How is the microchip implanted in the dog?

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.

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.

A microchip is implanted in the dog by a hollow needle, and we inject it under the skin between the shoulder blades. It's a quick procedure as we use a fairly large needle. Most dogs and cats tolerate it really well. Before we pull out the needle, I pinch it to ensure that the microchip stays in and then we scan to make sure that it's appropriately placed. Before we inject it, we also scan the chip to ensure it is reading properly. It's very rare to see a faulty chip.

Implanting a chip in a dog is a same day procedure. It's like an injection that we do right between the shoulder blades. A little piece, much like a grain of rice, is implanted underneath the skin between the shoulder blades which we scan with a microchip for your pet's identification. We always scan before implanting the microchip to ensure your pet doesn't already have one because having multiple microchips can sometimes cause confusion, especially if one belonged to a previous owner.

We use a little larger needle than a regular vaccine needle. The microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and sits in the needle. We implant it in the shoulder of a dog and then scan it to ensure it is implanted correctly.