One minute your dog is there, and the next moment not there. This is one of the worst nightmares for every dog owner. There remains no doubt that it is extremely upsetting and stressful, but at the same time, you might get worried about your pet getting hurt or scared. Overall, the situation seems to be very intimidating.
The first 24 hours are very critical for finding the pet. Post that, the chances of finding your pet drops drastically, sad but true. You need to make the best use of the chances to make sure that you find the dog as soon as possible.
This post talks about the things that you can do immediately in case your dog goes missing.
Plan and Get Search Tools
It is always tempting to immediately start looking for the dog if they are missing from your property. But for that, you need to create a plan and gather some useful tools first. You need to make a list of the items that will help you to continue with the search operations.
It could be the pictures of your dog or pup, a flashlight to look into bushes, or a whistle to get the dog’s attention. You can also get some treat that has a long-lasting and powerful smell or any familiar sound that can lure the dog to get back to you.
Check Out the With Local Shelters
Make sure to get in touch with the local animal shelter a number of times. If possible, stop in per person and provide them with a photo of the dog. It is best not to depend on the verbal description only. It is because in case you have a missing breed, then the description of how your dog looks and the shelters might be completely different.
Search Your Neighborhood
The way you will conduct your search operation completely depends on the personality and species of the dog. If you have outgoing and confident, then the pet may have made new friends. But in case it is shy or gets scared easily, then your pet might be hiding somewhere away from the stranger. You can walk or drive through the neighboring area a couple of times every day. Ask everyone possible, like the letter carriers, delivery boys, to know whether they have seen the pet or not.
Use Social Media
You must understand the power of social media. You can create a catchy post on any preferred social media platform with the photo of your dog and tag people, put location and most importantly, don’t forget to ask people to share the post as much as possible. You can also get in touch with the local dog groups and ask them whether they will post on the Facebook page. In most of the cities and even in states, they have their own Facebook pages for the lost fogs to make the search operation easy.
Flag Microchip of Your Dog
In case you have installed a microchip in your dog and registered it with a database, make sure to alert the organization dealing with the database. You shouldn’t waste time in informing about the incident about the missing dog.
If your dog were stolen, this would let any groomer or vet know that your pup is not with his respective family. This is why it is imperative to have updated information of the microchip that includes the contact information and current address also.
Prevention
A pet always has a better opportunity to get back to the home if they wear a collar along with an ID tag and your name, address, and contact details. You can also plan for installing an electric dog fence in your garden area, backyard or lawn.
This will restrict the dog’s movement in the said area and will not go outside that at times lead to missing pets. Make sure to get it from a reliable and reputed manufacturer to ensure that it works properly and withstand any weather conditions.
In case you get any leads, you must respond to them immediately and consider each of them very important. You never know even a very trivial clue might take you to your pet. Have you ever fallen into such a distressing situation? If yes, then please share your experience with us of how you have gotten to your dog below in the comment section.