Every dog adopted from Shaw PBR is microchipped before it leaves, and it comes with an AKC Reunite tag meant to be worn on its collar. The chip is registered to Shaw Pit Bull Refuge, not to the adopter. We have found that keeping the registration in our name gives a lost dog the best chance of being recovered. Shelters, animal control, veterinary clinics, and rescue groups scan incoming animals for chips as a matter of routine. If the scan comes back to us, we are the ones who get the call.

Shaw PBR pays for lifetime registration on every chip registered in our name. What we need in return is current information. An address or phone number that no longer works defeats the chip. Tell us when you move or change numbers. If the dog is lost or stolen, contact us immediately with the best way to reach you. Once a scanner traces the chip to Shaw PBR, we can notify you without waiting on a registry update.

A collar tag and a microchip do different jobs, and a dog should have both. Many owners assume the chip makes the tag unnecessary. It does not. A person who finds a dog on the street can read a tag and call you the same hour. They cannot read a chip. Without a tag, the dog usually has to reach a shelter or a clinic before anyone knows who it belongs to, and those hours matter.

If an unidentified dog lands in a pound, staff have no way to call you unless you come in and identify it yourself. Pounds are required to hold strays for only a set number of days. After that hold, the dog may be euthanized or rehomed. A tag on the collar and a chip registered to us are what stand between a lost dog and that outcome.

If Shaw PBR is contacted more than once in a short period about a dog adopted from us that has been lost, we will take the dog back. You will not be eligible to adopt again, and the adoption fee will not be refunded. A dog that came from Shaw PBR always has a place here. Repeated loss is not a reason to leave it in circulation. Keep the tag on, keep the collar fitted, and keep your contact information current. That is the recovery plan.