How worried are you about your dog being stolen?

[MistakesOwned]

More and more requests on FB to share details of stolen dogs. Really local to me and it’s heartbreaking. I live alone and walk my dogs by myself. I use popular dog walks but even they can be quiet and lonely. I’ve ordered a personal alarm to take with me but would love any other tips please.

There have been a lot of reports of people being followed by men in parks lately who take pictures of their dog. Usually I think these things are hysteria but there have been several now including a friend of mine who would never make something like that up. A teenage boy did have his dog taken on a walk not that long ago too. As far as I know the family did not get it back. It's not just a garden issue, although majority of people here live in flats and don't have gardens to let dogs out in so might be the difference.

Ok so 2000 ouf of the 10 million dogs in the UK is 0.02 % and as already said above by vanillandhoney - not all of these will even have actually been stolen. No wonder I don't actually know anyone it happened to. It is something that has been turned into urban mythology because people love their dogs. But is really not worth spending your time worrying about beyond taking the normal precautions you would anyway to keep yourself and the dog safe.

Those figures are a bit general- if you live in an area that's currently being targeted by dog thieves I imagine that rises steeply!

I'm not really worried, my two aren't breeding material, they're not gorgeous (except in my eyes!) and they're not pedigree. They might get stolen for dog fights as they're staffies, so I don't leave them tied up outside of shops, but other than that, I don't really think about it.

Previously, I had a gorgeous, pedigree, intact Staff and when he was young I regularly had people stop me in the street and ask about him, including asking if I'd breed him (absolutely not), so to the pp who was worried, I would say don't worry too much, people are just nuts about certain breeds sometimes and can't resist talking to the owners.

And regarding the numbers, I don't know anyone who has had their dog stolen, but I know a few who have lost them due to bad recall. They've always shown up eventually, but how many people who have claimed that their dog has been stolen are going to own up on social media to just losing it and all the abuse that would probably come with that?

Those numbers are still too high for me. But then I don't think I would actually cope with my dog being stolen. For me, personally, that would break me.

As I said risk is a combination of likelihood and impact.

Appreciate we're all different though.

@BigSpringy

Those numbers are still too high for me. But then I don't think I would actually cope with my dog being stolen. For me, personally, that would break me.

As I said risk is a combination of likelihood and impact.

Appreciate we're all different though.

It's not a high number at all though. It's tiny. Minute, in fact. Your dog is at far higher risk of being hit by a car, escaping their collar on a walk, or simply not coming back when you call them. I'm in the lakes and thousands of dogs a year go missing because they've caught a scent and just vanished. Nothing to do with theft and everything to do with dogs being dogs.

People worry about this because it's so overhyped in the media - and it's only
overhyped because it's so, so rare that when it happens, it's newsworthy.

As long as you're sensible and keep your dog with you when out and about, the chances of anything happening to you or your dog are absolutely minuscule.

This gets bandied about by the dog people I chat to in the park, but a friend of mine followed up on the thieves warning on Facebook and asked about which dogs had gone missing and offered to share photos of them and none of the people who’d posted the warning knew anyone in real life who’d lost a dog.

I know someone who had puppies stolen - a long time ago now, but still. And I see frequent reports on gundog pages on FB of working dogs being pinched.