Not quite. It's something that your dog is fully awake for, and so as far as the pain with it, it's just the initial injection. They may be a little bit uncomfortable as their skin heals from it, but otherwise it's a very quick recovery period.

Well, we've poked your dog, so perhaps they’re a little bit traumatized from that. But as I said, most of them tolerate it very well. The biggest risk is to have a microchip move from the normal location. It's not a frequent occurrence but possible. And so we always want to ensure that we are scanning the entire dog. Another risk that we can have is that that microchip does actually migrate into places that it shouldn't be. It's very rare, but we may see the chip migrate into the spinal cord itself. And so it has been shown to cause some problems there. And then obviously if your dog were to need to have any procedures or anything done in that area and the microchip could possibly inadvertently be removed or we could even see the actual chip cause a reaction. But again, those are all very rare side effects.

Just as with any other needle it doesn't feel the best, but most of our dogs tolerate it very well. We have come to find that the needle is very sharp and with a sharper needle there won’t be nearly as much trauma to the skin. And most dogs tolerate it, especially if we add in a little bit of peanut butter or marshmallows.

So your dog can be microchipped by most veterinarians and even some shelters and rescues offer the chipping as well. So give them a call and say you want to schedule to get that microchip placed.

So the microchip is pretty similar to what we would do for a vaccine or any other injection. It’s a syringe that is fairly decent sized. We try to get as small of a needle as we can for your dog so it is more comfortable. But it does have to be big enough for that chip to fit through. So we will bring your dog in and the injection is going to go just right here between the shoulder blades, just under the skin. So we'll clean this area and then we'll pick that up and we'll stick the needle directly in here just under the skin and then insert the chip there.

It’s simple to remove the dog’s collar and tags and suddenly they’re an unknown dog that no one has any idea who he is anymore. But with the microchip, we can easily bring the dog in, and we know that just by being able to scan this chip that is permanently right between his shoulder blades, they have a permanent form of ID. So no matter if the dog slips their collar and tags or someone takes it off them, or if the tag info is out of date, we do know that that form of ID is always in him.

It doesn't ensure it. As with anything else, it depends on the honesty of the finder. Unfortunately, if the finder decides that they want to keep your dog, that will deter things. But if you have an honest person who wants to help reunite the dog, then if they bring them into a shelter or a vet clinic, it can be easily scanned, which greatly increases your dog's chances of going home.

If a dog is lost and they have slipped their collar and they have no other form of ID, you're relying upon social media or posters around the area to try and help get the word out there that your dog is missing. The majority of the dogs that are microchipped return home simply because of that form of ID. There are some other perks to microchipping, as people can send out the lost and found flyers, and they'll also send out emails to local veterinarians and even local people in the area so they can be on the watch for your dog.

They should. Obviously we don't know what all their policies are, but generally the first thing that we do with a found animal is to automatically scan them for a microchip, and a lot of the shelters in the local area have that as their policy. That’s because the microchip will not only help them know if the dog has an owner, but it will hopefully also help reunite you with your dog.