So veterinarians can definitely microchip your dog. I think some breeders might do it. Sometimes a dog club might have a microchip clinic, where they have the microchips that they've purchased and they then can register them and help you get them registered.

Good question. We use HomeAgain microchips. It comes in a kit, or box, which holds a syringe inside. And what we'll do is we will direct our dogs a little bit away from us. We always use the same area so everyone knows where to scan and find the microchip—between the shoulder blades at the back of the neck. We actually take the microchip and we put it right under the skin. It’s just like an injection, as though we were going to vaccinate your dog.

The other things in the kit is something that’s almost like a social security card. It has the pet’s unique number written on here for the owners to have. The dog can and should also wear a tag with that same number. The microchip is really tiny so it can fit inside the syringe. It's actually just about the size of a grain of rice. It's skinny and long, so it fits inside there.

Definitely—mostly the ticks; depending on which tick it is and where you live, you will see Lyme ticks even in January, even in the snow. Certain ticks, deer ticks, brown dog ticks, lone star tick, they do live in different parts of the country, and they like different environments. So we will see them at different times of the year, but certainly in the winter.

And fleas, they like it up until the grass dies and it's wholly browned out, which takes a long time, not just one frost. And then they'll be back as soon as the weather gets warm and the grass starts to grow. So it’s a very long season for fleas and ticks, especially here in Maryland.

Certainly if they go outdoors it increases the risk because your dog is going to get it there. If you go to parks, boarding, grooming, obedience school, and anytime they're around other dogs or they go inside someone else's house. But what can prevent it is just having dog flea and tick preventatives, either a special collar that you can get through your veterinarian, a topical product that we might want to put on once a month, or some of our new oral products that the dogs would eat. Those things will prevent either the flea or tick from biting them, getting on them, or, if they do, they'll be killed immediately, so they can't bring them into the house and spread them around.