Tips for Finding a Lost Dog

misty

LOST DOG

I sincerely hope that this is NOT a sign that you ever have to make, however if for any reason you have lost your dog, I can bet that you are not thinking clearly and are wondering what else you can do. The following may help you. On Friday, December 13th, 2002, I lost a Shar Pei in the midst of one of Darwin's classical wet season thunder and lightning storms. Misty was lost for some 7 weeks and with the help of many friends and other concerned Canine owners we mounted a massive campaign to find her, which we did. The following are some suggestions for you should you ever lose your dog. Most importantly , take a good picture of the dog TODAY!!

Ring Radio Stations

Make Poster including a Picture and the coloring of the dog for Shops and Letter Box Drops

When making the poster , remember not everyone knows the breed of dog you have, be descriptive of the breed , size and color.
If the dog is sighted, keep changing the ad to read, last seen in Karama etc.
Ring TV Station , will they do a Lost Dog Announcement?

Ring Vets in the area where dog was lost

Ring Council Dog Pounds
Ring Animal Shelters (RSPCA in Australia).
Visit the shelters, find out how many days they hold dogs before destroying them and return and look at all of the dogs on a regular basis. With due respect, a lot would not know your breed and they are very busy so may not recognize the dog from your verbal description.
Advertise in the local Paper, check out special rates for slow days, at least it acts as a reminder to regular readers.
Paste up your Posters in the local shopping centre, corner store, on telephone boxes, the Video store and Pizza store.
Use every available source to look for dog, ie; someone walking , some one in a car to scout out further, kids on bikes to ride around and around the area.
Email everyone in your address book that lives in your city, include your poster as an attachment and ask them to look over their fences and forward your email on, this method can cover many hundreds of people in a VERY short period of time. I had some very good leads from this method.
Drive around the area every time you go out and come home and if possible again during the day, varying your times each trip.
Look every time some one rings it may just be the clue you need. I actually found one other Shar Pei whilst I was searching for mine , much to the relief of their owners.

Now for some more inventive ideas

Find out who collects the deceased animals from the roadways, contact them and give them your Poster with a picture of your dog. You certainly do not want a call from them but it is better to know than never know what happened to your dog.
You may have kindly Policepersons who will keep an eye out for your dog and contact you. No harm done in dropping your Poster into the Station.
Check out the back yards of any vacant properties you notice, your dog may have gotten into the yard and now can not get out.
Look in the windows of vacant houses if possible in case the dog got in during an open inspection.
Contact lawn mowing contractors, those that look after the Council parks and gardens in your area, see if you can give your lost dog Poster to their workers.
Wait for the Garbage Collectors in your area, give them the Poster, they may spot something as they drive around as their trucks are nice and high and the drivers can see over fences into yards.
Go to your local post office, ask if you can give the brochure to the Posties, they may see something as they do their deliveries.
If some-one else has also lost a dog, contact them and swap Posters, you can cover twice as much ground that way.
Contact the Junk Mail delivery people, ask them to deliver your brochures into letter box's in the area where dog is missing. This will cost you, but was worth the effort in my case. It was one of the delivery people that spotted her that led to her recovery.
Ask the Vagrants living in the parks, they may be feeding your dog. They were able to confirm that they had seen my dog.
Contact the newspaper, they may need a story and you may be lucky, remember to be careful with your story, they were certainly wanting to angle mine towards a rare and VERY expensive dog being lost. I told them that Shar Pei were not all that rare and did not cost very much at all from Pet Shops these days. Phew!! , certainly did not need to attract the wrong people towards finding her.

If you have any other suggestions to add to these , please feel free to add them to this list, it may just be the clue someone needs.

Misty was found living in the dense scrubland near Darwin Airport. She had been living by using her natural hunting instincts with the addition of scraps left from the Natives walking through the area. She arrived home, jumped out of the car and resumed life as if nothing had ever happened. I am just so thankful to everyone in Darwin, many people who are unknown to me that took the time to search for her.

We are dedicated breeders and offer an Australia wide Rescue Service.

Please email me for details tcharkuldu@bigpond.com.au or phone 0407 832639

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First Published Sept 7th 1998
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