Hello Patch, a lot of rescues dont actually deal with strays. You have to have the kennelling contract from your local council for that. Some councils rent rescues, some own their own facilities (pounds), some rent boarding kennels.
So the rescues that dont deal with strays will ask the finder to take the stray dog to the contracted kennel (if they know who and where they are) or to the police station or to phone the dog warden. Or they will take the dog off the persons hand and ring the dog warden to collect it from the rescue.
Therefore they wouldn't have need for a scanner nor would have need to find out who the owner is, as these are the legal duties of the dog warden and/or the local kennel that holds the 7 day strays contract.
Obviously, there are other good reasons why a rescue should own a scanner.

Mine are all chipped and at their last check all were fine.

All done by a vet in between the shoulder blades.

When I found a lost springer last year I took her to be checked at my vet, but they only scanned around her neck down and shoulders. Luckily though her owner had reported her missing and they were re-united and she wasn't microchipped after all (no tags on her collar), but just the fact that she wasn't checked all over so I wonder how many migrated chips are missed.

Mine haven't been checked for almost 8 months so in theory they could have moved and we don't know it and evidentally, lost/found animals are not always given a through check.

Between the shoulder blades & not in the scruff, on his PP the site was "between the shoulder blades"now it's"between the front legs"

The chip was implanted by a "professional"chipper like Bec & not the vet

As for Tattoos becoming illegible I've been tattooing for over 15 years & never had one become illegible & my tattoos have been responsible for several stolen dogs being recovered & dogs dumped in rescues being returned to their breeders.

For the past 10 years we have been using smaller tattoo die stamps & black ink which produces an excell dark legible tattoo. We had two German GSD imports & their tattoos were done using the large die stamps & green ink, but were legible all their lives

Hi Jodeeuk, thanks for your reply. As someone that did deal with chipped and tattood dogs in the rescue, i can say that most of the tattoos i read had some form of illegilbility in some or most of the numbers.
As often as vet implanted chips having migrated.
But i can still scan and read the chip numbers, where the vague tattoos were anyone's guess.
Sometimes you couldnt even tell which way up you the number was
We always found an address thru the chip. Around 50% of these people had moved and not informed the chip company. Usually the dog has been passed on. The other 50% of the chipped dogs were reunited with the owners.
With the tattood dogs that we could read, we also managed to find owners addresses, but we never had a case of the dog being reunited with the owner.
Although, at least about 50% of stray dogs dont have any form of ID, and of those that do, the majority are chipped, not tattood.
As regards tracking back to breeders, that made no difference whatever system was used, even if we tracked them via accompanying KC papers. As we have never had a case of a breeder wanting to take back their dog anyway.

I'm horrified yousay no breeder has ever wanted to take a dog back, though perhaps the ones that do don't end up at the rescue in the first place. Must say I've had my dogstattooed for about 20 years & never had a problem with reading one. I'd still have them done as well as chipping since a friend had a chipped dog who when they found him again after he was lost had had a second chip implanted, so he had two registered to different people in him. I've only had two dogs with chips so only know they are still in place.

I am surprised that NONE of the breeders who had their dogs tattooed wanted them back or cared-I had a friend ring me re a gundog that had been found that had been tattooed

Not only did the breeder want to know & pay for the treatment of the dog, she undertook herself to contact the person she sold the dog to 9 years before & give them a right earfull regarding them not reporting him missing & the condition he is in. The vet fees will be in excess of £1,000 BTW & if the breed rescue he is now with(after being in a contracted stray kennels)cannot rehome him she will take him home to be a house dog herself

Breeders who tattoo 99% of the time do so to ensure they will be contacted if the dog goes into rescue or gets lost etc

Presumably this is in Denmark?
Breeders, such as myself microchip our litters, precisely
because we want our pups traceable back to us, should the worst happen.
Thankfully it hasnt happened to any that I have bred, but I do know of breeders who have rushed to pick up dogs (they have bred) from rescue/stray kennels, because they have been contacted, due to no answer from the reg owner etc.
In those cases, the dog had gone walk about from a friend looking after the dog while the owner was on hols.

Yes, been there too. That comes back to vets quite often as well. As many vets chip in the scruff, so they only scan in the scruff Also, some councils dont employ dog wardens, but hire private companies to pick up stray dogs. These can be companies that can include cleaning or security! So they arent inclined to to be thorough.
We chipped a dog at the rescue in front of the owners in the vet room during the checking out procedure. The new owners saw us scan the chip in the packet to make sure its not a dud, then chip between the shoulder blades as taught by Data Mars and Petlog, then scan and locate the chip straight away. We even showed them the number on the scanner LCD. We also gave them the chip documentation and stickers with the number. This is procedure for every dog. Few days later they registered dog with local vet, as normal. He insisted the chip had "died" inside the dog so told them he will have to re-chip and charge them money!
All because he only scanned the scruff.
And these owners, in the great British tradition of "not questioning your betters", didnt even think to point out to the vet that the chip had been scanned twice in the packet and dog, and ask why the vet is scanning in the wrong place!
So in our case, as i *guess* in your case, all it takes is someone do take a few extra seconds to scan the whole dog.
That's what we always did.

No, i'm British. It was over a 10 year period in the UK.
For stray dogs that were chipped or tattod (like I say, it terms of statistics, it went 'nothing > chip > tattoos', in that order), we never had one registered to a breeder.
For dogs handed in by the owner, the same. The breeder would be tracked by the accompanying KC papers.
Interesting point though - how can a breeder chip a dog to themselves when its owned by someone else? Dont you register chip to new owner? Or do you mean the chip is registered to both of you?
At my rescue for example, we retain ownership for dogs for life, on our contracts. So the chip paperwork is registered to us. If the dog is picked up and scanned, they ring us, we ring the adopters. So the adopters have to keep us up to date with changes address etc.
Yes, some of our strays turned up as they did a runner from the dogsitter.

I agree re the 'only scanning the scruff', its disgusting
We were taught a set pattern to scan on cats, dogs etc, and I pretty sure vets will have been taught the same.

I always scan a dog thoroughly prior to chipping, and I also do so on my pups - not because I expect to find anything on the latter, but because its a good habit to get into (and you should never assume any litters you are called on to chip, havent been stolen and already chipped!).
I always explain to people that I do this as routine, and that it is second nature to me - no one seems to mind!

In the case of other peoples dogs, I always have them check the chip prior to implanting (although I check them all when they arrive from the company), both by scanning and against the paperwork/stickers.
My own litters are microchipped prior to being picked up by new owners, but the chip/paperwork is checked as above.

I also tell them to ensure the vets know the dog/pup is microchipped, and ask for the animal to be scanned at each and every visit to the surgery. I show them how their vet will (should!) scan thoroughly, so that they are more likely to question a cursory 'scruff' scan. I also advise them tha any movement in the chip should be included on the dogs notes, and the database informed so a note can be made of it.

It really isnt difficult to be efficient and thorough, and there is a campaign to encourage vets to scan routinely and properly! We are getting there, but slowly