Have you ever looked closely at your dog's nose? Really closely, from a few inches away, while he is asleep and lets you.
There is a network of small ridges and grooves across it. An irregular raised pattern, a little like a map of rivers seen from a plane. That pattern belongs to him and to no one else. Two dogs from the same litter, with the same coat, raised side by side, do not have the same nose.
A pattern as personal as a fingerprint
In humans, the dermatoglyphs, the ridges that draw our fingerprints, form before birth and never change afterward. That is what makes them a reliable way to identify someone.
A dog's nose works on the same principle. The ridges that run across it form a combination that is his alone and stays stable for his whole life. A puppy does not have the same nose as his mother, or as his littermate.
It is the only visible part of his body with that quality. His paw pads have a pattern too, but they wear down, they crack, they change with age and with the miles. The nose keeps its drawing.
Before the microchip, it was his ID card
Breeders noticed this a long time ago. Before microchips and tattoos became the standard, the nose print served as a method of identification. The dog's nose was inked and pressed onto a card, exactly the way a person's fingers are.
Today that method has disappeared from everyday use, and for good reasons. In France, identifying a dog is required by law and is done with a microchip or a tattoo. A chip is read in three seconds with a scanner, it does not depend on the quality of the print or on the animal's cooperation, and it stays readable if the dog runs off three hundred miles from home.
A nose print, on the other hand, needs a calm dog, a clean nose, a sharp impression, and someone to compare it against. As a modern identification system, it is not competitive.
But as a trace of him, nothing is more personal.
How to take your dog's nose print
Three methods, from the simplest to the most faithful.
The close-up photo. The easiest one, the one everybody already has in their pocket. Frame the nose on its own, not the head, not the whole muzzle. Hold the phone parallel to the nose, not angled down from above. Daylight, never a flash: the flash flattens the relief and that is mistake number one. Come in to about eight inches and check the focus before you put the phone away.
The clay or putty impression. There are kits made for this. The nose has to be clean and dry, you press it gently into the prepared material, and you let it dry completely before you release it. This is the method that gives the most faithful print, because it captures the relief itself and not only its shadow.
Ink. Some veterinarians know how to do this, often during an end of life visit. The result is flat but very sharp, and it keeps indefinitely on a card.
Mistakes to avoid
The flash, as we said, is the enemy. It flattens everything.
A completely dry nose gives a less contrasted result. The best moment is right after a nap or when he comes back from a walk, when the nose is slightly damp and the grooves stand out.
Above all, do not force it. A nose is sensitive, and it is his most precious organ. If your dog pulls away, stop and try again later. And take care never to block his breathing during a clay impression.
What if my dog is no longer here
This is the question we are asked most often, and the answer is an honest one: you cannot take the nose print of a dog who has passed.
Two things are still possible. If you kept an impression taken while he was alive, in clay or in ink, it is still usable: simply photograph it flat, straight on, in daylight. And if you have close-up photos of him, there are other ways to keep a trace of him, starting with his portrait.
If your dog is old or ill, take the print now. You are not obliged to do anything with it right away. An impression keeps for years, and nothing forces you to decide today what it will become.
What to do with the print
Many people put it away in a drawer, with his health record and his first tag. That is already something.
Others turn it into something they carry with them. A frame, a plaque, a piece of jewelry. At My Coopy Design, we engrave the nose print on a pendant you wear around your neck, with his name on the back if you would like. It is our most personal piece, because it is the only one where what is engraved is not an interpretation of him, but a record of him.
Whatever you decide to do with it, take it while you still can. It takes five minutes, it costs nothing, and it is the kind of thing you never regret having done too early.
