with any registry body, nationally or worldwide, so the tattoos proved worthless.

It is critical for the safety of our heavenly breed that every owner and responsible breeder microchip every puppy bred before placement as well as every Skye owned. It also is important that Skye Rescue be notified immediately if your Skye or if a Skye you have sold or placed is missing. This will give us a heads up to be aware that this pooch may show up in rescue. If your Skyes are not permanently identified, recovery is almost impossible. Skye Rescue is willing to act as an 'ALERT SERVICE' for Skye owners. We will gladly assist in the search process and hopefully ultimate recovery of the Skye. It is imperative that all this be done quickly so we need an immediate description and current photo. Experts tell us that dogs missing for longer than 8 weeks generally are not recovered. Best recovery chances are within the first 2 - 3 days.

So, please, please consider using microchips to improve your chances of recovering a missing dog and increase your margin of safety.