Category Archives: Shy Lost Dog Strategies

Articles and tips on how to capture a shy lost dog.

Unlikely Behavior?

This normally surprises people, but it’s true:  if your dog is lost, your pet will probably run from you when he or she sees you.  Yes, you read that correctly.  If lost, your dog, even one that has always been friendly and your devoted companion, will bolt in the opposite direction from where you are.

Your dog will run from you instead of to you because your dog will be in survival mode, not because he or she doesn’t love you.  You see, after three or four days on the loose, a dog’s priorities start to change.  A dog will reorder what’s important to the following sequence:  1. Predators, including you, 2. Shelter, 3. Water, and 4. Food.  A dog, therefore, will do whatever is necessary to avoid predators while pursuing the remaining items on his or her list of priorities.

It’s your pet’s ability to shift mental gears into survival mode that increases the chances that your pet will be returned to you.  This ability is also what makes it likely that your dog will view you and anyone else looking for him or her as a predator, or a potential threat.

That is why it is critical for you and everyone else trying to find your dog to refrain from yelling or approaching your dog during your search.  It’s great when enthusiastic people rally and join together to find a lost dog.  But people, together as a group or alone, are terrifying to a lost pet…and the last thing a scared dog will be tempted to approach is a person, even if that person is the dog’s loving owner.

Spread the message to all of the people that are trying to help you that they need to change their mindset from “Catching” to “Luring”. Use your helpers’ enthusiasm and energy to flyer every house and business in the neighborhood, instead of searching for your dog. You will have a much better chance of success!

 

Monitoring Your Feeding Station – Part 8 in a Series

Your lost dog is visiting your feeding station! You are seeing him on the camera and you want to rush right out there and scoop him up and bring him home! Not so fast! You have worked so hard being patient and diligent. Don’t mess it up now by scaring him off. Then you will have to start all over in a new location. Now is the time to carefully strategize your next move.

Never, ever post the exact location of a sighting, your feeding station or a trap location on Facebook, Craigslist or any kind of media. Keep your cards close to the vest. You don’t need wanna-be heroes, or curiosity seekers trying to “help” you out by visiting the area. This can pressure your dog to move on again.

Don’t be alarmed if your dog doesn’t visit the feeding station every day – especially at first. He will probably come at dawn and/or dusk. At first he may just grab a bite and run off; or he may take the whole bowl and carry it off under a bush or deck, to eat in hiding. You will have more success if you position your feeding station so that he has some privacy, but also an easy escape route if he feels threatened.

Remember that the pictures you see on the camera may at first glance, not look like your dog. Study them carefully to be sure. You can download them into a photo editing program (most computers are sold with a simple one already installed) and lighten or enhance the pictures. Colors can be distorted, especially in the nighttime pictures, and dogs can look smaller or larger than they really are depending on the height of the camera. If your dog did the grab and dash; you might only get a glimpse of an ear or a tail. Generally in a few days, they will be more comfortable at the feeding station and you will get better images.

Your dog may be sharing the feeding station with other animals. No worries. We see this all the time and it makes for some pretty interesting trail camera photos. It has no bearing on whether or not you will catch your dog, so don’t let it bother you. In fact, the presence of other animals coming and going may be reassuring to your dog. It must be a safe place if other animals are there, right? You may see skunks, cats, raccoons, possums, crows, and even other lost dogs on the photos. Switching to beef-based foods may reduce the number of other visitors.  If you are having lots of cats and raccoons visit, try switching, especially if you have been using fish.

While you are waiting for your lost dog to fall into a predictable pattern of a behavior, you want to be thinking about the next step: capturing him.

For some dogs, especially those that are extremely bonded with  their owner, the owner may simply have to sit on the ground, close enough to the feeding station that they can see the food bowl, but far enough away that the dog doesn’t feel threatened. Plan your visit when you expect your dog, judging from the pattern of the date/time stamp on the pictures. Bring a book and your tasty treats, collar and leash,  and sit quietly on the ground. Read, sleep, or check emails on your phone. But set your phone to silent and don’t talk on it! Be patient. Your dog may appear and approach you. Don’t make any sudden moves. It may take a few days of this, but your dog might crawl right into your lap, when the lightbulb suddenly goes on in his head.

If you lost a newly acquired dog or foster dog that isn’t bonded to you, it might not be so easy; and you should probably consider using  a humane trap. Now is the time to start inquiring about where you can rent, borrow or buy one. Check your local animal shelter or animal control facility first. They may have one available that they will rent for a small fee.

Does your dog generally like to go into a crate or kennel? Dogs that are very comfortable being crated are usually easier to trap.

Is your dog fearful of a kennel or crate? Check to see if  there a fenced yard, tennis court, ball diamond, or garage nearby that you can lure your dog into. Or maybe you will want to slowly set up some temporary kenneling.  Again, patience is the key word. Slowly moving the food bowl, day by day closer to an enclosure until your dog is finally eating in the enclosure can be a very successful method.  If you proceed too quickly, you risk scaring him off to another area. Starting all over is always slower than being methodical and patient, so take your time.

Next we’ll talk about humane trapping – because we have many tips to share that will help you maximize your chances for success. Part 9

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.

Google Maps – A Useful Tool for an Elusive Dog

You’ve lost your shy dog and you’ve done a good job delivering flyers and posting intersection signs. Now your sightings are coming in but you’re having a hard time keeping track. The sightings seem to be all over the place. It couldn’t possibly be your dog, in so many places, in such a short amount of time. Or could it?

Lost dogs in survival mode require three things. They require food and water, hiding places, and avoidance of predators (people).  If you use maps and satellite photos to assess food sources, hiding places and safe, secluded routes of travel; you may start to see a pattern emerge. Using an online mapping service is an invaluable tool to help you record and evaluate your sightings.

Google Maps is a free web mapping service that can help you plot your sightings and give you  clues to your dog’s whereabouts. Be aware though, that Google maps and satellite images are not updated in real time, they could be several months or years old. New construction may not appear on the maps and photos. Buildings and landscapes change and you will have to take that into consideration. Photos are taken during different seasons. Summer photos will appear very different from photos taken in the same area in the autumn after the leaves have fallen.

Different areas of the country have satellite photos taken at different resolutions. Generally, the more populated the area – the better the photo, and the closer that you will be able to zoom in and see detail. Many urban and suburban areas also now have Street View – a setting that lets you see buildings and landmark features as if you were standing on the ground in front of them.

This blog isn’t a tutorial on how to use Google maps. There is plenty of information on-line. Instead, we want to give you some specific tips on how to determine where your dog may be. The best way to learn how to use Google Maps is to dive in and try it. Enter the address where your dog went missing from. Practice changing from map to satellite (aerial photo) view, and zooming in and out.

Practice adding place markers for the following. Use different colors and symbols for:

  • Locations where your dog went missing from
  • Every sighting with a time and date
  • Areas flyered
  • Sign locations
  • Potential food sources
  • Potential hiding places
  • Potential routes that your dog is traveling

Switch to satellite view. Objects viewed from the air appear different from the ground.  Practice somewhere  you are familiar with. What do these things look like from the air?

Common landmarks:

A golf course:

A cemetery:

 

A shopping mall:

 

A mobile home park:

 

Vertical  landmarks from the ground may not be easily apparent on a satellite photo.  Watch for the shadows made by the objects. Vertical landmarks include:

  • Water towers
  • Power lines
  • Church steeples
  • Cell phone towers
  • Tall buildings
  • Doppler radar sites

 

A water tower in satellite imagery. It looks like a golf ball, but notice the shadow that it casts

Look for possible hiding places that lost dogs commonly use:

  • abandoned farms and homes
  • cemeteries
  • golf courses
  • parks near populated areas
  • industrial areas
  • run down neighborhoods
  • quiet suburban neighborhoods especially if they adjoin parks and trails

Look for possible routes of travel that lost dogs commonly use:

  • bike and hiking trails
  • fence lines and the edge of fields
  • logging roads
  • power lines
  • pipelines and cut lines
  • railroad tracks

Be aware that narrow roads, trails,  and power lines may “disappear” in summer photos because of tree foliage. Railroad tracks are usually very apparent in photos because of the width of clearing around the track bed. Trees do not usually overhang train tracks.

Look for possiblefood sources:

  • restaurants and hotels
  • farms (cat food, corn and spilled grain)
  • convenience stores and grocery stores
  • campgrounds, picnic grounds, rest stops and parks
  • golf courses with food services
  • food processing plants
  • feed mills

Keep your Google map updated and share it via email link with the friends, family and volunteers that are helping you. Lost dogs will often fall into an habitual pattern, visiting the same food sources and using the same hiding places and routes of travel. Flyer these areas heavily to get more sightings. Place intersection signs strategically so that passersby will also be on the lookout for your dog.

You may realize that sightings that seemed impossible at first, really are possible when you view them from the air. Driving routes are often much longer than the routes that lost dogs will take. Using shortcuts, they can travel what appears to be a long distance in a short amount of time.

Advances in technology are giving us more and more tools in the toolbox of lost dog recovery. Using Google Maps can save you valuable time when recovering your lost dog.

A tutorial showing how to create a Google map and drop markers to help you organize an effective search for a dog created by Retrievers Volunteer Lost Dog Team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRfKf2gb4k