I recall the tears and anxiety when our dogs escaped... now microchipping can end the heartbreak

WHEN we went to choose an Irish soft-coated wheaten terrier pup from a litter in Co. Meath back in the summer of 1999, we came home with two. Brothers, they were, those two wheaten bread-coloured bundles who became Oscar and Finn, and central to our lives until Finn passed away, a very old dog and just a month shy of his 16th birthday, in December 2014. Oscar had died three years earlier.

But on that particular day when we first saw them in 1999 we also met their other brother, their mother, their aunt and their grandmother. We witnessed the different personality traits, the slightly divergent physical characteristics in all of the dogs – the way that Finn was exuberant, affectionate and a bit ditzy (like his aunt), while Oscar was shy, more ponderous, j ust smarter, really. And that’s how they continued all their lives.

And so we came away with our two gorgeous pups, complete with their pedigree papers, but also with a sense of what defined them, what their history was before they came to live with us. We knew everything about them, in other words.

And yet, the breeder who sold us Oscar and Finn knew nothing at all about us. We were taking responsibility for two small dogs – or so we said – but what if we didn’t? What if we let them run wild, what if we didn’t look after them properly, what if we decided that they were too much hard work and just abandoned them one day in Herbert Park in Ballsbridge, near where we lived at the time? What if we were totally irresponsible?

Oscar and Finn were linked to us through their documentation and our experience with their ‘family’, but other than parting with our money to buy them, we weren’t linked to them in any real way. Certainly not in a way that made us legally responsible for them.

And yet owning and caring for a dog is such a huge undertaking. And one that needs to be taken very seriously. Which is why the new law on microchipping, effective from tomorrow, is such a welcome and longoverdue initiative.

Tomorrow is actually the final step in this process because it has been a requirement since last September that all puppies be microchipped and so breeders or dog charities have been obliged to microchip for some months now.

From tomorrow, however, it’s all dogs that must be so identified.

Like all these things, it’s never entirely straightforward, however. While it has been illegal since last September to sell, supply or buy a pup that does not have a certificate of microchip registration, issued through one of the approved databases, my local vet tells me that that requirement has actually been flouted by breeders or suppliers. In his particular practice and for some time now, they have been microchipping numerous pups that have arrived to their new homes without the required identification and registration.

And yes, it’s good that the new dog owners are themselves bringing the animals to be chipped, but the reality is that they have already broken the law by buying a pup that has not been registered in the first place. Maybe the seller gave them a better deal without the required documentation but such a move only means that both the seller and the buyer were breaking the law.

Now, from tomorrow, the net will be widened and everyone will be responsible for having the dog they already own – young or old – microchipped and registered.

It’s a great step forward and one that will give owners peace of mind if their dogs go missing. A collar with a long-faded telephone number is one thing, but a microchip is there for life.

Bonus

But we must remember, we dog lovers, that not everyone thinks like we do. Not everybody, in other words, loves dogs. And so the real bonus of this requirement is that it gives everyone more security. Even those who are not particularly well disposed to our canine friends.

So if a dog starts roaming around your estate, on the loose, doing his business on your front lawn, or frightening your children as they play outside, then you now have a comeback. You can report the dog, the chip can be checked, and the owner will be held accountable.

On the pure practicalities, it is not a complicated procedure. The microchipping takes only a minute and no anaesthetic is required. It’s just a jab between the shoulder blades.

My vet charges €25 but I have seen prices quoted from €20 to €50. And the vet will do the follow-up registration for you so that all your own information in relation to your dog is detailed on the central database. A bit like motor tax. And if ownership changes at any juncture then, again like taxing your car, you have to register that change of ownership.

Inevitably there will still be dog owners who will fail to take responsibility, and no doubt these will often be those whose dogs are long past puppyhood and therefore not yet registered. And so it will still be difficult, as it has been in the past, to track down the owner of an unchipped dog who has worried a sheep, perhaps, or even bitten a child.

But as time progresses and people realise that they too are breaking the law if they buy an unregistered pup, then the dog population will inevitably find itself almost universally registered and anyone who dumps a pup after a few months, or, indeed, whose dog goes on to cause destruction or wreak havoc, will have to answer to the authorities.

And for those who are responsible and who genuinely love their dogs, it will ease the potential heartbreak of losing them.

For to lose a family pet is precisely that – heartbreak.

It was always our main anxiety with Oscar and Finn. They had the most affectionate and placid natures, so biting a child or attacking another dog was never an issue. But, boy, did they like to roam. Any chance of a great escape from any of the gardens of the houses we lived in and they were off.

As tiny pups in Ballsbridge they ended up in Donnybrook, and were finally apprehended as they wandered along past Kiely’s pub one evening. How, at such a young age and with no road sense whatsoever, they negotiated the city traffic and stayed alive is still beyond me. When we moved to Greystones in Co. Wicklow and to a house with an enormous garden, even that wasn’t enough for them and they found endless ways to breach the perimeter hedging. They even ended up one night, after dark, miles away in the Glen of the Downs.

On all those occasions we were lucky – they always stayed together and when they didn’t make their own way home someone always found them, consulted the telephone number on the discs on their collars and rang us.

Except, that is, for one dreadful night in Belfast when they escaped from a friend’s garden in the south of the city around teatime and we genuinely thought that we would never see them again.

The police were phoned, an alert was put out on Downtown Radio (yes, we were that demented), friends were roped in for the search and, after hours of tears and anxiety, we happened upon Finn, sitting by himself in the middle of a playing field, looking bewildered, and then utterly overjoyed to see us.

Where Finn was, Oscar was never far behind, and sure enough, a few minutes later he rounded the bend in the track beside the field, accompanied by a young woman. A confused young woman.

‘I couldn’t make head nor tail of the phone number on his collar,’ she said.

Of course she couldn’t. It was our home number in Greystones, minus the international code.

If luck hadn’t brought us to that place at that precise time – miles away from where they had escaped – Oscar and Finn could well have been lost to us forever.

Now, however, a quick scan of the microchip would deliver all the required information to bring them safely home.

So if you haven’t done it yet, ring your vet right now and make an appointment to have your dog microchipped, registered – and kept safe.

Not only is it now the law of the land, but it’s also the responsible thing to do. And it could well be the best €25 that you’ll ever spend.