As a Pet Detective, I’ve dealt with people who will do anything to get their pet back. Often, the owners will resort to trying anything. 

One such example was a person who had lost her Sheltie. The Sheltie was in the area and for several days she actually came within several yards of it but just couldn’t get her hands on the dog. Her solution? She wanted to drug the dog and then track it until it “dropped”. Not a good idea! 

This particular person is not alone in her thinking. Many people believe that drugging a dog, either by placing something in its food or using a tranquilizer gun is a good idea. There are, however, numerous reasons why a dog shouldn’t be retrieved in this way. 

Using drugs to sedate an animal can be complicated. As with people, an animal won’t necessarily behave the way you expect it to when it’s under the influence. Maybe a normally calm dog will dart into the path of danger? Perhaps it’s personality could change and it will become more aggressive? Or maybe the dosages are incorrect and the dog could be poisoned immediately.  Also, what’s to say that tainted food is never touched by your dog and a different animal eats it instead? You never know. 

As for tranquilizer guns, there are major dangers involved.  The technique of using traquilizer guns to capture dogs is typically handled by animal control officers, and they receive training in this. It is called chemical capture or chemical tranquilization. 

With a little patience and smarts, you can get your dog back without resorting to drug methods. After all, you know your dog best and that’s the best weapon you have in finding it safely and bringing it home.

Despite our great intentions to find our lost pets, sometimes we, as owners and rescuers, get in our own way and make matters worse. Human animals can cause problems when it comes to retrieving their pets! Here are some behaviors that owners and rescuers exhibit that hinder their progress… 

Owner behaviors that create problems 

Owners often ruin their chances of recovering their lost dogs by behaving in the wrong way. Some develop “wait and see” tactics and by the time they start looking the critical first few hours to locate the dog are gone. Others become laser focused on bad theories. For example, it might be hasty to think that a lost dog was “sold to research” when in actuality it was rescued and put up for adoption through a local adoption event. In believing they’ll never see their dog again, they go through grief avoidance and give up their search efforts. When feeling helpless and alone they become the victims of others who rebuke them and tell them “it was just a dog” or “you’ll never find your dog.” In addition, the level of human-animal bond will influence the recovery efforts of a lost dog. People with a strong human-animal bond will go to extremes to find their lost pet. They’ll post flyers, visit shelters, and contact rescue groups while holding full-time job and family responsibilities. On the other hand, people with a weak human-animal bond, assuming they’ll never see their dog again, stop searching after becoming discouraged. 

Rescuer behaviors that create problems 

People who find stray dogs often mistake their behavior. They assume that a fearful dog was mistreated when in reality the dog has a naturally fearful personality and has been shy and fearful since it was a very young. Dogs found in “far out” country areas are often believed to be homeless after being dumped by a terrible owner. Believe it or not, many rescuers never believe a dog found wandering in a country area could be lost. If a dog doesn’t have a collar, some people think it’s homeless and will stop trying to find the dog’s owner and start working to place the dog in a shelter. Well-meaning people also avoid placing dogs in shelters because they fear a shelter will euthanize a dog after a given number of days. This is unfortunate because the first place an owner of a lost dog will search is indeed a shelter.

The point is to stop over-thinking and go with a gut instinct. Don’t get in your own way or anyone else’s when it comes to finding lost pets.

The ways in which a dog escapes are as many as the potential factors that influence how far they’ll go. Travel factors can be broken down into six major sub types. 

Temperament

Dogs behave in vastly different ways towards people they don’t know. This behavior can be classified into 3 categories           

            Gregarious – Very friendly dogs inclined to go directly up to the first person

                        who calls them. These dogs can be found, in general, close to home

                        or will be picked up by someone close to the escape point.

            Aloof – Dogs with aloof temperaments will initially try to avoid human contact.

                        After they become hungry and lose their fear they’ll become more

                        friendly. These dogs can travel a great distance.

            Xenophobic – These are very fearful dogs that can travel far. They have a

                        “darting” behavior that makes them a high risk for being hit by a car.

                        These dogs will run from just about anyone!

Circumstances

These could include everything from a scent that a dog finds interesting to fireworks that could frighten a dog into running away.

Weather

Obviously, a dog can travel farther on a nice spring day than it could in a snow storm. Extreme conditions like hail, rain, and heat will decrease distances traveled. 

Terrain

Dogs living in residential areas won’t travel as far as dogs from mountainous areas due tobarriers like fences. In the wilds, barriers to travel can include heavy brush, steep cliffs, and cacti. 

Appearance of the Dog

A Pit bull that people perceive as aggressive might not be rescued as fast as a friendly Labrador Retriever. Smaller dogs have a higher chance of being picked up than larger dogs because they look vulnerable. A purebred also has a higher chance of being rescued because it’s not believed to be a stray. 

Population Density

A dog that escapes in a big city will travel a shorter distance than one that escapes in rural farmland because there are more people to intervene and help. By this rationale, a dog that runs away at night will travel farther before being seen than one that escapes during a parade.

There are a lot of factors that influence the distance a lost dog will travel. One is the actual personality of the dog itself. Dog behavior is a great way to determine how far it might travel before someone rescues it. There are three behavioral categories for lost dogs. These categories are gregarious, aloof, and xenophobic.

• Gregarious Dogs

Gregarious dogs are friendly dogs that are very likely to go directly to the person who calls them. These dogs will generally be found close to home, depending on the terrain, or will be picked up by someone close to where they escaped. Because of their friendliness, gregarious dogs are often adopted by the individuals who find them. 

• Aloof Dogs

Aloof dogs are cautious of strangers and will try avoiding people. Eventually, mainly due to hunger, they’ll accept human contact once they have overcome their fears. While these dogs have been known to travel great distances, they can eventually be enticed with food and patience by experienced rescuers who know how to approach and capture dogs that are very cautious. These dogs are often recovered by rescue group volunteers, and their cautiousness can be mistaken as abuse. Also, aloof dogs are often recovered weeks or months after their escape, and they have the physical appearance (thin, injuries, stickers, ticks, etc.) that they’re homeless, abused, and unloved. 

• Xenophobic Dogs

Xenophobia means “an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.” Dogs with these personalities are more likely to travel far and so they’re at a higher risk of being hit by cars. Dogs are xenophobic due to genetics and/or frightful experiences when they were puppies. Due to their fearful behavior people make the assumption that they were abused. Even if the dog has ID tags, many well-meaning people that find these dogs will refuse to contact the previous owner. Sometimes xenophobic dogs become so panicky that they’ll even run from their owners. It might be necessary to use other dogs to get close enough to capture them or to use baited dog traps.

Dogs that have a xenophobic personality type or are generally “skittish” are very challenging to retrieve, even for their owners. These dogs are hardwired to be fearful. There are ways to get them back should they escape, though.

One method for getting close to a fearful dog is called the “Observe and Duck” technique. It’s been referred to by different names and all mean the same thing. When a skittish dog is observed during a search or if a person spots a dog in general, it’s best to immediately “duck” or crouch into a sitting or lying position. This behavior makes a dog curious and it’s non-threatening. Keep the dog in sight with peripheral vision and don’t look directly at the dog or its eyes.

When in the crouched or lying position with the dog in sight, begin to yawn. Behavioral studies have shown that animals don’t yawn while hunting. Also while yawning don’t show your teeth or try to cover your mouth with your hands. Should the dog not “buy” any of this and dart away, you’ll still be able to tell in which direction it went even though your head is turned. Of course, don’t wear sunglasses to cover your eyes!

The idea is to calm a skittish dog so that the dog will approach out of curiosity. If you have food with you that you can offer that’s helpful as well. Whatever you do don’t make sudden, quick movements. If you act calmly the dog may begin to trust you.