The First Thing You Should Do

The first thing you should do is realize that dogs are creatures of habit, but they are also very easily distracted. If you have a favorite park or dog run you frequently take your pet to, that should be the very first place to head towards, on foot, and you should be calling your dog’s name as you go there.

One thing you may want to remember is that, unless you actually saw your dog escape, you can’t really be sure what kind of a head start they have on you, and dogs have very acute hearing. In fact, your dog can hear its name being called from as far as a quarter mile away. Also, dogs are very sonically oriented animals, so if it’s used to hearing food rattling in a bag or some other container before being poured into its food bowl, you may want to bring that bag along on the foot search.

Another thing: dogs are by nature very social animals. If you take your pet on regular walks, and there are any other dogs nearby, that would be a good place to check. As you walk, listen for barking, especially for the barking of two or more dogs at once. Dogs are territorial, and if your pet is encroaching on another dog’s territory, they will let your dog know in no uncertain terms.

If your foot search fails, the next step is to widen your search area. In urban areas, many of the areas accessible to your dog may not be accessible to you in a car, but take heart from the fact that a dog can find hours of fascination in a neighborhood field or baseball diamond. So once they find themselves there, they may not want to leave.

Your first instinct may be to forego the foot search due to the fact that you could cover more ground in a car. Remember, your dog will recognize you much faster than they will recognize your car!

“Posting”, Some Do’s and Don’ts

I’m sure we’ve all seen flyers of lost pets posted on utility poles and such. Ask yourself something: do you remember what any specific dog mentioned on any of these flyers looked like? Odds are that, despite the best of intentions, those pet owners made at least one of several possible mistakes. Here are a few to avoid, as well as several good ideas that may not have occurred to you.

First things first: use the available technology! Your computer can be a great place to start. The first thing you should do is this: enter the phrase “lost dog” and the name of your town or city into a search engine such as Google. The resulting page will give you valuable information regarding local animal shelters and such, and it may even provide you with an excellent “one-stop” solution!

Many cities will have a “lost pet site” online, usually sponsored by a local animal shelter or veterinarian’s office. These sites have two distinct advantages; first, it makes it possible to include a digital image of your pet in the ad, and second, you can include an email address, making it much easier to contact you if your dog is found.

However, not all towns have this service available. Even if your town does, there really is no substitute for “saturation posting”, especially on any well-traveled roads near your home.

Some things to keep in mind: first, a picture is worth a thousand words of description. It will also make it much easier for whoever found a dog to know they found your dog.

Second, larger really is better! I know people who have taken some of the political posters folks mount in their yards and papered them over with one large lost pet ad. This approach also has the advantage of being post able anywhere you can stick the stake into the ground!

Flyer placement is critical. If you are posting a flyer in an area thick with foot traffic, you will want to ensure the flyer is posted in such a direction, and at such a height, that it would be impossible to miss seeing it if you’re walking by. Again, pictures can be very eye-catching.

Another thing you may want to bear in mind as you’re putting your posters together is a reward. You needn’t even specify the amount; I’ve been told that this one word, alone, can significantly increase the odds that someone seeing your dog will take the trouble to see it gets back to you, so make sure it’s prominently featured in your flyers and posters.

A Word on “Pet Detectives”

Once you’ve made it known that your pet is lost, individuals who will offer to find your pet, for a price, may contact you. Nine times out of ten, this is a scam of some sort.

Think about it: between your being in the neighborhood, posting both on the internet and in the real world, and checking any pet shelters your city may have, there really isn’t anything these “pet detectives” could do that isn’t already being done by you. And, you’re much more highly motivated!

Pet Shelters

And finally, assuming your foot search, mobile search, site posting, flyer posting, and everything else you could think of has been futile, most cities have at least one municipal animal shelter.

If your pet got loose and was picked up by animal control, they will be placed in one of these shelters. Most animal shelters will insist on holding on to your pet at least one day to ensure they don’t have any infectious diseases, and if your pet doesn’t have any tags, they will insist on inoculations, for a small fee, prior to their release.

Some animal shelters now feature websites where they will post pictures of pets they’ve found; even if yours doesn’t, it will at least have some sort of written ledger for recently lost pets, as well as stray animals people have found but not brought into the shelter, so you should check with them at least once every couple of days.

So take heart! Remember, there have been instances of lost pets returning to their families from thousands of miles away, even after being lost for several months. Good luck!