LOCATION: Lucky Stars Country Kennel

2818 Hampstead, Mexico Road

Hampstead, MD 21074

A FREE seminar introducing scent work and the snifferdog sport!

What it is

How it works

How to get started

If your dog is people and critter friendly and will sit quietly for the lecture portion; bring him along for the optional snifferdog instinct test following the lecture. All dogs on the premises must have proof of current vaccine (or titers) for rabies, distemper and bordetella. You must pre register to hold a place in the seminar.

Your Name ______________________________________

Dogs Name _________________________________

Breed ______________________ Age _____________________

Previous training experience with this dog. __________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Contact information Phone number _______________________________________________________________

Email address ________________________________________________________________________________

Your preferred method of contact _______________________________

Thank you we look forward to meeting you and your pup!!!

A country tradition in this area is for people to shoot their guns as the New Year rings in. Often this results in panicked lost and missing dogs. If your gun-shy pooch disappears we usually see the same behavior patterns as the panicked dogs that run away during the fireworks in the summer. The dogs tend to get out and run blindly for some distance. Depending on the breed and individual characteristic your pup may run in a straight line. IF there is a lot shooting lost and frightened pooches may ping pong back and forth away from the noise. In some cases the dogs may run in big loopy circles ending up almost where they started. If you know you have a skittery pet bring him inside for the holiday. Make sure the tags or other identification is on the collar. If you lost your dog, some pointers to help you recover him as soon as possible include.

• If your pooch is microchiped contact the company.
• Get the word out locally Most Veterinarian hospitals will be closed the first but you can usually fax or email them a flier about your lost pet. (Chances are also good that if someone picks your pet up they will be unable to contact anyone to read a chip until the second or even later if they are back to work first thing on the second.)
• Put up posters (Posters are big and bright and have minimal information. A photo of your dog and your phone number large enough to read from the road.) Use them as you would “yard sale posters” on big busy intersections and along commuter routes. If your dog is one of the types that runs in a straight line, is in good health and is physically able you may need to get these posters as far as ten or more miles from your point last seen. (Make sure you check with local regulations so you are not violating any laws posting signs and fliers. And when your dog is home again, don’t forget to go back and remove your posters!)
• You may want to go to your immediate neighbors with fliers, small signs with more information about the dog where he is missing from and your contact information etc. If your dog is the type that may loop back toward the starting point chances are good the neighbors will see him and start calling you. At least your information will hopefully have them watching for him, and they will know who to call if they see him.
• Contact the community papers and post your fliers at popular areas coffee shops, gas stations etc.
• Use the Internet Craigs list, and several lost and found resources that are available.
• Go out and look and call your dog even though we are not surprised when dogs do not respond when lost and scared many of them do.  So try it.
• If you are not getting sightings and you have no idea where your pet may be, a trained pet detection dog may be helpful in determining the direction of travel or the area your dog may be hiding in.

Feel free to use the article previously posted on this site about techniques for managing a lost pet search.

GOOD LUCK!!

Laura & Chewy

Looking at our records from the last couple of months we searched for several elderly pets.

• One rat terrier
• Two Mini Schnauzers
• Three Dachshunds
• One Chihuahua

Of these guys

• Three were found directly down hill from the house in a streambed that they had gotten into and apparently could not get out.
• One was found several yards down hill from his house caught in briars and unable to get out.
• One was found on neighbor’s property caught in a construction hole
• Two were not recovered.
• One apparently walked about 12 miles before he was recovered.

We consider elderly dogs a priority simply because I don’t believe they wander off to die, rather that they get disorientated or for whatever reason they get themselves out of their safe yard and can’t physically get back home. There are two messages here; one is that if your dog is getting elderly and developing mobility issues fence the yard. None of the older dogs we looked for have been out of the yard in years. “They just went outside did their thing and came back inside according to the owners.” The other message is that if your elderly pet is missing start at the place he/she usually is, then look down hill especially if you don’t believe your pet would ever go down there because he/she had so much trouble walking in that area. If your elderly pet does not get stopped for some reason he/she is capable of covering many miles just slowly shuffling along. When we are called to search for lost elderly animals we search the immediate area first. The age of the track and/or weather is not a consideration because while we are happy to utilize a trail we are really clearing the area as we are searching for the actual animal. By the way in most of those cases the owners reported their pet was deaf or seriously hard of hearing, so calling was not an effective technique you may walk right past your pet and never know it, get a flashlight and look. Scent detecting dogs are one other resource that can be utilized in addition to visually searching. Their ability to search for the scent of the pet complements our emphasis on visually looking for the pet.

Good luck!!

Laura

• If you know your pet is sound sensitive make sure he/she has current identification on.
• Lock your pet into a safe area
• Consult with your veterinarian about calming drugs, which can be administered before your pet works him/herself into a full-blown panic attack.

If your pet is lost

Cats in a panic usually run until they find the first sheltered area then they freeze there. Sometimes for days or even weeks! The cats simply do not respond catatonic is the only word appropriate for these animals. Many times owners give up looking before their cat comes out looking for food and is seen by others. Get out a good high-powered flashlight and begin searching under everything in a circle from your cats last know point. Finding the cat is only half the battle often we will be in the area where the cat is but still can not reach the cat. Patience and a good cat trap are often the techniques used to recover lost cats baby monitor and feeding stations have also been used successfully to recover lost cats once they get brave enough to move or hungry and thirsty enough to come out and eat.

Dogs generally run until exhausted. For a young healthy animal you might be searching miles away from the last known point. Frequently people do not expand their search far enough afield.

• Use poster techniques to cover as much ground as quickly as you can.
• Also use the internet resources to send flyers to every veterinarian in your surrounding areas. Contact the shelters and animal control both locally and in surrounding counties.

 The good news is those dogs that are naturally friendly with people and or other dogs will often be recovered in short order if they have some form of identification on them either a tag or registered microchip. If you do not have either in a bind use a sharpie to write your phone number on your dogs collar. (Yes this is the voice of experience, I found the sharpie technique lasted as long as the camping trip.)