Cesar Millan, the noted “Dog Whisperer”, knows pretty much all there is about dogs. He says the following with regards to the microchip:

‘The chip’s only as big as a grain of rice. It’s usually implanted in the scruff of your dog’s neck and doesn’t cause any pain for your pet. And it only costs around $25 to $50, depending on your vet.'

‘I think it’s so much safer than other forms of identification. If your dog gets lost, he might lose his collar and tags; if your dog is stolen, the thief might remove his collar and tags. With a microchip, you can help people who find your dog find you and if someone else says it’s their dog, you can prove the dog is yours.'

‘They make some neat stuff that works with your dog’s microchip, too. Like a pet door that recognizes your dog’s chip and lets him into the house (but not the raccoon that comes by later). The microchip won’t track your dog though. Your dog has to be taken somewhere to be scanned.'

‘To me, the decision whether to microchip your dog or not is an easy one. You should microchip your dog as soon as possible, and you’ll rest easier knowing that if anything happens to your dog, you’ll have a better chance of recovering him.'

‘Many communities are proposing making microchipping all dogs mandatory. Just last month, Northern Ireland began requiring all of its dogs to be microchipped. Besides, finding your dog, there are two good reasons to make microchips mandatory—although it saddens me that there are still these problems at all.’

Cesar also has strong feelings as to why some dogs are not tagged or microchipped. Many dogs, he says, are not really lost but are abandoned or used in brutal “games”, that leave dogs abused, torn and often times dead. Their owners do not want their dog’s microchipped for these reasons (it could be tracked back to them). He and other experts would like to see the microchip as mandatory. To read more about this, head over to Cesar's Way.