Thursday, February 26, 2009

Wow...a DOT again! Together Tags and Doggie play time.

Ok, so as you can tell I've been a bit distracted this past week. I did get a podcast out last weekend, went to a spinning guild meeting, took a trip to an alpaca farm, and managed to be completely full of endless snot from my allergies. :) There my recap. But I'm sure that's not all you came here for.

For this weeks DOT post though, I'm going to talk about the Together Tags.
I got an email about these from Dogster this week and I really want to order them. Both my two are microchipped but these tags seem to go one step further. Dogster has partnered with the American Red Cross and created the Together Tags. The great thing about these tags are the information needed for the person who finds your dog is on the tag. So, they would simple call the 800 number or logon line and see your pets information. My thought on this is that most non-dog people don't really know that dogs are microchipped. I still come across people who do own dogs who have never even thought of it. So...if that person finds my dog they probably aren't going to take them to a local vet and check to see if they are microchipped. Microchips work great for all of us who know this exists.

So, why not a regular tag that has your information on it. Well, this tag also has more information so when they log in they will have other information for your dog, such as an additional emergency contact information. If they still can't get a hold of you they have additional alerts that go out to local shelters, local together tag members, and users on Dogster. This seems like a pretty good addition.

I will admit I have not enrolled my two dogs yet but plan to before the end of the month because Dogster is runing a $5 off discount until March 1st. There is a one-time fee of $24.95 which covers your cat or dog for life and they give discounts for families of more than 3 pets.

Ok..now about my dogs.

Aren't they cute! Well..they almost gave SK a heart attack this weekend and surprised us both. While I was on my way to the Alpaca farm this weekend, I got a call from SK. He told me the following story.

SK has been cleaning the house and doing laundry while I was away for the day. He let the dogs out and grabbed the laundry and sat down to fold clothes. About 10 minutes later, he gets up to head out to his truck to grab something. As he walks out he looks over to the left neighbor;s house, and lo and behold he sees our two dogs playing with the neighbor girls in their front yard. Yes, catch that THEIR front YARD! He was so freaked out that he wasn't able to really form words and started making load noises at them and both dogs looked at him and ran into the open gate of our back yard that SK had forgotten to shut when he brought in the trash bin. He said he shut the gate and came inside and his heart about beat out of his chest.

I thank God for the neighbor girls who probably started calling them when they saw them come out and they went over and played with them. I don't even want to think of any other situation that could have come up. I just know that they are both safe and that SK will be more careful with the gate from now on. I also thankful that they didn't try to run off when they saw SK. I'm glad they chose to come into the backyard. It was funny because the next day when I was getting Jackjack to take him out the gate to give him a bath in the front yard at first he wouldn't even come to me by the gate. Good boy. I'm glad he likes being in our yard and with us.


Well, I hope you enjoyed my Dogs on Thursday post and please go over and read the other DOT posts this week. We've got a great review from Chan on the blog about some hot spots in Outer Banks. Also check her blog for more tag information. :)

15 comments:

  1. Snoop got about 3 blocks away from us before a lady grabbed him and called us. Scary feeling.

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  2. Sunny wouldn't get far. She wouldn't know what to do if she didn't see me. Jackson would chase another dog and get in big trouble with the police and Beau...well, Beau has given us a scare more than once. His nose gets to the ground and leads him waaaayyy away. I have all 3 of them registered and tagged with AKCCAR.org; but that does little good if they aren't wearing their collars.
    Glad they didn't get far.

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  3. My brown lab/mix and queensland heeler used to be escape artists. We dug a foot under our whole fence and put chicken wire and bricks then buried it back...they still dug out and escaped. Then we bought an electric shock fence contraption...it worked. I think they touched it twice and never escaped again! But the couple of times they did we found them twenty minutes away! So scary and frightening. They crossed major streets and everything,ug! They are both now over the rainbow bridge (from old age, one was 18 the other 20). Wonder what they are getting into now!:)

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  4. Yikes!!! That would have scared me too. Doggies have angels watching over them too.

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  5. Thank goodness JackJack didn't bolt. It's a scary feeling when you think you know where your pup is and they aren't there.

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  6. Yikes! That's scary. I'm glad it all worked out.

    I'm still on the fence about Together. Home Again has a 800 number on the tags on the girls' collars, and Sissy's worked the time she went on her big adventure and parked on a neighbor's porch.

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  7. I'm glad they are both ok!

    You're right about the microchiping, as a non dog owner I'd have no idea how to access the info on it. Even now that you've told me that I could take the dog to a vet I'm not sure where to find one in my community. I'm sure that it would take at least a half hour car ride and making that with an unfamiliar dog doesn't seem like the best idea if there is an alternative.

    Making things easier for the "finder" of your dog is a really great idea :)

    PS do you have the address of the person I'm supposed to send the Christmas prize to?

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  8. Yep dogs are curious but they know, there is no place like home, especially your home.

    I don't have any pets right now but I have several friends into animal rescue and have multiple pets and I am going to pass this info on to them.

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  9. Glad dogs and humans are all ok after the runaway event. Both of our dogs had done that, at separate times, and it's very scary.

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  10. So glad the dogs didn't run off! One of our cats got out once, but she only went to the bench on the front porch to sun herself. lol

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  11. Scary situation! I'm glad everything turned out fine. Good dogs!

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  12. So scary when that happens! I'm glad they were close by and they didn't run away when SK called them too! That picture of them is so cute!

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  13. Our one son kept leaving the gate open and with the fear of pit bulls I would about have a heart attack trying to find Wilbur (who would get out). Charlotte would go to the back door and whine instead of leaving thankfully. I finally went to Walmart and bought 2 key locks (for both gates) and my husband and I have the keys on our keyrings so no one can open the gates without our knowing about it. It relieved a lot of panic on my part.

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  14. Wait a minute...he was FOLDING CLOTHES???? Oh yeah, glad the kids are okay. :-) I can only imagine how SK was feeling in those few sickening moments when you realize your kids aren't where they are supposed to be.

    We had an experience like this with our two newfs when I was growing up. We let them out early one morning before work/school, little realizing the gate was open. We eventually found them a block away from one of the town's busiest intersections (over 1 mile from home) and the only way we found them there was because there was a dusting of snow on the ground so we followed their prints.

    After that, our female never left the yard again, even though the imp-boy had no problems taking himself for walks when the opportunity came up.

    (completely different note, the word verification I have is prearan...so I choose to see it as pre-aran, i.e., ball of yarn :-) )

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  15. OMG girl! I know SK was scared to death and worried. Lucky ran away once, when we first adopted her, about 12 yrs. ago. She has never done it since. I think she knows how good she has it!
    Those tags are a great idea though.

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