We engrave around four hundred tags a week, and we see the same three mistakes over and over: too much text, the wrong text, and a phone number nobody answers. A tag has about two seconds of a stranger's attention. Everything below is ordered by how much it helps in those two seconds.

1. Your pet's name. Not because it identifies them — because it changes how the person who finds them behaves. Someone who can say "Rosie, come here" gets a dog to approach. Someone shouting "hey!" gets a dog that runs into traffic.

2. One mobile number you actually answer. A landline at a house you are not in is worthless at 9pm on a Saturday. If you have to choose, put the number of whoever carries their phone everywhere.

What goes on the back

Line two is where most owners overthink it. You have roughly fourteen characters that stay readable. A second number, a short medical flag, or the word MICROCHIPPED — pick one, not all three.

  • A second number — a partner, a parent, anyone who answers.
  • "MICROCHIPPED" — it tells a finder to take your pet to any vet or shelter for a free scan.
  • "NEEDS MEDS" — this reliably escalates urgency, and finders act on it fast.
  • "REWARD" — divisive, but it does measurably speed up returns.
  • City and state — useful for pets who travel, useless if you never leave town.
Two tags side by side showing a short engraving and an overcrowded one
Left: readable at arm's length. Right: eleven words nobody will squint at.

If a stranger cannot read it in bad light while holding a leash in one hand, it is not on the tag — it is just on the metal.

Three things to leave off

Your home address. A tag is a public document worn by an animal that wanders. It tells anyone who reads it that a house exists, where it is, and that a dog who lives there is currently not in it.

"I am chipped, call [chip company]". Registries change hands and phone trees are slow. The word MICROCHIPPED does the same job in one word.

Your dog's breed. It does not help anyone return the dog, and for certain breeds it makes a return less likely, not more.

A quick test before you order

Type it into the preview on any product page, then step back three feet from your screen. If you have to lean in, cut a word. Shorter text is engraved larger — that is the whole trick, and it is free.