mine are both chipped and wear id's on their collar along with rabies & county tags. Star's been returned to us twice when she wandered the neighborhood - once because of her microchip (returned by the dog catcher who scanned her) and once because the people that found her called the number on her tag. So I recommend using both. I do have a second collar with only an ID tag for Sherman because he kept getting it caught between the decking & ripping the tags off. my husband drilled a small hole at the bottom, and now I have it sewn across his kennel collar. But when we go out, he gets the collar with all the tags.


sarah, you brought up the second reason for the collars, too -- medical alerts. Sherman has impaired vision, so I have that on his ID tags so people will be aware of why he may seem skittish or growl if they get around his head. Better than having them think he's mean!