Your Dog’s Personality Type Influences How Far It Will Travel

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.