Winter Sports

Organizers of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will use computer chips instead of paint to identify dogs taking part in the 1,000-mile trek across Alaska.

Tiny chips the size of a grain of rice will permit officials to use hand-held scanners to check each of the hundreds of dogs in the race and help prevent illegal attempts to substitute dogs.

The chips are implanted under the back of a dog’s neck using a syringe and a fat, hollow-tipped needle. James Leach III, chief veterinarian for the 1993 race, said the chips have been injected into animals ranging in size from birds and puppies to llamas.