Loss Prevention

It's hard to imagine your dog going missing. The sleepless and eatless days and nights of worry. But it can happen, all too easily. Here are some prevention tips to hopefully keep your pup home safe!

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR DOG UNATTENDED ... even in fenced in yards and on porches. They are being stolen and getting loose from these situations even. Don't risk it!

Newly adopted or fostering a dog? These are the high-risk dogs. Also, those that are just plain ol' skittish. It doesn't take much for them to bolt off. So, there are extra precautions for these.

• A MARTINGALE collar is always recommended for any of these. They cannot back out of them, if properly fitted. A harness can be backed out of just like an ill-fitting collar. Not all collars or harnesses are alike. The ones that are just straps, harnesses, are not secure in the least. A jumpy dog will jump out in a split second.

• Be sure to give that poor pup some time to decompress. Even if happy and excited. Don't mistake that from anxiety. They do not know who you are or what you want with them, or where they are. It's all new and exciting but also makes them anxious. And you don't know what all they are afraid of. In a few days you can start parading your new pup down the street to show off. But give them time please! Back yard only for first few days.

• If you have a skittish or new dog and they start backing up, drop to the ground and calmly reassure them. Only slowly pull the leash towards you if they are not bucking to back out. Otherwise, give a little slack ... even if you're flattening out in mud. Your being dirty is better than a loose/lost dog!
  Use a two door policy, whenever possible. This means if you have a fenced yard, that the front door is locked and back gate and door used when the dog is in the house. Back gate is locked if the dog is in the backyard. You get the idea.

• NEVER let your child hold the leash of a skittish dog that they cannot control if they try to bolt or buck! We know they are excited. But even a dog that seems very happy and friendly, but is very new, can have a spooking moment in a flash and they will take your child down and possibly injure them ... and be on the run with a leash attached.

• Hold the leash securely. Hand all the way through the loop and then wrap at least once around your wrist.

• NEVER allow a child to be in charge of the door where you aren't certain the dog is secured. 

• NEVER allow new visitors to just walk into an open door unless your dog is secured.

• NEVER leave your dog alone outside. NEVER! Dogs are stolen from locked yards as well as off porches and from front yards when you look away for a split second. We've seen it happen. People are even walking into homes, or breaking into them, for prize breeds. And people are even held up at gunpoint these days, in broad daylight in busy parts of Milwaukee downtown even.

• If you have a dog sitter, or even your best friend or family member the dog knows and loves a ton, please make sure they know to NOT let the dog out without being on leash. Too many run away from the friend that the dog loves when you're around. You're not around this time and they want YOU. And they will go looking for YOU! And they must use the leash securely!