WE just had a couple of board dogs go temporarily lost. But I bet we have all found dogs. Do you have any neat stories about dogs you've found? I have been incredibly lucky, all the dogs I could lay hands on I found their owners. One I practically stole from his front yard, but Hey, I didn't know he lived there and he was out on the road all alone. His owners forgave me and they smartened up about letting him loose. Another one was very distinctive looking, Airedale x Afghan was the guess on his mix, and he was missing part of the bottom right of his jaw. I had him most of the day, the OH arrived home from work and I said, "I think maybe we have a new dog." ONe was an 18 hand Percheron. Oh, I would really liked to have kept Henry. One of the most gratifying was a Standard Poodle I picked up off the road at a large area Oban and I had been skiing in. It turned out she'd been missing for 5 very cold days after being frightened by New Year's Eve fireworks at the ski resort time share her owners were at. They lived a good hour and a half drive away but they made it to our house in record time to pick her up and I only had her for about four hours. Paris was microchipped and the chip number was on a tag on her collar and remarkably she still had the collar on. Without the chip number on the tag I would have had to keep her till the next day to get her scanned as I found her on a Sunday. So that leads to a second question: What steps have you taken to identify your dog in case he gets lost? Oban is tattooed, and our name, phone number and address is on a brass plate on his collar.
I have never found a stray dog. Belle WAS a stray dog, we got her from the council pound - unclaimed after 7 days. Both of ours escaped out of the garden last week (OH left the gate open and I got shouted at for letting them out - errr..actually HE also left the back door open!), but they didn't stray further than the road in front of the house (a cul-de-sac, so not very dangerous), I ran round and they were cavorting about with joy in their eyes. 2 chaps caught Belle and read the address on her ID tag, only to find they were right outside her front door. Coco wasn't as easy to catch, but he came when I called. So...they both have ID tags on their collars, which they wear all the time. They have licence discs which I guess the licensing authority could trace me by, and they are both microchipped (with up-to-date details on the database!).
Charlie is microchipped, and he has my details on his collar - but these are beside the point, I think. The steps I take to make sure my dog doesn't get lost are that my garden has 6ft plus high walls, and the bit that is fenced is 5ft plus anti dig fence, and I train recall and stop like crazy, my dog is barely ever out of my sight, and he is always on a lead going from door to car etc. Even though I think he would walk perfectly to heel down the drive, I never do this.
We have an ID tag on Ella's collar (our phone numbers only), plus her council registration tag and she's also micro chipped. My parents found a dog a couple of weeks ago. They opened the front door to find a friendly Heeler looking up at them! They're in the country where they, and their neighbours are all on 5+ acres. Once they'd popped into a few neighbours, they were forced to call the ranger. Turns out that the dog was from about 1km away and used to come to the house all the time when the previous owner lived there. Every time the dog's owner went out to find his dog had gone, he just went down to their house to pick him up! Strange
Mine is microchipped and my details are on his discs attached to his collar and harness. I found one little dog years ago, sadly it got run over before anyone could get it. Luckily the dog did survive after veterinary treatment. I also found 2 unknown dogs running around out the front of my house in the road a few years ago. My sister in law and I managed to get them, using an old lead and a piece of rope. I drove them to the vets who scanned them. They were registered to Spain, we are in the UK. I had phoned a friend who's sister lives opposite me as the dogs appeared to want to go into the garden of her sisters house. The friend said they were not her sisters and that she was afraid of dogs. Whilst at the vets, my friends sister came in with a man (a relative or friend of hers) he had just paid £2000 to bring his dogs over from Spain and had arrived at my friends sisters that morning. They had just popped out quickly, leaving the dogs in the back garden. Both dogs had jumped onto the rubbish bins and got over a six foot fence. The owner was so relieved to see them. My daughter was driving home from work about a year ago when she saw an Alsatian loose on the road. She pulled over as was worried it would get hurt. The dog seemed to be trying to get in a garden. She decided to go and knock on the door which was slightly open. The dog then turned on her and she realised for the first time how big it was, she managed to get out of the garden after the dog tried to bite her hand as she was going to knock on the door. She slammed the gate shut behind her and then panicked in case the dog didn't live there. As she wondered what to do next, the nieghbours came out and she asked if they knew if the dog lived at the house. One of the burly men looked over the gate but he also put his hand on the gate, he got quite a bite from the dog. The residents of the house came out, it was their dog and my daughter left as the owner was apologising and offering to sort out the chaps wound. She gave her details to the other chap in case she was needed for anything later. My daughter was very shaken up by the experience and just thought she was trying to help the dog. I don't think she will put herself in that situation again. The dog had seemed fine with her at first but you do have to be so careful. I did end up with two large goats in my garage once, they were following a lady and she didn't know where they had come from. She carried on walking and they started following me, I was going to pick up my two children up from school and was heading to a main Rd. I turned back towards home as was worried the goats would get hurt, they followed and I put them in the garage whilst I phoned a friend to grab my children if I was late at the school. I then heard a lot of banging in the garage, when I went in they were trying to eat the cables of the lawn mower and anything else they could find. I grabbed the collar of one, the other came round behind me, ducked it's head between my legs and I ended up sitting on its back, my feet unable to touch the floor , I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, lol. Anyway, I managed to get off and lead them by their collars outside. There was a couple of workmen out the front, I explained my dilemma and they got some rope and tied the goats to the van so that I could at least go and get my children whilst they tried to phone someone who maybe able to help. An old chap accross the Rd then put them in his orchard tied to a tree as the fence wouldn't have stopped them getting out. The owners were eventually found after a few hours or so. Me riding a goat in my garage caused a lot of laughs at my expense
@Newbie Lab Owner My Goodness, so glad you were not bitten. My neighbour, 80 years old, was bitten when the small dog she coaxed off a busy road bit her when she went to read the tags on it's collar. She found it's owners, they live on the same street as she and I. It turned into quite a story and unfortunately brought out the worst in a couple of people.
It was my daughter not me but I also was so glad she wasn't bitten either. She was very shaken when she phoned me, my daughter lives about 4 hrs away and I hate it when I can't just pop and give her a hug. I hope your elderly neighbour wasn't too badly hurt and such a shame when some people turn ugly.
