Why dog tags go blank or fall off, and how to stop it

A hanging tag rubs against the collar's buckle and D-ring thousands of times a day. Soft metals go first: brass and aluminium can be illegible within a year on an active dog, and thin stamped lettering goes faster than deep-cut engraving.

Sand, salt water and grit act like a polishing compound. A dog that swims at the beach or runs on a shingle path will wear a tag several times faster than a dog that walks on grass. The lettering doesn't vanish overnight — it fades to the point where a stranger squinting at it in the rain can't make out a phone number, which amounts to the same thing.

• The split ring gradually opens. It is a spiral of wire, and every tug on it levers the coil apart a fraction.
• The tag is attached to the collar's D-ring, which also takes the lead, so every pull goes through the ring holding the ID.
• Cheap jump rings — a single loop of wire with a join, rather than a proper split ring — pull open in one snag.
• The collar itself comes off. A loose collar over the ears takes the tag with it. Our guide on how tight a dog's collar should be covers the two-finger check.

Do it on the first of the month, or whenever you worm them. The point is to have a trigger, because nobody remembers to check a tag on its own.

1. Read the tag at arm's length in ordinary daylight. If you have to angle it to the light, a stranger won't manage at all.
2. Look at the ring. If you can see a gap in the spiral, or it has straightened out, replace it now — they cost pence.
3. Hold the collar and pull the tag firmly. It should not slide off or rotate loose.
4. Check the collar fit at the same time, and the skin underneath.

In the UK the Control of Dogs Order 1992 requires a dog in a public place to wear a collar with the owner's name and address on it, or on a tag attached to it. A worn-blank tag is not compliance, and more practically it is not identification either.

A microchip is not a substitute here — it is a backstop that only works once the dog reaches somebody with a scanner. The tag is what works in the hands of the person who actually has your dog. The full position is in our UK dog tag law guide.

That last point is the one that matters most. Our QR code dog tags are printed and sealed rather than cut into soft metal, so there is no lettering to polish away, and the details behind the code are changed from your phone rather than by buying a new tag. Plenty of owners run one of those alongside an engraved tag with the name and address, which is the arrangement we set out in QR tag or engraved tag.

• Choose stainless steel or a hard-anodised finish over brass and aluminium.
• Use a proper split ring, or a small screw-gate or locking link, not a thin jump ring.
• Put the tag on its own ring on the collar rather than on the D-ring you clip the lead to.
• A slide-on tag that sits flat against the collar cannot swing, so it doesn't rub or jingle and there is no ring to open.
• Keep two forms of ID rather than one, so a failure isn't total.