We microchip all of our Australian Cattle Dog puppies with Home Again microchips.

A veterinarian injects a tiny microchip about the size of a grain of rice (12mm) beneath the surface of your pet’s skin between the shoulder blades. The process is similar to a routine shot and takes only a few seconds. No anesthetic is required.

The microchip itself has no internal energy source to harm your pet, and it will last the life of your pet. The microchip is read by passing a microchip scanner over the pet’s shoulder blades. The scanner emits a low radio frequency that provides the power necessary to transmit the microchip’s unique code and positively identify the pet's unique microchip number. HomeAgain is the only microchip on the market today that has the Bio-Bond™ patented anti-migration feature to help ensure that the microchip will stay in place so that it may be easily located and scanned with the scanner. If your pet gets lost and is taken to an animal shelter or veterinarian, they will scan the microchip to read its unique code and then notify Home Again and many times they also contact AKC if it is a purebred dog. This is the number used by HomeAgain to identify the pet and retrieve your breeders contact information, which is used to make contact and reunite you with your pet.

There are three very good reasons for microchipping a puppy.

First, in the event your puppy/dog is lost and then found it can be scanned using a microchip reader and then through the Home Again recovery process you can get your puppy/dog back.

Second, it protects the breeder. When a breeder sells a puppy to someone and gives a health guarantee for the puppy and the health guarantee needs to be activated it gives the breeder the ability to know that the puppy or now adult dog in question is actually the puppy or dog that the breeder did sell to the individual using the health guarantee.

"Warning": Third, it protects the buyer. There are scams that take place in the world of breeding and selling dogs. An unethical breeder might take one puppy to a veterinarian to obtain a health certificate for shipping, but actually ships a different puppy...this is called bait-and-switch. It presents a difficult situation when no microchip is used and the first veterinarian does clear a puppy for shipping, but the second veterinarian examining the puppy after the new family receives the puppy might not deem the puppy as healthy. It then becomes an uncomfortable situation between two different veterinarians when really the veterinarians were both correct in their evaluations and the problem really lies with the unethical breeder who scammed the buying family into believing they were receiving one puppy and in fact the family received a different puppy. If a puppy is microchipped before the first veterinarian does the health certificate for shipping the first veterinarian can scan the puppy and verify the puppy being examined by the microchip number and write the number on the health certificate. Then the second veterinarian examining the puppy with the new family can verify the microchip number by scanning the puppy and if a problem is found with the second veterinarian the second veterinarian will be able to discuss the matter with the first veterinarian and both veterinarians will know they are indeed referring to the same puppy they both examined.