Lost Dog

First Steps: 

DO NOT WAIT FOR YOUR DOG TO JUST SHOW UP BACK HOME! They may, but if you wait and they don't, you've wasted valuable time.

DO NOT GO OUT CHASING AFTER OR SCREAMING FOR YOUR DOG! Your dog will either run in fear or play. Calm, quiet, loving calls out for your dog from home may bring them home. If not, do not give chase or scream at your dog. This will 95% of the time fail. Don't risk it. Why not make your dog WANT to come to you? Then reward the dog for returning home to your call. NEVER punish them for doing the right thing by listening to you and coming home. They will not associate the punishment for them taking off. Only for coming to you. And that will cause further problems immediately, and later on.

FOSTERS, NEWLY ADOPTED OR SKITTISH DOGS: If you just got your dog home within the last couple weeks, even if bonding has started, your dog does not know you or what they are doing there. You should not use any human scent items or call out for the dog, even calmly. If you can get the previous owner out, it is a better chance of them getting the dog rather than you. Use only their own scent items: toys, bed/blanket/crate. Even another dog's scent items from your home are more helpful than you. But only if the dog had latched on to another dog in the home already. These do not know the area either and will stick close. Unless a husky or other running breed. Even they tend to stick around if not chased. They don't know where to go. 

• Ask neighbors if they saw your dog ask which direction he/she went. Someone should be at home doing the following steps while the dog's favorite human walks/drives around calling quietly and calmly for them. Trust us, they can hear thousands of times better than we can. And smell. They will hear and/or smell you when you go out looking if they are not running in fight or flight mode.

• Scent Items: Get your dog's favorite human's dirty socks and underwear, you read that right, out on the porch or in the yard immediately. Along with their favorite bed/blanket/crate. You can put in the garage with the door cracked too. Dirty laundry should be out in the wind somewhere to lure the dog home. Also, a favorite toy is helpful. You can even put out a bed or blanket from the dog's favorite canine friend or family member. All of these helps lure the dog home to you on their terms. Don't go rushing out when you see your dog coming back. Let them come and calmly walk out to them and give them loves for coming home. Break down can happen when they are safely in the home and relaxing.

• Call the non-emergency and shelter for your community. Some rural communities are contracted with an external animal control agent who may have selected a different shelter than the one most of your county is contracted with. Be sure to call non-emergency dispatch and report your lost dog to them and verify the shelter you community is contracted with. Also, if your municipalities shelter IS a different one from the main county shelter, call the main county shelter also! And surrounding county shelters if you live near a county border or your dog is a runner (husky, shepherd, cattle dog, other runners). 

• If no sightings or found reports from calling the non-emergency or shelter, then you need to go online and also contact your dog's microchip company and make sure your contact information is up to date and it's flagged. See Reporting Online below for online agencies to utilize. We recommend using ALL of them for better exposure for your dog's missing reports.

• File a lost report online at the links to the right. Most will create flyers you can use. The most used sites and FB pages, they automatically post to their FB pages for you, are Lost Dogs of Wisconsin and Pawboost. PetcoLove is growing very quickly and used a lot too. The others are chip companies with national databases and others are less used but are still worth filing with. 

• Also, post on the neighborhood sites to the right, right away. If you aren't joined, please join. They are free to join and you can post immediately. They are neighborhood specific apps/sites that alerts your neighbors and even surrounding neighborhoods to watch for your dog. Nextdoor even has alerts you can set up to notify you on your phone.

• Another great thing that has helped many is to drag your pup’s favorite blanket, or something dirty of yours, wetted down. Go from anywhere you think the pup might be and drag all the way home. This is leaving a scent trail and we’ve seen it work many times. I hope it works for you.

• Print out flyers created from any of those free online reports. Print out full page to put in businesses, and 4x6 size (four to a page) for handing out. Go door to door with them in the direction or area your dog was last seen. This is crucial. You get your best leads this way. Get friends and family to help. But only the dog's favorite human should be calling for the dog, calmly and softly and playfully. Now is not the time to be stern. It can be confusing if everyone is calling from different directions. Have a couple people drive looking for a sighting. An example of a homemade flyer is below.

• If it's been a while for any sightings or you're in a very rural area, road signs may be the key to getting sightings. See example below.

• We can help if you need, to get flyers or road signs out and drive for a sighting. We can, also, help create a central messenger chat that everyone looking can be in to instantly share leads or sightings in.

• Whatever you do ... DO NOT CHASE THE DOG! This can either be a great game of chase for your dog. Or terrifying for your dog. Either way it can chase your dog further away, or possibly into traffic.

• If you have a skittish dog and see him or her, get down to the ground and try luring to you. Again, do not chase and this should only be done by these dog's favorite human. No one else.

• If you see your dog and he or she is friendly and lovey, or very playful, make YOU the IT. Call the pup playfully and run the other way, towards home or the car.

• Now, if you need our help, Billy's Posse is here for you. However, you need us to be. Just let me know. You can messenger, text, or call us. 262-833-7480.