What the chip is — and what it is not
The chip is a glass capsule the size of a grain of rice under the skin between the shoulder blades. Inside is a passive radio tag with a fifteen-digit number and nothing more: no battery, no satellite receiver, no SIM card. It transmits nothing on its own — it only answers when you hold a scanner a few centimetres from it; the scanner's field powers it for a moment and reads the number out of it.
Three things follow from that, and they need saying out loud:
- The chip does not know the dog's location. Not even its own. Nothing in it measures where it is.
- The chip cannot be “switched on” from your phone. It has no connection to a phone — no Bluetooth, nothing else.
- The chip carries only a number. Your name and phone number are not in it. They are in the registry the number leads to — and the registry is a separate chapter below.
So the chip is not a tracker. It is the dog's identification number, one that cannot be lost or taken off. At that it is excellent — and that is exactly why it is compulsory.
Who can read it — and why it matters where the dog ends up
A vet has a scanner, so does a shelter, a quarantine station, the municipal police, veterinary inspectors. The person who meets your dog in the woods does not have one, and neither does the neighbour whose yard the dog ran into. For the chip to work, this has to happen, in this order: someone catches the dog, takes them somewhere, there someone holds a scanner to them and enters the number into the registry that holds your current contact.
Four steps, four places where it can get stuck. The chip only works at the vet's — and a large share of lost dogs are found before they ever get there: by searching the area, through neighbours and local groups. At that moment the chip helps not at all, because there is nobody to read it.
The number leads to a registry — and the registry is different in every country
The number from the chip is the key. The lock is the registry: a database in which, next to your number, it says who you are and how to reach you. The registry is not run by the chip's manufacturer or by “Europe” — in every country someone different runs it, by their own rules. Who enters records into it, who can see into it and what the finder gets to see from it is therefore different everywhere. And that is exactly the point.
Which registry? It depends on the country
- In some countries it is one state database, in others several private registries side by side. The record is usually entered by the vet who chips the dog — and your vet knows where they entered it. That is the first place to ask.
- The owner's contact is not shown to just anyone with a phone. Vets, shelters and the police can see it. The public cannot: under GDPR most public look-ups only confirm that a record exists and show the animal's data — not the owner's phone number.
- Europetnet (europetnet.org) searches the databases of 26 European countries by chip number and tells you which registry holds the record. It does not show owner details — for those you go to that registry, or to your vet.
- What that means on the street: the person who finds your dog sees on their phone at most that the dog is registered. They reach you through a vet, a shelter or the police — and not before. For the finder it is a dead end; for the shelter it is the first thing they do.
Why the registry so often leads nowhere
Shelters report the same thing after every New Year's Eve: the dog has a chip, the number reads fine — and it leads to a phone nobody has answered for two years. The reasons are always the same: you changed your number, you moved house, the dog is registered to the breeder or to the previous owner. The chip is permanent. The record next to it is not.
So three things to do today, not on the day the dog disappears:
- Check that a record exists. Enter the chip number into Europetnet or your country's public look-up. If nothing comes up, the dog is not in the registry — and that does not fix itself; only your vet can do that.
- Check under whose name and with which phone number the dog is registered. The public look-up will not show that. Your vet will — the chip number is in the dog's file and they can see where the record leads. If something has changed, they correct it on the spot.
- Keep the chip number with you. In your phone, a photo of the pet passport. Every shelter will ask for it first.
The chip answers who the dog is. Who answers where they are?
When the dog disappears, you need two different things — and each goes in the opposite direction.
- From you to the dog: knowing where they are right now, so that you can go after them. The chip cannot do that, because it transmits nothing. That is the job of a tracker — a device that works out its location from satellites and sends it to you over the mobile network.
- From the finder to you: so that the person who is holding your dog by the collar right now can get in touch. The chip can do that — but only through a scanner and a registry, which means only at the vet's or at the shelter. Until then it comes down to what the dog has visibly on the collar.
| Chip | Tag on the collar | GPS collar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who reads it | a scanner at the vet's, the shelter, the police | anyone who has the dog in their hands | you, on your phone |
| What it says | a number that leads to a registry | how to reach you | where the dog is right now |
| When it helps | once someone catches the dog and takes them somewhere | once someone catches the dog | the moment they disappear |
| Can it get lost | no | yes, with the collar | yes, with the collar |
| Required by law | yes | no | no |
What the tag on the collar does
The oldest answer to the second direction is a tag with your phone number. It works, it costs a few euros and we recommend it to everyone — with two catches: everyone who strokes the dog sees the number, and when it changes, you need a new one engraved.
The tag for the finder on the case of the hikes collar does the same thing, one step further. It is a code that is part of the case. The finder photographs it with any phone — no app, no sign-in — and a page opens with the dog's name and your message. With one button they let you know: you get a notification, and if the finder allows their phone's location, that too. You get in touch through us, without your number appearing on the collar or on the page — it is shown only when you switch it on in the app.
The difference from an engraved number is that the page behind the code can be changed — a new phone, a holiday at your parents', a dog passed on to someone else — without a new tag. And it can be toned down: when the dog is at home, it shows the minimum; when you mark them as lost, everything.
The tag is an addition, not a replacement. The chip is compulsory, permanent and cannot be taken off; the collar can get lost, with the code, with the tag and with the GPS. So: a chip and a current record in the registry, a visible contact on the collar — and when you also want to know where the dog is, a tracker. Three things, three different jobs. None of them does the work of the other.
How it looks with hikes
The collar handles both directions at once. From you to the dog: it works out its location itself from satellites and sends it over its own SIM card — outdoors every five minutes, and when you are searching for the dog, you switch to live tracking with a location every five to ten seconds. From your phone you light it up and ring it, even when the dog is at home and the collar is saving battery.
From the finder to you: the code on the case opens a page with the dog's name and an “I found them” button — no scanner, no app. You get a message and you get in touch through us, without your number being made public.
The collar does not replace the chip. The chip says who the dog is, and it is compulsory. The collar says where they are — and who to contact when someone finds them before you do.