Is Your Missing Dog Caught in a Custody Dispute?

At Lost Dogs Illinois we concentrate our efforts to help the individual owners and finders of lost dogs. Our page and website can give good advice and support for both shy and friendly lost dogs. They can also give you excellent advice if you have found a loose dog and are looking for the owner. Along with our sister organizations we have helped successfully reunite thousands of dogs.

Some times, a missing dog becomes involved in a custody dispute. The dog has been located, but for whatever reason, is not in the possession of the owner. This is generally beyond our parameters of our mission or scope of our services.

We can offer some advice though – that may be helpful if you find yourself in this situation.

Who might have the dog?

A disgruntled spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, or family member.
A disgruntled employee.
A disgruntled contractor who believes that money is owed for services provided.
A Good Samaritan who picked the dog up and has now become emotionally attached to the dog, or believed that the dog was neglected, abused or abandoned.
An adopter who unknowingly adopted your lost dog from a shelter or rescue.

Here are our five suggestions if you are having trouble regaining custody of your dog:

Immediately contact your local police department and file a police report. Dogs are property in all fifty states and somebody has possession of your property. Even if the police don’t appear helpful, this paper trail will help you if you have to go to court.
Heavily flyer the neighborhood AND the house where your dog is located. Some finders will turn the dog over either because they feel guilty or are afraid of getting in trouble with the law.
Gather and organize all of your paperwork that proves ownership of your dog including adoption or sale papers, vet records, microchip information, family photographs and dog licensing records.
Consider hiring an attorney and/or a private investigator to help you.
Contact your local media to see if they will consider doing a story about your missing dog and your situation.

A few more tips:

Stay calm. The police will be more likely to help if you remain calm and rational.

Be smart and safe. Never arrange to meet anybody alone. Choose a neutral safe place to meet, perhaps the parking lot of the police station, and preferably during daylight hours. Better yet, ask the police to accompany you.

If you feel that you are being scammed – please click this link and read this article.

Don’t give up! Custody suits can take weeks, months or longer to pursue. Your dog is depending on you to bring him safely home.

Our Response to Media Hype about “Dog Flipping and Dog Thefts”

In the last two and a half years, Lost Dogs Illinois and Lost Dogs of Wisconsin have reunited almost 10,000 dogs with their owners. The vast majority of these dogs are either simply lost; or they have been picked up by a Good Samaritan.

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. The Good Samaritan means well but human behavior comes in to play and several false assumptions may be made. They often assume the dog has been “dumped” because it appears matted, dirty or hungry (all of which can be attributed to being lost, even for a very short time). The Good Samaritan may then take one of these courses of action:

1. They become emotionally attached to the dog and keep or rehome the dog themselves.
2. They take the dog to a shelter or vet clinic that is not the official stray holding facility for the area – either because they don’t know which is the correct facility or they have heard rumors that it is not a good facility and they want to take the dog somewhere “better”.
3. They play the “wait and see game” to see if flyers and signs are posted; because this convinces them that the owner truly wants their dog back.

Dog theft is something entirely different because the motivation is different. Stealing involves a person who commits a crime of intent by illegally entering your house, yard or vehicle and taking your dog. “Stolen” dogs make headlines which makes it appear that it happens more often than it does. But when the dog is recovered, and it wasn’t stolen; the outcome doesn’t get the same media attention. So the public only remembers that the dog was “stolen” when it may have simply been lost or picked up. The media loves to over-sensationalize the story of a stolen dog or “dog flipping”.

At LDI/LDOW we focus on “probability” vs. “possibility”. We never say never, but when we look at the results of our 9000 plus successful reunions, we see some pretty clear patterns. In our experience very few dogs are actually stolen for profit or bad intentions. And of those that are stolen, many of those have been taken by somebody that is known to the family:

1. A disgruntled spouse or family member

2. A disgruntled employee, contractor or debtor

3. An unhappy neighbor or animal welfare advocate who disagrees with how the dog is cared for.

The American Kennel Club press release that stated that “dog theft was on the rise” was based on figures that stated they had an increase in “stolen” dog reports from 432 pet thefts in 2011, compared to 255 thefts in 2010. This is an increase of 177 dogs but of course they expressed that as a percentage and the headlines screamed: “Dognapping Cases Are Up By Almost 70 Percent!” Now compare those figures to how many dogs are owned in the USA – almost 80 million dogs.

The current stories circulating about “dog flipping” are based on a few incidences and are not indicative of a new pattern or “trend”.

Instead of over-sensationalizing dog theft and “dog flipping”; at LDI/LDOW we focus our efforts on educating owners how to successfully find their dogs no matter what the circumstances; and teaching Good Samaritans how to correctly reunite found dogs with their owners.

Thank you for helping us in our mission. Together we can help more lost dogs get home!

If you truly believe your dog has been stolen please read this article for further inform

If you don’t know much about resiliency, you need to hear Blackie’s story…

Blackie was adopted by a loving family only days before he escaped from his new home in Gurnee, WI on October 1st, 2011. A while later, a family saw Blackie visiting their neighbor’s yard. And, then, the family members saw Blackie stop by their own backyard! Blackie obviously preferred the yard that belonged to the family that spotted him because he began to return to the yard night after night.

Realizing Blackie was a lost pet, the family started to leave food for Blackie to enjoy each night during his visits. And, each night, the family moved the food they left for Blackie a bit deeper into their yard, a bit closer to a storage shed at the edge of their property line. Finally, the family left Blackie’s dinner at the entrance to the shed. Blackie was too happy to take the “bait” and soon found himself secured in the family’s shed…and then, in their house!

Blackie was missing from his adopted family’s home for 147 days before being reunited with his owners on February 25, 2012. His adopted owners told us, “We are so happy to have him home!” And all of us are happy he’s home with you, too!

Welcome home Blackie! And, thank you to Blackie’s second family, his rescuers!

Bossy is home!

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone involved with getting our dog, Bossy, back home. Rose, Jeremy, Joey, and I remain grateful for everything everyone did to reunite Bossy with us after he was on the loose for two days in not-so-good weather. Thank you to the woman who picked Bossy up and brought him to the MG Animal Hospital! We’re still waiting to hear from you, by the way, so we can express our sincere appreciation to you personally.

It’s because of the efforts put forth by the kind-hearted stranger mentioned above, Jilzee, the staff at MG Animal Hospital, and the volunteers at Lost Dogs Illinois that Bossy is sitting here beside me as I’m typing this. The flyers that were dispersed enabled the people at the MG Animal Hospital to recognize Bossy the instant he was dropped off at their facility. Because of information included in the flyers, they also knew to scan him for a microchip and…

BINGO! Moments later, my wife received the best phone call we could have hoped for! Bossy was found alive, well…and waiting for us to pick him up! I cannot express how glad I am that we had Bossy micro-chipped. And, after this experience, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for every pet owner to have their pets micro-chipped.

Thank you all, again! We love and appreciate each of you! Bossy does, too!

Another Happy Home at Last!

This was a dog found by a Good Sam… “I made flyers of this lost dog who is called ‘Wrinkles’ and my husband started posting them in Pet Supply Stores within a 2 miles radius and saw that there was a post for a lost dog Identical to our picture post so my husband called me and told me about it and I asked him to bring me the flyer that the family posted. I then called and talked to Wrinkles dad and asked him to identify specific markings the no one else would know and he did then I asked him his address and said I would bring the dog to him to meet me outside so I could see Wrinkles reaction and as soon as Wrinkles saw the little girl I knew. He offered me a reward and I refused it but asked him to please use that reward to get Wrinkles Microchipped and neutered also he said he would. I told him next time he may not be the blessed to get him back should he get out. Wrinkles dug under the fence and got out… by the time I spotted him it he was about three miles away from home maybe more and had crossed a multitude of busy intersections. Thank you Jackie for everything you do!!”

Keep Your Dog Safe during the 4th of July Holiday!

The 4th of July holiday is a time of parties and celebration. Unfortunately, Animal Control facilities nationwide report a spike in dog intake during this holiday. Make sure your dog isn’t one of the holiday statistics by following these tips:

Take your dog for a walk or to the dog park before the fireworks start. This allows your dog to exercise, release pent up energy and go “potty”.
Keep dogs indoors. They may even feel safer if they are placed in a smaller interior room. Give your dog an interactive toy like tasty treat filled Kong.
Close your windows. Dogs can try and get out of the house by pushing out the screen. Turn the air conditioning or radio on.
Make sure your dog has a license and an identification tag on a properly fitted buckled or martingale collar and is microchipped.
If your dog is shy and/or fearful, walk the dog with collar and a harness, clipped together or with two separate leashes.
During this time of festivities and fireworks, do not let your dogs out alone even in a fenced yard. Keep a leash on your dog – dogs have been known to scale fences to get away from the noise.
Most importantly, please do NOT take your dogs to the fireworks celebration!

Fireworks and Reuniting Lost Dogs with Their Families

Last year we were honored to present a free webinar for ASPCA Pro that included a lot of helpful information for shelters and owners for dogs that go missing after the fireworks on the 4th of July. Please feel free to share this link.
“In preparation for July 4, experts from Lost Dogs Illinois and Lost Dogs of Wisconsin will give you practical advice to offer support, resources, and tips to worried families searching for their lost dogs. Teaching people how to find their lost pets and avoid common mistakes can avoid heartbreak for many people and animals.
This free, 60-minute webinar will benefit staff and volunteers from any animal welfare agency.”

Click this link to view the webinar slides and access the webinar recording: http://www.aspcapro.org/webinar/2014-06-18/fireworks-rto