What To Do If You Lose Your Dog

[Tim & Smiley]

Greetings and best wishes to all!

There’s nothing more frightening than losing your canine buddy. If
you’re like me and my wife, our dogs are treasured family members, not
property. Should you discover that you’ve lost your furry friend,
there are several things you can do to increase your chances of being
reunited with your dog.

1. Ask your vet to microchip your dog. The serial number on the
microchip is the quickest way for animal control personnel, vets, and
shelters to locate the owner. A microchip is also a failsafe way to
prove that you are the owner in the event someone steals your dog.

2. Here’s the most important bit of advice: visit your local shelter
(and surrounding shelters) every day, in person to determine if your
dog has been picked up. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT rely on phone
conversations with shelter personnel or the shelter’s web site to
determine if your dog has been turned in. Shelter personnel make
mistakes and information on the web is oftentimes out-of-date. I know
this from personal experience.

3. Contact rescue organizations, vets, and police departments. Contact
your neighbors to be on the lookout. If you're close to a county line,
contact similar places in that county, too.

4. Plaster your neighborhood with lost dog notices. If possible, place
your dog’s picture on the notice and use high-visibility yellow paper
as an attention grabber. To avoid smearing when wet, print the notice
on a laser printer.

5. Many shelters are only bound to hold your dog for five days (unless
your dog is microchipped). After that, if the dog is deemed adoptable,
it is put up for adoption. If you don’t move quickly, you risk having
your dog adopted by another family. Once that’s done, the shelter
won’t divulge the name, address, or phone number of the new owner.
Also keep this in mind: due to massive numbers of home foreclosures,
many shelters are filled with abandoned dogs. As a result, there’s a
real incentive for shelters to move dogs through their system as
quickly as possible. That works against you.

6. Should you discover that someone has adopted your dog, ask the
shelter supervisor contact the new owner on your behalf to see if they
would be willing to return your dog. When you chat with the shelter
supervisor, be polite and respectful. Shelter supervisors are not
required to honor your request. Most dog lovers are compassionate
people who believe that dogs should be with their rightful owner.

Without a doubt, more can be done to locate your lost pooch. However,
the six tips that I've mentioned are, in my opinion, the most crucial.

Good luck!

Tim
Lovealab.com