#generalpettricks

Pet Tricks: Tip #4

Our pets need ID.  They might sneak out a door, find a hole in a fence, or just accidentally slip out of a collar and leash.  Even very careful and responsible owners can end up with a loose, lost pet.

Microchips are permanent and don't fall off, but someone who finds your dog on the side of the road and takes him home may not realize that he has an owner who wants him back, may not know to take him and check for a microchip.

So we still need collars and tags, something visible that says, "Someone owns this pet and wants him back!"

But geez, the ways to attach a tag to a collar are really annoying and somewhat unreliable. Generally tags come with a split ring or an S-hook.

A split ring is a pain in the neck to put on.  If it's small enough to go on a pet, it's weak and may stretch out of shape just from putting the tag on it.  It may catch on your pet's fur and pull.  It may catch on fabric or other materials and snag, and either hurt your pet as he tries to get loose, or break and come off.

An S-hook is just as bad, maybe worse.  It's even more inclined to snag on things.  I've lost a lot of tags from S-hook failures, and the pulled-open S-hook looked like it could easily jab my dog.

So here's the Pet Trick.  I found something better than the usual tag hooks and rings.  It's sort of like a carabiner, only tiny (about 7/8" long, about 0.125" thick wire) and smoothly oval shaped.  Nifty! And as a bonus, it is MUCH easier to use these to move tags, say, from one collar to another, or to pull tags off the carabiner and put them back, or swap out tags when you get a new rabies tag, etc.

It's very slightly larger than a split ring or S-hook, but you can see it's not so big it's a problem.  Yvaine (the cocker) is a 20-lb dog, and the clip plus her tag doesn't hang noticeably down from her neck.  Bristle (the cattledog) is a 30-lb dog, and you just about can't tell that he's wearing something unusual.

The small oval carabiners I found are "Coastal Pet Products Ez Change ID Clips" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D078UCK/).  They go easily through the hole in every tag I tried, including county license tags, rabies tags, ID tags, and microchip tags.  The clip's "gate" (the part that opens and closes) is very stiff and a little hard to open, but that's all to the good: it won't fall off easily.

I also tested "Nite Ize" S-biners, because I like them, and they work just about as well.  (There's no pics of these on collars, sorry.)  I'm a little more concerned about them snagging on things, but I use them on my keyring, and haven't had a problem.  The #0.5 S-biners (1.31" long, 0.22" thick) are a touch larger than the Coastal oval clips, but might be easier to find or to use.  They also worked for every tag I tested.