The German Shepherd Dog Breed – Tattoos

Article by The Dog Breed Expert

While I was working on a third part to my articles about the different lines of the German Shepherd dog breed, I diverted my attention to another topic when I joined a some forums dedicated to the German Shepherd dog and after commenting that German Shepherds had to be tattooed and getting so many responses from owners of GSDs, breeders and fans of the breed which had doubts about my comment, I decided I had to write about this before I continued with the other article.

First let's make something very clear. It is a fact that GSDs born in the United States on or after January 1st 2005 must be tattooed or they must have a microchip identification. Normally the tattoo goes in the right ear. These tattoos should be at least five numbers or 5 letters; or a combination of numbers and letters. They may be a unique tattoo number chosen by the owner, or the breeder may obtain a seven digit tattoo from the American organizations. The tattoo has to be verified by a licensed veterinarian. Another important point is that the tattoo or microchip number has to be certified on the original four generation pedigree. The main reason for this is to record a permanent identification of all GSDs born in the USA.

In most countries in the world, with the exception of the United States and very few other countries, national registries obey the rules that the F