What to do if your dog runs away

Yesterday we had a dog go on a little Solo Adventure. These things happen, and the anonymous dog has done it before.

I like to be transparent in our Adventures and take pride in the imperfect nature of them.

If everything always went plan and was completely in control then they would not really be Adventures, I would classify them more as Activities.

When I take my mountain bike out in the Woods I call that an Adventure. When I sit on my spin bike in the evening I call that an activity…. and more so, quite a boring one, but necessary for injury prevention.

So what to do if your dog disappears?

Firstly it is up to you to decide how long is a reasonable amount of time to wait before calling someone.

For us we have some dogs where after five minutes we will update the owners…. and for other dogs we will happily wait 20 or 30 minutes as they are Free Souls, but generally return to base.

If you are walking up in the woods, it is always a good idea to walk back to where you have parked. Dogs will be able to follow the smells and return to where you started from. A quick extra tip which I was given many years ago is that if your dog is not back at the vehicle, take off a t-shirt or jumper which smells of you and leave it on the ground. The dog will find the item of clothing and lie down on it.

Hopefully your dog will have a name and phone number tag attached to its collar or harness, which will allow anyone who finds it to ring you. This will greatly speed up the process of getting your dog back, as a chip reader can be a couple of hours away whilst you might only be 200 metres away in the woods from where your dog was found.

The Solo Adventurer yesterday normally has a name and phone number tag attached to her but it had fallen off a few days ago.

If your dog is partial to wandering a little further away from you you might consider a GPS unit to keep track of its movements. These are relatively cheap and the account and GPS unit can be shared with others, such as family members or your Dog Walker.

The Solo Adventurer yesterday had a GPS unit but unfortunately the battery had run out and not being recharged.

As you can see this was “the Perfect Storm”.

So what to do if your dog has no name tag and no GPS?

The first thing that I did upon finding out this information was call up Oslo Police Station. I gave as much information about the dog & the location as possible, and asked them to contact me if anyone were to phone them after finding the dog. The Police Officer was extremely kind and efficient and it took no more than three minutes.

Next I logged onto Facebook…. Not to doom scroll and waste away my precious time, but to check several of the lost dog groups, of which I am a member. These groups are free of charge and are a fantastic way to find a missing dog.

You can also upload a photo of your dog and where it has gone missing so that the community of members can help search for it.

Here are some of the groups:

Rømlingen : https://www.facebook.com/groups/359007507816005/?ref=share

NitroGruppa: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nitrogruppa/?ref=share

There were however no reports of our missing Adventurer.

The next step for me to do is check with the rest of the Team if anyone is in the vicinity and mobilize my Troops (Walkers). I appreciate that not everyone has this option but you can always see if any friends or family are available to come help.

The next phase of what to do may sound simple yet so many people get it wrong. Go back and walk the same route which you walked before your dog ran away.

Whistle loudly and call out it’s name at the top of your voice. I once had an owner come to try and help me find their missing dog, yet when we were searching I could barely hear them calling the dog’s name from 10 metres away….. This is not the time for being self-conscious and using your small voice. Imagine you are addressing a large crowd without a megaphone and project your voice loudly.

Having grown up with two teachers for parents, who conducted school assemblies without the use of microphones, this comes quite naturally to me.

Hopefully by now one of the avenues which you have checked will be paying dividends.

It certainly worked for us once again yesterday. A gentleman who was out for a walk had found our Adventurer and after finding no phone number to contact, he had rung the Police who in turn had passed on my telephone number.

One very pleasant conversation later and I could pass on the address of where the dog was to the relevant Walker so that they could go and pick it up and inform a relieved owner.

Hopefully this short guide to “Lost Dog” was helpful and shows that it can, and does, happen to us all.

Doggies: Haraka, Lotta, Lucy and Simba