Category Archives: Friendly Lost Dog Strategies

Tips and articles on how to capture a friendly dog.

First Things First – How Did Your Dog Go Missing?

Determining how your dog went missing will help you strategize to find him safely.  The first question to ask yourself is “How Did My Dog Go Missing?”  Be honest.  In a panic, most people jump to the conclusion that their dog was “stolen” because they’ve never been lost before or because they make a false assumption that the dog couldn’t possibly have gotten out of the yard.  Check the scene carefully.  Are there holes in the fence?  Did the wind blow the gate open? Did a meter reader or contractor leave the gate unlatched? Were there loud noises that could have scared your dog?

Lost dogs generally fall into one of two categories.  They were either “Opportunistic” or “Lost from a Stressful Situation”.  Click on the links above to read more about these definitions.

The key factor to the opportunistic dog is that the dog was in a happy frame of mind when he went missing.  He either saw an opportunity to wander (an unlatched gate, opening in fence) or he was following his nose (chasing a chipmunk, deer, etc.) and got further away than normal.  If your dog fits this profile then the following series of articles will help you determine your course of action. These dogs have a high probability of being picked up by a Good Samaritan who didn’t want to see them get hit by a car.  Read these articles for tips that will help.

Dogs lost from stressful situations include those spooked by loud noises such as fireworks, thunderstorms, gun shots and cars backfiring; dogs lost from places other than home such as pet sitters, boarding kennels, animal shelters, vet clinics, foster homes, newly adopted or purchased dogs; and those lost from car accidents and house fires.  These dogs have a high probablity of becoming shy, elusive dogs who may run and hide from all people (including their owners) and who may live indefinitely on their own.  Read these articles for tips that will help.

Regardless of how your dog went missing, immediately file a report with our partner,  Pet FBI.  You will be able to create a free flyer and social media links so that you can  spread the word about your missing dog. Your flyer will  be posted on our corresponding state’s Facebook page by a volunteer.  Print out and hand deliver your flyers door to door in the area where your dog was last seen. Deliver copies to all local vet clinics, shelters and police departments.  Do not rely on services (free or paid) who say they will alert shelters and vets for you. Those emails may never be received or opened and/or never seen by the staff. Your dog may end up at their facility and be adopted out or put down without you being notified.

Never Give Up! Your dog is relying on YOU to bring him safely home.

Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from thousands of successful lost dog recoveries. All of our services are free. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.

1/21/2021

Your Friendly Dog Has Gone Missing! What Now? – Part 1 of a Series

Rollie, your  friendly dog is missing. He was in the fenced backyard sniffing around and enjoying himself while you just stepped inside for a minute to get a cup of coffee. The phone rang and you were longer than you meant to be. When you came back out he was nowhere to be seen. Then you saw it, the side gate was open. It must have blown open in the wind last night! Rollie must have used the opportunity to check out the neighborhood.

Rollie fits the profile of an opportunistic dog. You may never know what happened in those few minutes when Rollie escaped, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters most is what you do next. Quick action will help you recover Rollie safely and the following series of articles is designed to help you find a friendly dog that took an opportunity to go for an adventure.

First things first, you need to check out our 5 Things To Do If You Have Lost Your Dog and get those steps underway. Keep food, water, his bed and familiar scented articles at the spot where he went missing from for the entire duration of his adventure. Many of these dogs do return on their own. Especially if they aren’t being chased and driven out of the area.

Contact all of the correct authorities – police, shelters, animal control facilities and then get busy printing your flyers and signs.  You need to go door to door with your flyers as soon as possible. Somebody, somewhere, has seen something. You might talk to 99 people that haven’t seen anything. But you are looking for the one person that has seen something. Has somebody seen your dog in their yard or did they see a vehicle stop and pick your dog up?

Three things will generally happen to the opportunistic dog:

  1. He will get picked up by a Good Samaritan who doesn’t want to see him hit by a car. Depending on the Good Samaritan’s actions: he may be reunited; taken to a shelter, animal control facility or rescue;  rehomed or kept by the finder.
  2. He will wander far outside  the owner’s original search area and start to live on his own (survival mode); eventually ending up at a farm, business or house where somebody either recognizes and reunites him; takes him to an animal control facility, shelter or rescue; rehomes him or keeps him.
  3. He will be picked up by the police or animal control and taken to a facility. Keep in mind that he may end up far outside the jurisdiction area of the local shelter and may be in the next county or the next state in a very short time.

Okay, now that we know the possible outcomes, let’s go through them step by step to try to maximize your chances of finding Rollie.

Continue on to part 2

Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from over thousands of  successful lost dog recoveries. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.

 

Did Your Lost Dog Get Picked Up By a Good Samaritan? Part 2 of a Series

Immediately put a sign in front of your house to alert neighbors and passersby that your dog is missing.

The first thing we need to do is clearly define the difference between a dog that is “picked up” and one that is stolen.  A picked up dog is one that was lost or perceived to be lost and a Good Samaritan took the dog to keep it out of harm’s way. Very few dogs are actually stolen. Stealing involves a person who commits a crime of  intent by illegally entering your house, yard or vehicle and taking your dog. There is a big difference because the motive is different.  We will cover the stolen dogs in a future article. But now let’s get back to the dog that was picked up by a well-meaning passerby.

The type of dog most likely to get picked up is the small, friendly dog lost in an urban or suburban area. They may get picked up within minutes of going missing, especially if they are seen near a busy road.

Larger, friendly dogs may get picked up but are more likely to have traveled a farther distance before they do. Many people are wary of larger dogs, or they don’t have a vehicle large enough to put them in, or they are transporting children or their own pets. It is simply easier to pick up a small dog than a large one.

First and foremost, you must understand that the Good Samaritan meant well. But now the guessing game of understanding human behavior begins.  Here is a little quiz.  Let’s see if you can tell which of these scenarios will most often end up in a happy reunion.

The finder thinks:

  1. Somebody has lost their dog and I must try to find his owner.
  2. Somebody has dumped this dog or lost him out of negligence and I must rescue him. They don’t deserve him back and I will keep him or give him to Aunt Mary who really needs a nice little dog for company.
  3. I’m in a hurry and I can’t keep this dog  so I will take it to a shelter (or vet clinic) that is in the town where I work.
  4.  I can’t keep this dog but I don’t want to take it to the local shelter because they don’t have a good reputation, so I will take it to a better shelter or rescue where the dog can be adopted to a new home.
  5. I can’t keep this dog so I will research which is the correct shelter, stray holding facility or animal control facility that services this area and take him there.
  6. I will wait and see if the owners post signs and flyers and then I might give him back. If I don’t see any signs or flyers, they mustn’t really want him so I will keep him or give him away.
  7. I will wait to see if the owners offer a reward and then I will turn him over.

If you guessed numbers 1 and 5  you are correct. Finders who proactively look for owners, and dogs taken to the animal control facility, stray holding facility or shelter that serves the area where the dog was lost are the dogs that are most likely to be reunited with their owners. Educating the public about this is a large part of what we do.

But as you can see from the other options, there is a lot of human emotion in play. We see a lot of the “wait and see” method. The lesson we have learned  is that it doesn’t matter which scenario played out. The key to getting your dog home is to generate sightings by using flyers and signs. You must “convince” the finder that you are desperately looking for your dog. If the finder has decided to keep your dog you will either make them feel guilty by the amazing search you are conducting or a neighbor will “rat them out” by noticing that they have a new dog that looks just like the one on the flyer.

Put a sign in your yard as soon as possible. If the Good Samaritan was merely driving by and doesn’t live in the area, he may drive by again, checking for signs.  Do the legwork of going door to door with your flyers. Talk to everyone you see.

Use intersection signs at strategic locations throughout the area. They are an invaluable tool to alert the neighborhood that your dog is missing.

File a lost dog report and leave a flyer with your local police station and your animal control facility. Do the same for every vet clinic, animal shelter and rescue in a 50 mile radius. (You may need to expand this) Create a paper trail showing that you are actively searching for your dog. This may be invaluable if there is a question about ownership.

Use traditional and social media and Craigslist to get the word out. Put an ad in your local newspaper and call your local radio station. Remember that not everybody has a computer.

Look at the map. Where does the road go that you suspect that your dog was picked up on? Think about the traffic patterns, the commuters and the places of employment nearby. Get flyers out to those towns and places.  You will find many other suggestions for generating sightings on our website.  Print hundreds of flyers and use them. They don’t do any good sitting in a stack on the kitchen table.

Quickly spreading the word is the number one way that a small friendly lost dog will be reunited. Get going now!

Continue onto part 3

Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from over thousands of  successful lost dog recoveries. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.

The Happy Wanderer – Part 3 of a Series

 

Do you remember that old song from Girl Scout camp, the Happy Wanderer? “I love to go a-wandering, Along the mountain track, And as I go, I love to sing, My knapsack on my back.”

This is often the scenario played out by the friendly, opportunistic large dog, or a friendly small dog in an unpopulated area. They took the opportunity to go for a wander, smelling new smells, maybe chasing chipmunks and rabbits; but they never gave a moment’s notice that they forgot to bring the map.

As we discussed in Part 2, the chance that the small friendly dog got picked up quite early in his adventure is very high.

But today, we are going to talk about the larger friendly dog that was having a good time but ended up a long ways from home. (In particular, think hounds, labs, huskies, spaniels, setters, pointers, German shepherds and other working and sporting breeds). Whereas, shy lost dogs will often stay within a five mile radius of where they went missing, friendly lost dogs may travel in a linear fashion, zig zagging across the countryside.

These dogs may find their way back home IF you give them a helping hand by leaving food, their bed, and familiar scented articles out for them at the place they went missing from. Do this the entire time they are gone. Refresh the food daily with new smelly canned dog or cat food or some leftovers you are having. Dogs return by scent, not by sight or sound. So that same nose that led him away, may lead him back.

But you don’t want to rely on that, because there are far too many other scenarios that could have occurred.

  1.  He could have gotten chased by people who thought he was “just a stray” and  didn’t want him in their yard or farmyard.
  2. He may be seen but be assumed to be a wandering farm dog and nobody calls in the sightings.
  3. He could have crossed a river or a bridge and can’t figure out his way back.
  4. He could have been picked up by a Good Samaritan, animal control or the police across a state, county or jurisdiction line and have ended up in a shelter, animal control facility or stray holding facility many, many miles away.
  5. He may have found a food source or some friendly doggy companions at a farm and decided to stay awhile. In our experience, most farmers won’t proactively look for an owner, but will let them hang out as long as they aren’t causing trouble or chasing livestock.
  6. He may do this numerous times, staying somewhere for a few days, then moving on again.
  7. He will eventually end up at a farm, business, or backyard or driveway of somebody who decides to either proactively look for the owner, turn him in, or keep or rehome him.

If they decide to proactively look for an owner or take him to the correct stray holding facility for the area, great! Except that by this time, the owner may have given up or they may not be looking in the right spot. Compound that with the problem that many of these larger friendly breeds look alike (think black lab or yellow lab) and it becomes even tougher to find your dog.

What can you do?

Do everything listed on our Five Things to Do If You Have Lost Your Dog flyer, our Action Plan and then include the following:

  1. Expand your flyering area quickly. Start with a 50 mile radius and then expand to 100 miles. Enlist friends and family to help you. You may want to use an automated calling service or the USPS mailing service called “Every Door Direct Mail” to help you. Check out our Generating Sightings pdf on this website for more ideas. When you get a sighting – go in and heavily re-flyer that area.
  2. Place a yard sign in your own yard.
  3. Place ads in your local newspaper and surrounding newspapers. Many small newspapers are owned by larger companies that can target many communities with one ad. Place an ad with the local radio station also.
  4. Assign a couple of Facebook and tech savvy friends to post on as many different social media sites as possible. Make sure you include a picture and contact information! Many neighborhoods, on line newspapers, vet clinics, pet supply stores, restaurants and bars have Facebook pages. It is an easy and free way to spread the word.
  5. Use intersection signs at strategic locations to catch the eye of the highest number of motorists.
  6. Check Google satellite photos for paths he could be traveling on – railroad tracks, jogging and hiking trails, old logging roads, etc.
  7. Do not limit your thinking with geographical boundaries – “he wouldn’t have crossed that river, or that busy freeway.”  Chances are he did and he will.
  8. If you have a familiar looking dog (lab, golden retriever, etc), don’t be afraid to disclose specific details on your flyer. What color collar was he wearing? Distinguishing birthmarks, size, etc. You will need the help of the community and animal shelters to identify him.
  9. Check out every possible lead even if it seems impossibly far away. Never underestimate the distance your dog can travel. Don’t be surprised if your dog doesn’t recognize you at first or doesn’t perform specific behaviors. The stress of being on his own and/or a shelter can alter behavior.
  10. The longer your dog is missing and the more often he is chased,  the more likely it is that he will go into “survival” mode. Please refer to our series of articles on capturing a shy, elusive dog.

We can tell you numerous stories of dogs that have gone hundreds of miles and been recovered. Don’t give up! Your dog is out there relying on you to find him and bring him home.

Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from over thousands of successful lost dog recoveries. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.

Risk Factors for an Opportunistic Lost Dog

These are the indicating factors that will predispose a dog to being an opportunistic lost dog.

1) Demeanor: A friendly, butt-wiggly type of personality. Will your dog readily go up to strangers and is everybody’s new best friend? Is your dog highly motivated by treats, praise, and belly rubs?

2) Origin: Dogs that have been well socialized in puppyhood are more likely to be opportunistic.

3) Breed: Some dogs seem to be predisposed to being opportunistic. They enjoy exploring and will “follow their nose”.  They are:

  1. Hounds such as Beagles, Basset Hounds, Dachshunds and Coonhounds.
  2. Sporting breeds such as Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Pointers, Setters and Spaniels.
  3. Working breeds such as Huskies, St Bernards, Samoyeds and Great Pyrenees.
  4. Sighthounds such as Greyhounds, Whippets and Italian Greyhounds.
  5. Small friendly lap dogs.

4) Dogs lost from a familiar location (especially on a nice sunny day).

5) Dogs lost from an opportunistic situation such as:

  1. A hole in or under a fence or an open or malfunctioning gate.
  2. The invisible fence stopped working.
  3. A contractor or visitor left the gate or door open.
  4. A distracted owner leaves the dog alone outside for “just a minute”.
  5. A dog chasing prey. (squirrels, rabbits, deer, cats, or even another dog)

The key factor to the opportunistic dog is that the dog was in a happy frame of mind when he went missing. Any one or a combination of the above will predispose a dog to being picked up by a Good Samaritan or traveling a long distance. Our next series of articles will focus on the strategies to help you find your friendly or opportunistic lost dog.

Please understand that although we are generalizing, and a friendly dog may quickly revert to being a shy dog when on its own, we want to give you a baseline from which to start.

Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from over thousands successful lost dog recoveries. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.

The Problem with Dandelions

One of LDOW’s long-time volunteers has coined a clever name for some of our missing dogs.  She affectionately calls them  ”dandelions” because they are common and they all look alike.

The problem with dandelions is that they can present a real challenge to their owner when they get lost. Here is the list of most common dog breeds in America according to the American Kennel Club:

  1. Labrador Retriever
  2. German Shepherd Dog
  3. Beagle
  4. Golden Retriever
  5. Yorkshire Terrier
  6. Bulldog
  7. Boxer
  8. Poodles
  9. Dachshund
  10. Rottweiler
  11. Shih Tzu
  12. Miniature Schnauzer
  13. Doberman Pinscher
  14. Chihuahua
  15. German Shorthaired Pointer

So if your dog is mentioned above and he has no distinguishing coat color or markings – you have a dandelion. If he is also a friendly dog and fits our profile of theHappy Wanderer, you really have your work cut out for you. For instance: consider the Labrador Retriever. They are the most popular breed in America. Many people own them or want them. They look alike, especially to the average person who may not see slight differences in coat color or small markings. They are often friendly and may travel a long distance. If they are lost in a rural area they are often assumed to be wandering farm dogs and sighting calls may be few and far between. This puts them at a very high risk of being picked up and kept, rehomed or ending up at a shelter and adopted out to a new family before the owners can find him.

If your lost dog is a friendly “dandelion” consider these extra steps to help you get him back home safely. Give out details about your dog. (Sometimes we advise against this. But in the case of dandelions you have to carefully weigh the risks. Is there a better chance that somebody might see and recognize your dog or that somebody may falsely try to reclaim your dog?) Is he or she spayed or neutered? What is his age? What was the color of the collar he  was wearing? Does he have any birthmarks or scars? You will need to make it EASY for the shelter staff and public to help you.

Contact and keep contacting shelters, stray holding facilities, and vet clinics in a hundred mile radius. Your dog might have been picked up and taken to a shelter far away. Get the public emotionally involved in the story of your missing dog. Make your dandelion stand out from the other dandelions in the minds of the public, vet staff, shelter staff and volunteers, animal control officers and police officers.

Flyer, flyer, flyer some more. Use intersection signs strategically placed to catch the eye of passing motorists. Increase your range of flyers and signs by five miles a day.  Whether a lost dog is still simply lost and confused or has been picked up – the key to getting them safely back home is to generate sightings.

Never give up! Your “dandelion” is out there somewhere depending on you to bring him safely home.