Tips For Finding A Lost Pet

Helpful Steps and Strategies

Losing your dog can be a very traumatic experience for both you and your dog, but several organizations, including the Humane Society of the United States, have developed a lost dog quick action plan to help you get your dog home as quickly as possible.

If you are on Facebook, Missing Dogs Massachusetts is a good resource to report a lost or found dog.

  1. Begin your search immediately! Do not wait for your dog to come home.  The sooner you start, the greater the chance that your dog will be returned uninjured.
  2. Never assume your dog was stolen!  Call Animal Control offices, police department, veterinarians, and animal shelters within a 20 mile radius. Give them current information(Color of collar,tags,current pictures, breed etc.) 
  3. If your pet has a microchip, contact the microchip company to make sure your pet’s registration is up-to-date with current phone numbers and contact information. 
  4. Start in the house and look in every closets, cabinets, bureau drawers, air ducts, behind appliances, under beds, in the hollow under reclining chairs, under couches, wrapped in the bottom of drapes or blankets, behind clothes washer and dryer in any hidden recesses, basement crawl spaces, apartment hallways.
  5. Have your neighbors check their yard,under porches, garages, open basements, sheds, under boat docks, window wells, barns, broken down cars, and chicken coops. Remember to ask permission before going on their property. If your dog bolted out of our electric fence, please turn off the electric fence so your dog will be able to get back into his or her own yard.
  6. Don't go out anywhere without a leash on your person. Many people forget this one simple item and lose the pet again after capturing it.  Consider stinky treats such as hot dogs, etc.
  7. Place a blanket/crate where your dog was last seen and put bowl of smelly food (canned alpo,canned pedigree or tripe) or human food in bowl near blanket. If you have a hunting trail camera, set it up in this location.
  8. Please put out an article of your clothing (socks,dirty t-shirts) at the location where your dog was last seen.  There is a good chance that your dog may return.
  9. Check your bushes, garage, under vehicles and other small den-like areas on your property to see if your dog is frightened and hiding.  15% of dogs are still on the owner's property.
  10.  Looking at google maps, draw a circle in a one/two mile radius around the last sighting, and flyer heavily in this radius.  Never assume that your dog will not cross a highway, pond, railroad tracks, power lines.
  11. Notify the local police department and give the patrol officer a few fliers so that he can help you look and contact you if he finds or sees the dog, notify dispatch so that if neighbors see you lurking around the houses and yards, they can know in advance what you're up to and he can give the info to the officer who will be patrolling on the next shift.
  12. People take lost pets to local veterinarians, police stations, shelters, animal hospitals, kennels, groomers, even pet stores. Make sure all local places where your pet might turn up have your missing dog poster. 
  13. The Humane Society recommends that lost pet owners send shelters within a 60-mile radius a picture of their dogs, along with details for returning him/her if someone should bring your dog to them.
  14. Post to all Internet sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Consider cross-posting onto lost animal websites such as Granite State Pet Recovery.
  15. Put an ad in the paper right away. Put ads in both the daily paper and any weekly community papers that your local towns might publish.
  16. Don't forget to read the local papers to see if there's a FOUND DOG ad for your dog.
  17. Consider using http://www.findtoto.com for EMERGENCY PHONE ALERT for lost pets.  They will telephone Alerts to 1000's of your neighbors within minutes and immediately deliver a description of your lost dog, lost cat or stolen pet.
  18. Create a simple flier w/large type and print 250 copies to start (color can be expensive, so at the very least use color paper) Your flier should be kept simple and readable and have two phone numbers on it. Please put in plastic sheet protectors with opening on the bottom and be sure to staple in all four corners, and facing the direction of travel. 
  19. Most dogs are recovered within 2 to 3 miles of their home. Put signs up in your neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods with a current, clear picture of your dog.
  20. Enlist Friends & Family to help with outreach and the posting of fliers. It takes a village to find a lost pet... go out and create the village by talking to your neighbors. Recruit kids, co-workers and other volunteers to help you put of posters and get them up as quickly as possible. Friends and Family and well meaning people will want to "physically search" for the dog.  This is exactly the wrong thing to do.  This well put additional search on the lost dog and will send him further and further away. The quicker you get the posters up in the area the quicker you will start getting calls with sightings.  Remember to record all sighting of the dog with time, date and exact location.
  21. Instruct everyone that is helping you NOT to CALL or CHASE YOUR DOG. This will prolong your search.  If they see your dog, sit or lay down(no eye contact) and gently toss out treats to the side of the dog to lure your dog in.  Lost dogs use their natural instincts in order to survive.  They have only 3 things on their brains-food/water and shelter and keeping themselves safe, which includes staying away from their owners.  Every time people are out searching in the area where your dog was seen-they think of this as a threat which then increases their fear towards people-causing them to move out of the area.  
  22. Dogs lost in stressful situations such as car accidents, changing fosters homes, vet clinic, groomers, rescue transport: These dogs usually do not travel far-unless they are pushed out of the area, chased, or search groups go out searching; 75% of these dogs are eventually recovered on the property they bolted from.
  23. Remember If you spot your dog do not chase him, call him or whistle.  This could case him to panic and run into traffic and possible cause him or her great injury.  If you live in the area of snowmobile trails, please do not do out on our snowmobile or on 4x4 vehicles as this will terrify him and push him out of the area. 
  24. Give copies of your flier to people that walk their dogs in the area. They're more likely to spot animals than most people. If you go to the parks early, you may find people who regularly walk their dogs together as an informal group. Dogs on leash notice and want to investigate all kinds of things, even strange birds, lizards and turtles. 
  25. Physically Go to animal shelters, animal control offices, and Vet Offices and hand them a flyer. Remember to include Microchip identification numbers if applicable and ask that they scan and verify ownership of any pet matching the description and photo you provided.
  26. Tag your car using neomarkers. Turn your car into a billboard! Use bright florescent window markers to advertise your lost dog as you drive through your community. Be sure to include: the breed or description of your dog if it is a lesser known breed, list a street, intersection, or neighborhood name, the city or town and your phone number. Keep it to 3-4 lines of information. The letters should be three to four inches tall – any smaller and they won't be easy to read. Use different colors in your message to make it easier to read. You can also include a color photograph of your dog inserted inside a plastic sheet protector and secured to your window with tape.
  27. Your telephone should be manned twenty-four hours a day.  If your dog has an ID Tag with your phone number on it, you may very well get a call. 
  28. Be wary of pet recovery scams. When describing your pet, leave out one identifying characteristic. When talking about your pet to strangers, offer no information, Ask many questions, and carefully answer questions posed to you. Be wary of people who insist that you provide them with money in order for them to return your pet.

Don't give up your search - even when you have little hope left. Animals who have been lost for months have been reunited with their owners.

If you are on Facebook, Missing Dogs Massachusetts is a good resource to report a lost or found dog.