Tattoo Day

August 5th was 'tattoo day' for the puppies. Each purebred dog must be individually identified with either a tattoo or a microchip before it can be registered with the Cdn Kennel Club. I prefer the tattoo over the microchip for several reasons:

1. on a Vizsla it's legible and visible, if done well, because they have little hair on their bellies
   
2. microchips can & do 'migrate' to other parts of the body
3. chips that move are not always found with scanners
   
4. dogs with chips have been known to develop tumours near the chip site and sometimes these are malignant

I had to apply for a tattoo combination from the CKC and my letters are NPR which I remember as "National Public Radio", the news station in the US. Each year, the CKC assigns a unique letter and so for 2008, the letter is "U". Each puppy gets a unique combination of letters and numbers so since this is the first and only litter I'll produce this year, the puppies get numbered 1 through 6. I always assign the number based on their birth order. Since Blue was first-born, his tattoo is NPR 1U, Black is NPR 2U . . . and Purple, last-born is NPR 6U. If these puppies are ever lost and stolen, they can, if found, be traced back to me as their breeder and then I can get in touch with the owners which is an important reason for the owners to let me know if they move homes.

The tattoo process is quick and doesn't hurt them at all (in contrast to the ear crimp which is extremely painful; my first Vizsla, imported from the US was tattooed this way and she screamed bloody murder; I vowed never to use that process again on any of my dogs).

Since I have them tattooed inside the L flank, they are laid on their backs out on a soft cushion with their feet held while the person tattoos. For the past three years I've taken my puppies to the Graham Animal Hospital in Hillsburgh Ontario where the technicians/vets have done a superb job and they are just great with the puppies. Our puppies were rated 'very good' by the two technicians involved in this process. The listed off several other breeds that are terrible for having their tattoos done, the PVGV breed topping their list as the 'worst-ever'. Again, it's probably due to lack of sufficient handling, which is not the case with our puppies! :0)

Just as we left the clinic to visit one of the families who is getting a puppy, a thunderstorm rolled in. No - not more rain! Well, it just teemed and poured and poured and poured. Of course the puppies didn't want to go outside and between me and them, I just got drenched taking them out for pees. We had so much rain that afternoon that farmers' fields had flood. When we got home, another storm moved in. Not fun at all.

Again, here are the same photos in our Picasa album.

Tattooing