# abdominal tatoo on rescued GSD



## GSDS and a min pin (Jul 14, 2008)

Hello all- I have been lurking here for several years and finally registered because I am dying of curiousity about my rescue dog. Two years ago I pulled and began to foster a bi color GSD for my rescue group. His estimated age at the time was seven and was pulled from a rural SC private humane society. I was a foster failure and now he is mine. Last week I was rubbing his belly and noticed for the first time a six digit numeric tatoo on his abdomen. The only explanation I can think of for not seeing it sooner is perhaps his hair is receeding or turning lighter as he is getting older. I cannot fully make it out as the last few digits still have hair over them. A military dog trainer from Fort Bragg worked with him shortly after I got him and determined he is scent trained. A friend of mine who was a K-9 officer before retirement believes that he is an import line. I have tried to search the internet to find information about this tatoo with no luck. Does anyone know what organization tatoos in this manner or where I might find more information?


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## xwildman138x (Jan 11, 2008)

Thats wild!!! Never heard of that before


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## GSDTrain (Apr 21, 2008)

Now thats interesting. I have heard of Mal's having adominal tattoos but never a GSD


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## Prinzsalpha (Jul 6, 2005)

Mine also has a tatoo on his abdomen. He is from Canada. German working lines.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

I've never heard of a dog tattooed on the abdomen before, only on the inner thigh or ear. Weird. 
I'll be interested to hear what you find out. Unfortunately, even if you could make out the number, it may not tell you anything since there is no formal tattoo registry or standardized tattooing pattern.


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## Prinzsalpha (Jul 6, 2005)

My breeder tatoos this way with all her litters.


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## trouble (Oct 29, 2005)

My bi-color GSD, bred in NYS, also has abdomen tattoo.


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## GranvilleGSD (Mar 28, 2007)

Working in the veterinary field I have heard that tattoos on the abdomen/inner thigh are preferable to ear tattoos. The reason is that if the dog were to be stolen, the ear could be "injured" ie. cut off or mangled and the dog would no longer have a positive id. Obviously, tattoos underneath the dog are less noticable, and also harder to tamper with, and the dog could more likely be identified.


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## Caja's Mom (Aug 6, 2003)

A belly tattoo or thigh is very common to do on older dogs, since GENERALLY ears can't be done once the ear cartilage is set at a few months of age. Caja doesn't have an ear tattoo and I considered doing one on her, but opted for a microchip instead. If you can read most or all of the numbers it's fairly easy to figure out where the dog came from.


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## K9mom (Jan 15, 2004)

Here's the National Registry for Abdominal/Inner Thigh Tattoo's:

http://www.nationaldogregistry.com/

My older GSD's are all tattooed in the thigh

Tina


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## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

Kayos has her AKC number tattooed on her groin. Breeder did it. I have also heard that it is preferable to the ear and with the microchip I think tattooing may go out with the dinosaurs.


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