Finding wandering dogs - what do you do?

[HollywentLightly]

I have a dog but I am not a dog person. I am a sucker, however. In the last 3ish years, I've found 4 different dogs wandering (one of them twice) when I've been walking my own dog. Two had collar tags with phone numbers - one owner was annoyed to be inconvenienced working from home that he'd have to come to meet me to get his large, very excitable dog back (the same dog I found a second time about 4 months ago. This time as I was about to start dialling the number, I saw him approaching and recognised him so I walked away. The collar seemed to have some sort of tracker on it, so obviously a repeat offender.) The other was bemused that I didn't know she was jogging out of sight in another part of the park while her dog was following me in the opposite direction. One untagged one was on a very wet day in an empty park, so after doing a full loop and meeting no one, I put the dog in my car to bring to a local vet to be scanned for a microchip. The vet said the owner was an elderly lady who was fretting as he had escaped and she was grateful and sending someone to collect the dog (luckily the dog was registered there so they were happy to take him).

This morning I walked around with the dog for about half an hour, asking people at bus stops if they'd noticed him, trying to work out which direction he'd started from. No sign of anyone looking for him, so off to the only vet open on Sunday, at the local university. They rang the owner and gave me her number. She off handedly said she was out but would get her sister to meet me at her house. No thank you, no sorry for the inconvenience. The sister said thanks for dropping him and closed the door.

I'm tired and grumpy anyway this morning, and I missed something I was planning to do, to find this dog's owner, and the general ingratitude of dog owners near me has really annoyed me. DH claims to be more of a dog person than I am but would only have intervened in the one this morning as it was beside a road, he's have left the park dogs to their own devices. Maybe I will in the future.

I post a photo on social media, but we live in a really small town and there's always someone who knows where the dog lives. I found a lost greyhound a while ago, posted on a local Facebook group and the owner was found within 5 minutes. Turns out he belonged to an older man who had slipped in wet grass and dropped the lead - the dog took full advantage and leapt over a gate

I see loads of people on SM finding lost dogs. I never seem to have that luck. My husband had a dog follow him home once, we put him in the garden and asked on the local Facebook group if anyone knew him. The owner’s neighbour messaged us with an address, so I walked him round and put him in their garden. I’d be happy to keep them forever if I could get away with it.

I get it a lot picking up loose dogs. Very very rarely do you get any thanks for taking the dog back or contacting the owner.

Once found one on our local green. Rang the council ddog warden. A nice ndn took him in until warden arrived. Apparently he'd given the ddog walker the slip.
Ndn was quite gutted!

I've found three wandering dogs whilst out with mine.
I put my dog's lead on the dog (my dog walks to heel no problem) and phoned the number on the tag.
On every occasion the owners came dashing up pronto and were full of gratitude and relief.

My friend's new rescue dog was scared by shooting in the woods, slipped his collar and ran off at top speeds. The post lady found him sitting beside a post box so put him in her van and drove around the area looking for his owner. My friend was dashing around shouting his name when the post van pulled up with her pupper sitting in the passenger seat. The relief and thanks were off the scale.

I'm not on FB so yes, that's probably the most likely place to reunite a dog and owner. But it's so easy to put a phone number on a collar tag, why not do it? Our greyhound has an indoor collar that the tag is on, just in case he slips out of the house unobserved (he won't, he's the laziest fecker going).

Lots of people don't use collars in the house as they can be a choking hazard.

Check the tag on their collar. If they have got lost on a walk, then they should have one on as it is the law.
I appreciate that a dog that has escaped from home may not have a collar on. They should have a microchip though.
If I was unable to get them to a vet, I would post on FaceBook. Some non-vet people have their own scanner so can come to yours and scan the chip.
Then I would post their photo on social media.

It was not a dog, but a ferret, and I posted it on FaceBook, and also took it to the local exotic vet. That was a whole adventure in itself. I wrongly believed I could take it to the vet in a box 😂

I am a serial dog collector 🤪 I must attract them. Owners have always been grateful though. I’d be miffed if someone was offhand with me although I did have a lady once tell me that her dog couldn’t possibly have escaped as the gate was 6 foot and he was elderly and arthritic. I was like “erm I’m holding your dog right now so he’s fitter than you think” 🤣

Now I’m curious as to what happens when you put a ferret in a box? 😬

It just gets out. They are escape artists. They are basically fur covered rope that can squeeze through any gap.
The vet was only about 20 minutes walk from me, but between the GPS on my phone sending me to all other places, and the ferret treating m like a climbing frame, it took me about 2 hours to get there.

If I ever see a ferret out again, I will leave it alone 😆

😮

My dd found a bloody great chow chow once 🤦‍♀️ I couldn’t find a collar big enough to put round his massive neck!

I took him home, put him in the garden and rang the dog warden who came and got him. I’d did put some photos on the local fb groups but no one recognised him.

I rang the dog warden later to check if he’d been claimed and he had.

I have found one dog whose owner was so miffed that he had the audacity to go outside of their front garden WITH NO GATE. No thanks, no care, and no concern when I mentioned that the dog was found running out in the road. I felt so sorry for the dog.

I have had someone who almost cornered my dog out in the forest thinking he was lost until I turned up apologetic and a bit frantic that he was tracking scent in the fog. Equally my friend lost her dog for an hour or so as it managed to get stuck in a yard when someone phoned her and I know she was so grateful as she was frantically searching.

I think you just know whose owner has had a fright and whose owner just doesn’t really care.

You are a lost dog magnet!

I found a huge great dane type dog on the street before. The closest building was dentist practice so I asked in there and they took him home. Apparently always escaping from a nearby house. Found a Bassett hound once on a walk howling his little head off. Very softly in the distance I could hear calling and whistling. Once he heard it, he pelted off in that direction.

If I can get close without spooking the dog, I'd check for details and contact the owners. If not, I'd report to one of the local facebook groups that look for lost dogs.