By Robin Lyle
Journal & Press
How are pet dogs that wander off or go missing brought back home again? Heartfelt postings on Facebook pleading for information on missing pets certainly help. According to Tracy Snell from Our Best Friends Rescue, social media is an important tool when searching for a lost dog.
Our Best Friends Rescue is a dog rescue agency based on Long Island. Dogs are brought to the Long Island facility from as far away as Texas. They are transported on a specially equipped vehicle called the “love bus.” A large group of volunteers in Washington County in Upstate New York help the Long Island agency by finding foster and adoptive homes for their animals in this area.
Some of the rescued dogs were born into puppy mills. According to Wikipedia: “[t]he Veterinary Medical Association of the Humane Society…defines the main characteristics of a puppy mill as ‘emphasis on quantity over quality, indiscriminate breeding, continuous confinement, lack of human contact…and minimal to no veterinary care.’”
Other rescued dogs come from pet hoarding situations. In both cases, the dogs have had little human contact and may be quite fearful of people. Not all of the dogs at Our Best Friends Rescue endured such traumatic conditions, rather they could be voluntarily given up by an owner, brought in by family when an owner dies, or brought in wandering and lost.
Any agency working with dogs over the years is likely to have a dog become missing at some point. When this happens at Our Best Friends Rescue, they often do look to Facebook for help locating the animal. But, it can take much more than social media to get a dog back home safely. Cooperation from the dog’s foster or adoptive family is important and a phalanx of volunteer searchers is critical. And, sometimes, especially for a dog that’s been gone more than a few days, extra help comes from consulting with an expert in dog behavior and tracking lost dogs.
Tracy Snell, from Our Best Friends Rescue in Washington County, has called on Sarah Winslow, of Salem, for help in difficult missing dog situations. Sarah is an “excellent human being,” Tracy said, noting that “she doesn’t take any money for her help and doesn’t want any attention for it either. That’s her brand.”
It’s not a surprise, then, that Sarah was reluctant to talk with this reporter. She protested she was too busy to talk as she spent the day making holiday wreaths for local charities. Fortunately, she did share a quick outline of how she became interested in this unusual field and key elements of dog behavior when under stress.
It all began for Sarah eight years ago when her daughter’s dog went missing. Sarah and her daughter searched for 68 days straight. In the process they found five other missing dogs, but not her daughter’s. It wasn’t until two years later, through a lead on social media, that they learned the dog had been stolen and were able to finally retrieve him.
When a dog is lost, not stolen, “they typically leave out of fear” according to Sarah. “You have to understand dog behavior. In 24 hours they become feral and within 48 hours they’re in ‘survival mode’.” Most lost dogs are going “somewhere,” she said.
Just this past September, Tracy Snell of Our Best Friends Rescue contacted Sarah Winslow for help finding “Lulu.” Lulu had been in her new adoptive home only one day when she went missing, apparently scared by clanging pots and pans. She had just been adopted by an older couple in Battenville. Our Best Friends Rescue was alerted two days later when someone spotted the lost dog posting on Facebook.
The Rescue’s volunteers posted information on Facebook, hung posters, and went door-to-door to let people know the dog was missing and provided a phone number to call if they saw her. Sightings of Lulu, new ones received every day Lulu was missing except one, came from a fairly remote area between her owner’s home and Hedges Lake.
Concerns led the Rescue to contact Sarah Winslow for help. “Sarah has good instincts on what dogs will do,” Tracy said. Lulu came to the Rescue from a puppy mill and she was not used to being around people. This led Sarah to advise that Lulu would feel more comfortable with dogs than people and would gravitate towards other dogs. Several reports from community members who spotted Lulu confirmed this.
Further, Sarah believed that the “somewhere” Lulu would head for was either back to her new home or a return to her foster home. Sightings bore this out as they showed Lulu approaching her foster home and then doubling back towards her new home.
Information gleaned from almost daily sightings let the searchers and owners know that she was not only still alive but in pretty good shape, indicating she had found a reliable source of food.
As sightings of Lulu came closer to her new adoptive home, her owner was given instructions. “The worst thing to do is go towards a lost dog and try to catch it,” Tracy said. A fearful dog in survival mode is likely to flee and Lulu wasn’t used to being around people.
The owner was told to place a bowl of food in the yard and then retreat into the house where Lulu couldn’t see her. Each time, the food was placed closer to the house with the owner out of sight. Eventually, food was placed just outside the door from which Lulu had fled. This time, the owner remained where the dog could see her. The final step was to move the food inside the house with the door open, reuniting Lulu with her adoptive family at last.
Lulu had been missing for a total of eight days. Throughout that time, numerous volunteers from Our Best Friends Rescue were hard at work. As each sighting of Lulu was received, volunteers arrived to search for Lulu and talk to neighbors. When the dog returned to the area of her new home, the new owners followed their instructions perfectly.
Unfortunately, things don’t always go this smoothly. About a year prior to the search for Lulu, a different dog went missing; this time from the Easton area and in the middle of winter. This dog, a Portuguese Podengo, came to Our Best Friends Rescue from a pet hoarding situation and was eventually adopted.
Unlike in Lulu’s situation, in this case, the owners “did the exact opposite” of their instructions. Responding to a sighting of the dog, the owner chased it with an ATV which actually drove the dog further away.
With temperatures well below zero, the dog was in a very dangerous situation. The longer it was lost, the worse the outlook for its survival became. At this point, the Rescue decided to stop working with the owners in order to improve their chances of recovering the dog. They also enlisted Sarah’s help.
As sightings in Easton dwindled, Sarah determined that the dog had crossed the Hudson River on ice. The entire search operation was then moved to the west side of the Hudson as volunteers fanned out through Mechanicville and Schaghticoke with posters and outreach.
This dog was comfortable with children, but wary of adults. This behavior led the volunteers to concentrate on areas with young families. Thirteen days after the dog first went missing, a call was received from Mechanicville. The caller’s daughter was playing outside with a dog that looked like the one reported missing. As instructed, the girl’s mother said, “Honey, come inside and bring your friend with you.” That worked like a charm and the dog has since been rehomed.
Helpful Advice
When a dog does go missing, acting quickly to find the dog increases the odds of bringing it back home safe and sound. Waggish.com’s advice includes these key steps to finding a lost dog:
- Post flyers in the area the pet went missing, as well as where local people gather (post office, library, convenience store, etc). Include a contact number.
- Use social media and ask people to call as quickly after a sighting as possible.
- Contact neighbors, the local animal control officer, shelters and vets.
- If you see your lost dog, don’t chase it. Doing so can cause a stressed animal to retreat further.
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