What to do if your dog is lost? Part 3

I'm doing a 3 part series on what I've learned from our 4 day disappearance of our sweet girl, who came home for a Christmas miracle!  You can read
Part 1 here
part 2 here

Now we are rejoicing that hopefully with these tips, your baby is HOME!  Praying that this helps someone like it did us!  Let's go forward!

AFTER YOU'VE HUGGED & KISSED AND HELD A MILLION TIMES YOUR BABY.....WHAT'S NEXT??

1.  CHECK THEM FOR OBVIOUS INJURIES, ABRASIONS ETC. ALSO CHECK FOR TICKS!

2.  ONLY GIVE THEM 8 OZ WATER AT A TIME. THAT'S WITHIN A HALF HOUR OR HOUR IN BETWEEN.

3.  ONLY GIVE THEM A SMALL HANDFUL OF FOOD EVERY HOUR OR TWO.  IF YOU HAVE OTHERS, KEEP THEM SEPARATED FOR A BIT.  I AM TALKING 1/2 CUP AND THEN 1 CUP EVERY HOUR OR TWO........YOU NEED TO CONTINUE THIS FOR THE FIRST 2 DAYS OR YOU WILL GET STOMACH BLOAT!

4.  TAKE TO YOUR VET TO HAVE THEM CHECKED OUT.  CHECK FOR GIARDIA, LEPTO OR ANY OTHER ISSUES.

5.  RE-NOTIFY ALL VETS THAT YOUR PET WAS FOUND.  TAKE DOWN ALL SIGNS.  TAKE THE LOST/STOLEN FLAG OFF OF THE MICROCHIP.  NOTIFY ALL SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS/GROUPS ETC THAT YOUR DOG WAS FOUND. RECOVER ALL FLIERS.

What to do if your dog is lost? Part 2

I don't know what I would've done without help from such sweet, kind-hearted people. One of those was a volunteer pet detective. Later on was the search and rescue person.  I could literally have NOT found our baby without them!  I am forever grateful!!!

I will now go through things to do to "profile" your area and help your area for them to come home.

You can catch up with PART 1 HERE

THINGS TO DO AT HOME:

1.  LEAVE YOUR GARAGE/FENCE DOOR OPEN

2.  PUT USED/WORN CLOTHES OUT ON THE FRONT PORCH AND ON THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE (change out daily)

3.  PUT OUT FOOD AND WATER ON THE FRONT AND SIDE OF THE HOUSE

4.  IF YOU HAVE OTHER DOGS, CLOSE UP THEIR CAGE AND PUT THEIR WATER/FOOD BOWL IN A PLASTIC BAG TO SEAL FOR THEIR SCENT.

5.  DON'T GROSS OUT, BUT URINATE ON SOME CLOTHING.  DRAG IT AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD ON A STRING OR DRAG IT AROUND WITH A CAR AND PUT IT IN THE FRONT YARD.


THINGS TO DO FOR PROFILING THE AREA:

1. USE GOOGLE EARTH TO SURVEY YOUR AREA.  LOOK FOR ANY AREAS OF WATER.  REGARDLESS of how we humanize our pets, they still are animals with instincts.  When the sun rises, their insatiable desire is for WATER.  They can live without food for a few weeks but not water.

2.  TAKE A FELLOW DOG/PLAYMATE WITH YOU!  Take a favorite animal, "treats/cookies" etc when searching

3. USE A CALM, NON EMOTIONAL VOICE!  NEVER show emotion.  Especially for a dog that might be skittish, scared or disoriented!  They WILL bolt!

4.  GO OUT AT NIGHT.  IF IN THE CALM YOU HEAR A DOG BARKING, YOUR DOG MIGHT BE NEARBY!

5.  DRIVE AROUND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD WITH YOUR CAR WINDOW DOWN AND ANOTHER PET INSIDE!

6.  IF IT'S USED TO RIDING IN A CAR, DRIVE AROUND WITH A VAN DOOR OPEN!

7.  IF YOU HAVE THEM, PUT UP OUTDOOR CAMERAS, OUTSIDE!  THIS IS SOMETHING WE WILL BE GETTING SOON!!!

THINGS TO DO IF THERE'S A SIGHTING:

1.  ASK THEM TO DESCRIBE YOUR PET AND COLLAR!  INCLUDING THE COLOR!

2.  GET TIME, LOCATION AND EVERY DETAIL OF THE SIGHTING.

3.  USE A NON EMOTIONAL VOICE WHEN SEARCHING FOR THEM.

4.  ONLY 1 PERSON GOES TO SEARCH.  I CAN'T SAY THIS ENOUGH.  ONLY ONE PERSON GOES TO SEARCH.

5.  BE CALM.......AND IF YOU SEE YOUR PET, SIT DOWN.  JUST TALK.  CALMLY.  IF YOU HAVE A FAVORITE PACK MATE, BRING THEM TOO.

6.  KEEP A FLASHLIGHT, LEASH, FAVORITE TOY, TREATS AND TENNIS SHOES/HIKING SHOES IN YOUR CAR DURING THE SEARCH.

7.  DO NOT GIVE THE MONEY FOR THE REWARD UNTIL THE DOG IS FOUND.
 
IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T FOUND YOUR PET, THERE ARE WONDERFUL VOLUNTEER PET DETECTIVES AND SEARCHERS.  DO NOT SPEND THE $2000 WE WERE QUOTED!!

What to do if your dog is lost???? part 1

We never knew what horror, torture and pain it's like to lose a furbaby!  On the early morning of  December 21st that horror became a reality.  She wandered off after being let out and when we went to find her she was gone.......I did NOT sleep, eat and was consumed with grief for 4 solid days.  I cried more than I have in a really long time for my girl.  Just wanted to know that she was okay.  On Christmas night, we got a phone call on our way home from our family's home.  They thought they had seen her.  There was our first sighting!  We rushed home and looked but couldn't find her.  When the boys came home and doing their own searching, she was in front of the fence.  Our girl was HOME!  She is our Christmas Miracle!  The Lord heard our Cries!!!  Lots and lots of them.

I consulted with on many groups, conversations, phone calls and texts with a volunteer pet detective and an on the ground search and rescue person that has dogs for scent and searching.  I have been asked by several to list ideas of what helped to bring our Harley girl home!

1.  TAKE RECENT, CLEAR PHOTOS OF YOUR PETS AND KEEP THEM UPDATED AT ALL TIMES!!!

2.  YOU MUST HAVE THEM MICROCHIPPED!  I was reluctant at first but ALL of our pets are microchipped!  Make sure you REGISTER your chip and make sure you flag the dog/animal as lost/stolen until they are found!

3.  YOU NEED ANIMAL TAGS WITH NAME, ADDRESS, OWNER NAME, PHONE NUMBERS on EVERY animal you have!

TAG TEAM AND HAVE EVERYONE DO A JOB & DIVERSIFY!!

4.  SIGNAGE!  SIGNAGE SIGNAGE!  We had 8x10 photos, laminated.  We took foam core (Dollar tree), stapled yellow cardboard to it and stapled it to steaks.  I gorilla taped it on top of the back to hold it.  Put LOST DOG, REWARD, YOUR PHONE NUMBER.  DO NOT put the reward amount! 
Put these up at EVERY intersection within 2 miles of your home!

5.  Fliers:  Go and hand out fliers to EVERY home within 2 miles of your home! MAKE SURE YOU GO TO EVERY PET STORE IN YOUR AREA!  Check neighborhood.com (the app) for your neighborhood if possible but ours wasn't on there.

6.  GIVE EVERY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER, FEDEX & UPS DRIVER IN YOUR AREA A FLIER.  TAKE THEM TO THE POST OFFICE. PEOPLE TALK........A LOT! TAKE THEM TO THE SCHOOLS!

7.  Notify EVERY source about your lost pet.  The animal shelter, your local groups on fb, online garage sale groups, CRAIGSLIST.  Check for sale on CRAIGSLIST as well and check multiple times of the day!  Harley's photo and information was shared 1500 times over a 2-4 day period! Check the animal shelter EVERY day!  in person!

8.  Email EVERY vet in your county and every county surrounding you.  Give photos, exact descriptions etc.  Give microchip numbers

Next I will detail the profiling part and what to do from home on your own!