Why You Should NOT Call A Stray / Loose Dog
We know. It sound’s crazy-stupid to say “Don’t Call Your Dog!” after your dog has escaped and is running loose (or when you encounter a stray dog). You’re probably thinking, “But he always comes to me when I call him” or “So HOW will I get the dog to come to me if I see him but I can’t call him?” The answer is BY CALMING HIM and ATTRACTING HIM to come to you, and we will explain how to do that. But first, we need to explain that CALLING A DOG CAN CAUSE IT TO RUN FROM YOU. Your instinct, when the dog runs, is then to chase after the dog and this is the WORST thing that you can do! Thus, when you hear or see the words “DO NOT CHASE YOUR DOG if it is lost” this includes DO NOT CALL your dog (since calling a dog can create chasing).
Here’s what we know. Some dogs that are scared off by fireworks, thunder, or other traumatic events will be so terrified that they will not even come to their owners. While some dogs will ultimately calm down and then approach people, other dogs will continue to run from everyone. Many dogs with fearful temperaments, like dogs that were not properly socialized, “puppy mill” dogs, and dogs that have been through a traumatic experience (i.e. escaped due to a car crash) are in the “fight or flight” mode and will be highly reactive to sounds and movement.
There’s a reason why one of the worst things that you can do is call out to a stray dog or panicked dog. The reason is that it’s likely that other people (who encountered the loose dog) have already tried to capture him and calling him has become a “trigger” that causes him to automatically bolt in fear when anyone, including his owner, calls him. In many cases, people have tried to call the dog as they looked directly at the dog and walked towards it, an action that is dominate and frightening to a dog that is in the fight or flight mode.
Here’s video showing an example of how AFRAID a dog named Murphy was of his own guardian. Murphy’s Mom returned home from months of military training and when she called Murphy, she DID the right thing by kneeling down. However, notice how panicked Murphy was while Mom was calling Murphy, looking at him, and wearing a scary baseball cap. When she took her hat off, Murphy did come closer but he still didn’t recognize she was his Mom until he had calmed down enough and could detect her scent.
And here’s video of a child who used Calming Signals to calm and capture a skittish dog that adults had called (and chased off) for 2 months. The child previously had fostered this dog which was skittish, on the run, and uncatchable. Notice how the dog would not move when the child was standing, but once the child sat down and then laid on her belly (and “army crawled”), the dog calmed down and moved toward her, wagging his tail in recognition.
Example of Child Using Calming Signals
Here is our most favorite story of how “calming signals” helped to recover a lost (skittish) dog. Feel free to share this video with dog owners when you’re trying to explain WHY they should use calming signals (why they should SIT DOWN) and why they should NOT STAND, LOOK AT, or CALL their lost dog!
**Video Courtesy of KSBW 8 News
“Calming signals” is a term coined by Norwegian dog trainer Turid Rugaas to group a large number of behavior patterns that she says dogs use to avoid conflict, to prevent aggression, to calm other dogs down and to communicate information to other dogs and to people. MAR trained individuals use calming signals to try and lure instead of chase a lost or panicked dog to safety.
To learn more about lost or panicked dogs visit our Lost Dog Behavior page.
If your dog runs away from you, let it. You need to give theimpression they are not being chased. Dogs willfind comfort in wooded areas and in most cases may gravitate near water duringtheir journey. Next, you must immediately put out smelly, wet canned dog foodor something with gravy. This type of food carries the most smell and will helplure the dog back home or back to your location. Other items that are smelly are Deli meats,Liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, canned cat food, fried chicken (pleaseremove from bones).
Also, try putting out dirty laundry or dog beds, this willkeep familiar scents outside your house or in the location they went missingfor the dog to smell.
Contact your local and surrounding police departments, Animal Control Officers, localanimal rescues and shelters.
Everyone’s first instinct is to call out to or chase a lost dog.
When we are helping an owner find their lost dog, one of the first things we try to stress is “Do not chase, Do not call” if you see your dog. What this means is when a dog is loose & on the run they get into what we call “survival mode”. This is when the dogs only thought is just to survive & hide from preditors. Most won’t even recognize their own owners often being on the run for more than a day (all dogs are different).
The first instinct when an owner see’s their lost dog is to yell out to them “Here Fido”, that is the worst thing they could do. The dog will stop, look then RUN. Fido has no idea that’s their owner, Fido just wants to find a safe place to hide. Now the dog is running, which will put him in danger of being hit by a car, hurting himself or going into a dangerous situation (woods, highway, thick brush). Another thing that owners or people helping with the search is they start chasing the dog when the dog runs, this just makes the dog run farther!
The best thing you can do when you see your lost dog is STOP, DROP & STAY QUIET! If you stop when you see the dog, the dog will stop (nothing to run from). Then drop to the ground, avoid eye contact & do not speak. Now the dog has no reason to run & is now curious who that is sitting there. We have had owners sit as long as an hour and a half (very fearful dogs). If they have food in their hands, they may gently toss from food in the direction of the dog (most lost dogs are very hungry), then if the dogs takes to food, toss again but not as far and so on. It’s the best way for the dog to get close, the whole time you never make direct eye contact or speak to the dog. Hopefully the dog will get the scent of the owner & snap them out of survival mode. Sometime just a sniff of the hand of the owner will bring them out of survival mode. Scent is a dogs strongest sense.
So remember, if your dog gets loose tell everyone involved in the search, DO NOT CALL, DO NOT CHASE!!
The above picture is a handout we give to all neighbors of the lost dog & anyone helping on the search along with a flyer of the lost dog, this way, we can make sure everyone knows what NOT TO DO. The other is a flyer of WHAT TO DO. Trying to keep the lost dog safe will help the dog get caught!
The views expressed in this post are the authors own. Want to post on Patch?
14 Signs Your Dog Doesn’t Love You (Even if You Think They Do)
More and more people are choosing to adopt their new best friend from a rescue or shelter. This is a wonderful thing! Many dogs, through no fault of their own, need a new home. Unfortunately though, many people are unprepared for the challenges of living with a dog who may be shy, fearful or stressed by the changes in their lives. These dogs are considered “high flight risk” and go missing with alarming frequency from either their new owner or a foster family who may be temporarily caring for them until a permanent home is found. Many owners bring home their new dog and within a few hours or few days, the dog has slipped out of his collar, out of the yard or out of the house.
By far, the greatest risk to these dogs when they go missing is that they will be hit by a car and killed. It happens far too often and this article was written to give you tips to help you safely capture your new pet. Although it sounds like a horrifying situation and many people panic, the good news is that with a calm, clear head and a good plan of action these dogs are usually quite predictable in their actions and can be successfully recovered.
Please read through the rest of our articles on Shy Lost Dog Strategies. If shelter and rescue staff and volunteers are helping you please ask them to read through our series Harnessing the Energy to give them pointers on how to most effectively use their time. Never give up! Your lost dog is counting on you to bring him safely home.
Dogs who go missing from a fire or disaster fit our profile of “Dogs lost from a Stressful Situation” so many of the tips are similar to those in an article on our website. If not chased or pressured out of the area, these dogs will often remain hiding nearby until they feel it is safe to come out. Additionally, these dogs may have been injured in the fire or disaster which may add to their level of stress and fear. Panicked searchers who are worried about your dog’s survival may make matters worse by scaring your dog out of the area. Unless you are sure that your dog was critically injured, ask people who are wanting to help you to distribute flyers instead of “searching”. This will give your dog an opportunity to come back on his own. Here are our SIX TOP TIPS if your dog went missing from a fire or disaster. 1. Leave scent items – including smelly food, water, your dog’s bed or blanket and articles of dirty clothing or even the pillowcase of the person most bonded with the dog. Many of these dogs have fled in terror and are hiding nearby. They may creep back when all is quiet. 2. Ask everyone who is helping to not call or chase your dog. Your dog is already scared. Additional pressure from people “searching” may cause the dog to travel further away. If they are injured, they should be allowed to hunker down and rest. Dogs are incredibly resilient and you see many stories in the media of dogs who survive natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes and who eventually come back on their own. 3. Enter your dog’s information into a national free database Helping Lost Pets or Pet FBI. This will ensure their information is searchable if they are found far away or are lost for a long time. 4. Quickly hand distribute flyers in the immediate area where your dog went missing. Expand this area as time goes on and remember to ask everyone to not call or chase your dog. If you have been injured in the fire or disaster, enlist trusted people to help you who understand how important it is to remain calm and organized. 5. Notify all local authorities including police departments, animal shelters and vets clinics. Take two copies of your flyer to each – one for the back staff and one for the front desk and the public bulletin board. If your dog is injured, a Good Samaritan may pick him up and take him to a vet or shelter for medical care. Likewise, someone visiting the clinic may see your flyer and recognize your dog. 6. If your dog is microchipped immediately contact the microchip company to “red flag” your dog as missing and to make sure your contact information is up to date. The microchip company needs to know that they should not transfer ownership to a new person without contacting you first. This can happen if your dog ends up in a shelter and completes the stray hold (which may be as short as 24 hours) without being able to reach you.
Stella’s rescue is such an important story to tell. Both the family and Buddha Dog Recovery and Rescue hope that her story can help other families know what to do and what not to do when their pet goes missing.
When Stella went missing on May 13th, a recovery group out of CT urged the family to hire a tracker out of Rhode Island. After paying $450, this tracker told them that Stella was cornered and picked up and taken by someone. Terrified and heart broken at thought of Stella being taken, her family posted signs that Stella was stolen. The truth was, Stella was never picked up, never stolen…she had never left the area as confirmed by countless sightings that started pouring in. The tracker could not have been more wrong. When confronted with the numerous sightings, both the tracker and recovery groups go to answer as always, was that whomever had Stella, let her go. Once again, this recovery group urged the owners to bring this same tracker back out to track Stella AGAIN and still sticking to same bogus story that she had been picked up. Stella was being sighted in a concentrated area, on the same streets over and over and over for a couple of weeks. Instead of setting up much needed traps for Stella, this recovery group had the family doing pointless bacon burns morning, noon and night for several days with the hopes that Stella would just come out of hiding and come out for the owner. Finally, after weeks of wasting precious time, resulting in Stella traveling further away, the recovery group set up a trap that was far too small for Stella. Not only was the trap too small but it was not set up properly and was left unmonitored, leaving a possum in the trap overnight and in to the next day which caused Stella to move from that area…again!
It was at this point that Jenn and I were contacted by the family. New signs were made and the poster coverage was expanded miles out from her last known whereabouts. After almost a week of no sightings, we finally got the call we were waiting for, someone who saw Stella’s poster on facebook, saw her six and half miles away from where she was last seen. More posters went up and we began mapping her extensive travel and figuring out her travel patterns, which included running along and crossing dangerous route 84. We immediately set up traps and an enclosure in the woods alongside route 84, monitored with a wireless feed so that the area would remain undisturbed. We repeatedly got Stella on camera along with a host of her furry friends, which included a very unwelcome fisher cat, a fox, possum and three different cats. The traps were monitored around the clock and many sleepless nights in the car ensued, so that if any of these creatures set off the trap it would be immediately reset so as not to scare Stella off from the area. Not disclosing many of her sightings and the location of the traps were instrumental in Stella’s capture. Stella’s daily travel pattern was a ten mile straight line back and forth appearing at the trap every two to three days. One terrifying night we helplessly watched from a distance as she slept directly along side route 84 by the enclosure, one false move and she would run directly in to traffic. Finally, last night she appeared on camera for what would be her last time, I called Jenn who lived minutes from where our enclosure was set up and she was there momentarily to hear the door slam shut…Stella’s time on the run was finally over! I made the call to Stella’s family and through screams of joy they made their way to meet Jenn and be reunited with their sweet Stella. All the sleepless nights, the poison ivy and poison oak was worth it!!! If proper recovery steps had been taken in the beginning, Stella would never have been in such danger on route 84 and would have been home long ago. By sharing the full story of Stella’s rescue we hope to help other families.
At Lost Dogs Illinois, we never say never. We have had too many surprises and unlikely scenarios play out in the last few years. But, that being said, we have learned a few things from the thousands of successful reunions that our organization and those of our sister sites have been involved with.
An owner that focuses the majority of their effort on what “probably” happened to their dog; rather than worrying about what “possibly” happened, is far more likely to have a quicker, more successful recovery.
Consider the weather. Is it possible for it to snow on any given day of the year in Illinois? Yes. Is it probable? No. So you can probably safely leave your parka at home in August.
We have broken down our website articles to try to help you quickly “profile” your dog so that you can focus your efforts on probability. First; determine whether your dog has the risk factors of an elusive dog or an opportunistic dog.
Then read the corresponding articles from the Shy or Friendly categories on our website. Click on the categories on the right side of our webpage.
Our most likely “prediction” – most dogs are recovered because somebody that saw or knows something, saw a flyer or sign for the missing dog. Go door to door in the area that your dog was last seen and ask everybody if they have seen your dog. Use intersection signs to attract the attention of passing motorists.
Although we never say never, about 90% of the dogs that are still missing will fall into one of these three categories. A great deal will depend on the breed, appearance and personality of the dog. Is he large or small? Shy or friendly? Common-looking or distinctive-looking?
1. The lost dog is still out there. These are the lost, confused, shy dogs that are living on their own. They may live out indefinitely. Or they may end up at a farm or eventually be captured and kept; rehomed or taken to a shelter or animal control facility; perhaps months or even years after they went missing. They may be very close to where they went missing from or they may have travelled far and wide, looking for food.
2. The lost dog was picked up by an animal control officer or Good Samaritan and taken to an animal control facility, shelter or rescue. They may have been adopted out or euthanized after the official stray hold period has passed.
3. The lost dog has been kept or rehomed by a Good Samaritan who either did not know that it is illegal to keep an animal you have found; or were reluctant to take the dog to a shelter. These people may have initially tried to find the owner on their own.
Knowing these three outcomes can help you tailor your search, although you always want to make sure you have covered all the bases. If your dog was a friendly small dog; it is very likely that he has fallen into the third category. If he is a friendly large dog; you may want to concentrate your efforts on number two. If he was a shy or wary dog, he is probably in category one, evading people and using all of his instincts to find food and shelter to stay alive.
Regardless of which category your lost dog falls into, theses two elements will greatly increase your chance for success:
Never give up hope. Lost dogs can be recovered weeks, months and even years after they have gone missing. Your dog is depending on you to find him.
Our tips, ideas and articles are based on information gathered from thousands of successful lost dog recoveries. Any advice or suggestions made by Lost Dogs of Wisconsin/Lost Dogs Illinois is not paid-for professional advice and should be taken at owner’s discretion.
People are always amazed at how many lost dogs there are posted on our Facebook page. We commonly get the question “Are there more lost dogs now? Why?”
Here is our answer: YES! There are more lost dogs now. As a nation we are saving more dogs than ever, with many more people choosing adoption as their option. This is a great thing but it comes with it’s challenges. For many people this is their first experience owning a shy, rescued dog. These dogs are often high flight risks and can quickly escape through a door or wiggle out of an ill-fitting collar, harness or slip lead.
These high flight risk, shy puppy mill and rescued dogs have many vulnerable moments while they are making their way through the re-homing system. Dogs are lost from transports, foster homes and animal shelters or can be lost from their newly-adoptive homes.
There are also more under-socialized pet store dogs than before. Pet store puppies are often taken from their mothers and litter mates far too early, to make it to the pet store market while they are still irresistibly cute and cuddly. But this deprives the puppies of an important socialization period and can result in a shy, fearful personality.
Shy dogs are also being lost from shelters, vet clinics, groomers, pet sitters and kennels in record numbers. Education is the key! Educating people on how to prevent escapes and how to catch a shy, lost dog (don’t chase or call him) will help more of these dogs get home safely. Thank you for spreading the word and helping us!
1) Demeanor: A shy or wary personality. Is the dog wary of strangers or men, or people wearing hats? Is he slow to warm up to new people?
2) Origin: Dogs rescued from abusive situations, puppy mills or purchased at a very young age (6 weeks or younger) are more likely to be predisposed to shyness. They may lack socialization skills or missed the early socialization period with their mother and littermates by being taken away from the litter too young.
3) Breed: Some breeds seem predisposed to becoming shy and wary very quickly when they are lost. They are: Herding breeds such as Shelties, Australian Shepherds, Border ColliesSighthounds such as Greyhounds, Italian Greyhounds, Whippet,s Chihuahuas, Rat Terriers and other small sensitive breeds Boxers
4) Dogs lost from a location other than home such as: Boarding kennel, training facility, doggy day care, Pet sitter, Vet clinic, Groomers, Animal shelter, Foster home, Rescue transport, Newly adopted or purchased,, Family or friends’ home
5) Dogs lost from a stressful situation which may or may not include loud noises such as: Thunderstorms, Fireworks, Parades, Gunfire, Cars backfiring, Airbrakes, Car accidents, House fires, Natural disasters
Any one or a combination of the above will predispose the dog to being an elusive dog to catch.
Many owners worry that their lost dog will not find enough to eat. A couple of things to remember: dogs (like people) are omnivores; not carnivores (like cats). Dogs can survive without meat (of course they would prefer meat, but they don’t need it).
When you are looking for your missing dog, keep in mind that these readily available food sources are where your lost dog could be eating:
Use your nose! If you can smell it, your dog definitely can. Even though he may not be getting food from the nearest fast food restaurant or steak house; he will keep checking in there, lured by the smell; to see if any tidbits have been dropped. Leave a flyer and talk to the restaurant staff at every restaurant in a 10 mile radius of where your dog was last seen.
Don’t give up! Your dog has the instinctive ability to survive for weeks, months and even years on his own.