I saw a neat idea in the book "Golden Retrievers for Dummies." The author
suggested having "dog needs medication" engraved on the last line of the ID
tag. This may make a dog thief think twice before stealing your dog. She
also suggested NOT putting the dog's name on the tag, just the owner's
name. That way anyone with malicious intentions won't have the luxury of
knowing your dog's name and using it to earn his trust.

My dogs are never left alone in the yard, but I do leave them in the
(locked) car sometimes when I'm running errands (weather permitting). I
have never worried about any of my dogs getting stolen, but it is a little
bit of a concern with my future, potentially show quality GR pup.

--
Lynne

"elegy" wrote

pit bulls are very high on the theft list.

Say what?

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

"Lynne" wrote in message
m...
That way anyone with malicious intentions won't have the luxury of
knowing your dog's name and using it to earn his trust.

Have you ever MET a Golden? Knowing the dog's name is completely
unnecessary to earn his trust.. They assume that all humans are
trustworthy. And one with treats will be their best friend forever. Or
until someone better comes along.

My dogs are never left alone in the yard, but I do leave them in the
(locked) car sometimes when I'm running errands (weather permitting). I
have never worried about any of my dogs getting stolen, but it is a little
bit of a concern with my future, potentially show quality GR pup.

If putting that on the tag and leaving the dog's name off will make you feel
better, then do it. My dogs have tags with my name, address and phone
number. I probably wouldn't ever put a dog's name on the collar or the tags
because such things are usually not dog-specific at our house.

My dogs also have tattoos and microchips. I do the collars with name tags
because that's what people in my area will look for first if they see a
wandering dog. The others will, hopefully, get checked if the dog makes it
to a shelter or a vet's office. They also are more difficult to remove if
the dog is actually stolen and I need to identify him to get him back.

My dogs get left in the (locked) car occasionally. I would never do so in
an area where I was concerned about someone actually breaking into the car
and stealing them.

Planting the idea of a dog needing medication in the mind of a dog thief
might work under some circumstances. Someone stealing a dog for a research
lab might quickly dump a dog with possible health problems. If your dog
wandered and was taken in by a family who had any thoughts of keeping him
and not looking for his owner, the risk of health problems might also make
them think twice.

So we all do what we can and as much as we need to feel comfortable with the
risks.

Judy

In article ,
Lynne wrote:

She
also suggested NOT putting the dog's name on the tag, just the owner's
name. That way anyone with malicious intentions won't have the luxury of
knowing your dog's name and using it to earn his trust.


That advice gets given out a lot, but quite honestly, I have adopted
adult animals who have learned their new name within a day (and they
didn't tell me their original name ;-D), and I have yet to find a dog
who will answer to someone, not answer to "puppy" or such.

My dogs are never left alone in the yard, but I do leave them in the
(locked) car sometimes when I'm running errands (weather permitting). I
have never worried about any of my dogs getting stolen, but it is a little
bit of a concern with my future, potentially show quality GR pup.

I have a vent lock http://www.cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=1254
and am probably going to by a shorter length as well. The dogs are
crated, car locked, windows down a teeny bit, sunroof open, fans on,
and parked carefully. In my view as much as possible, Frequent
checking if not.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:22:05 GMT, "Judy" wrote:

Have you ever MET a Golden? Knowing the dog's name is completely
unnecessary to earn his trust.. They assume that all humans are
trustworthy. And one with treats will be their best friend forever.
Or until someone better comes along.

Hehe, yeah. I was posting for everyone's benefit, though.

My dogs also have tattoos and microchips. I do the collars with name
tags because that's what people in my area will look for first if they
see a wandering dog. The others will, hopefully, get checked if the
dog makes it to a shelter or a vet's office. They also are more
difficult to remove if the dog is actually stolen and I need to
identify him to get him back.

Yeah, my dogs (and cats) are chipped and the new pup will be as well.

My dogs get left in the (locked) car occasionally. I would never do
so in an area where I was concerned about someone actually breaking
into the car and stealing them.

Ditto here.

Planting the idea of a dog needing medication in the mind of a dog
thief might work under some circumstances. Someone stealing a dog for
a research lab might quickly dump a dog with possible health problems.
If your dog wandered and was taken in by a family who had any
thoughts of keeping him and not looking for his owner, the risk of
health problems might also make them think twice.

So we all do what we can and as much as we need to feel comfortable
with the risks.

Exactly. It's honestly not something I've given a lot of thought to,
really. When I got my first Sheltie I read about dog thefts and just
never left him or any dog since in the yard without me. I've read
recently about dogs being stolen from locked cars at dog shows/hotels
near shows and so I figured these might be good additional precautions
for people to consider. I thought the medication idea was somewhat
clever.

--
Lynne

on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:36:48 GMT, Janet Boss
wrote:

I have a vent lock http://www.cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=1254
and am probably going to by a shorter length as well. The dogs are
crated, car locked, windows down a teeny bit, sunroof open, fans on,
and parked carefully. In my view as much as possible, Frequent
checking if not.

Oooh, that would work on my Subaru. Thanks for the link!

The old postmaster at our dinky post office used to let me bring my dogs
inside, but the new one is all official and won't let me... That's one of
the only places I regularly stop with a dog in the car (I get all my mail
sent there). If it's hot out, I don't take dogs on errands. My friends
who own restaurants at the Red River Gorge have dog pens where we all toss
our dogs in together and they have a blast while we stuff our faces.

--
Lynne

On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:49:50 -0600, Lynne
wrote:

I saw a neat idea in the book "Golden Retrievers for Dummies." The author
suggested having "dog needs medication" engraved on the last line of the ID


The first line on Baxter's tag is "Reward!!"

If he gets lost, I want someone to think it would be worth their time
to return this aging old guy to his owners.

I don't know if it would help, but it makes me feel better.

Anne
and Baxter

The first line on Baxter's tag is "Reward!!"

If he gets lost, I want someone to think it would be worth their time
to return this aging old guy to his owners.

I don't know if it would help, but it makes me feel better.

Anne
and Baxter



Maui and Cali's tags are similar. They say "please return for reward,
thanks"

Not sure if it would help but it makes me feel better too.