I also had my dog tatooed. She was a show dog but I did the tatooing because if someone picks her up or steels her and tries to sell her to a testing lab, if she has a tatoo, then they can't use her for any type of testing. It only cost me 25 way back when but I felt it was worth it. The chip in my little American Eskimo helped last yr when she got out and got lost for 2 days. I called animal control and they said first of all the rarely get the orginal ones (little ones) so that narrowed down the search for the right owner if they found her plus I had the chip in. She was so scared after being away from home for 2 days, it was cold and rainy, she hates the rain. She was so scared that it took them awhile of trying to play with her to get close enough to scan her. It was such a relief when I got her back. By the way, she won't step foot outside of our yard now and when doesn't want to come in all I have to do is act like I'm closing the door and she comes running in. She learned her lesson about the big scary world.