Have you ever temporarily lost your dog?

[poiuytrewq]

After the Vixen story.

I lost Cecil for about an hour one summer after he for tangled up in a crop. I was pretty panicked but could hear him cry every so often so knew roughly where he was and that he was still there. wandering round in a tall rape crop listening for random cries is harder than it sounds. He was fine. yellow and excited to see us but fine. I now no longer walk where the crops are taller than the dog.

First loss was the scariest though.
My I was walking my terrier, he was really good. Quite old and not in great health. Got chatting to someone and it got suddenly dark, we only had to cross one small playing field - surrounded on all sides by houses back gardens to get home.
Half way across i realized i was by myself and no amount of calling got him back, Took the other dogs home and thank god put it on social media straight away. OH got in his car and i went back out looking.

Got a phone call about an hour later to say he was at a house locally. The weirdet thing, he hated cars. In 10 years he never got any better and howled for entire journeys, often being sick to top it off.
So someone had been saying goodbye to visitors who were loading up their car. The car was left with the door open whilst they carried stuff back and fore. He had got into the car and was discovered after luckily 20 minutes or so of driving when he suddenly woke up and panicked. Thank god they realized where he must have come from and did a U turn, bringing him back to the friends who conveniently worked with dogs so was happy to take him in until she figured out what to do with him.
Saw my post and phoned me up.

The fear when i knew he actually wasn't just being a bit slow at coming back, he hadn't gone to sniff something or to chase a cat but was actually not there was huge. When i got to her house he was curled up asleep in an arm chair, again super weird, he hated being in other peoples houses or with people he didn't know. I just cant begin to imagine why on earth he did it.

I'd have lost my mind had he been gone any longer.

 

[Roxylola]

My little hound earned her nickname baddog by being a bog off as well as a thief.
On more than one occasion I've been waiting over an hour for her to appear, the only slight reassurance being the sound of her baying while she chased the local deer population.
Once she was gone over 6 hours and found in a completely different location about 3 miles away.
She does always make her way back, but it's awful waiting for her

 

[CorvusCorax]

Two got out during a storm/fence blew down when I was about 4 or 5, they were hit by a car, one damaged hip and another broke a leg, they were headed to the park. One live to 12 and the other 14.

My alcoholic uncle tried to take one for a walk with no lead/collar but she ran home, she was waiting on the doorstep when she came home from work.

One ran off on a walk (not with me) and was gone for a few days, was in newspapers, she walked back into the yard a few nights later, bone dry (I'd been out looking for her and was mucked to the eyeballs), happy as larry. We lived incredibly remotely, I imagine someone, (probably our sheep farming neighbours!!) had her and we made enough of a fuss that nothing bad happened to her.

One lost for 20 minutes after going after a hare in the forest, but he came back to the spot where he'd left, blowing out his backside and lame.

One when I didn't shut a gate properly but he had only gone around the corner. Again, a couple of incidents of gate tardiness but never further than the garden.

This is over four decades and why I mostly keep my dogs on a line, I want to know where they are and what they are doing at all times, the risk of livestock being hurt, dog fights, road accidents etc is too much.

 

[Jenko109]

Yes.

My lurcher. We were walking in some woods out the back of the pony paddocks. I have no idea what happened but she just disappeared from sight.

She had taken herself back home and was sat outside the barn, but I stupidly spent the next half an hour or so searching the woods for her rather than checking if she had gone 'home.'

I absolutely balled my eyes out when I walked back and saw her at the barn.

I just cannot imagine the horrific pain that people who never find their dog go through.

 

[maisie06]

My cocker for about 30 mins on a shoot = got on the line of a very strong runner then couldn't find his way back to the drive - thankfully he had headed back to the car, horrible feeling, I can't imagine losing one for days on end, the not knowing if they were safe would be soul destroying.

 

[SkylarkAscending]

Yep - Millie lurcher was gone for about 45 minutes once when I used to let her off the lead, she was a nightmare and would take off chasing anything in the woods, I soon gave up letting her off unless it was a secure field

She is the only one I’ve ever lost in 35 years (she was an ex rescue who was clearly used as a hunting dog).

I’m always astonished at the number of posts you see on Facebook where people have lost their dogs there was one today in a local group where someone had let their Romanian rescue escape, they’d only had it a few days - well they won’t be seeing that one again

 

[splashgirl45]

My lurcher was missing for almost 3 hours , a hare had crossed the path in front of us and she went after it, my collie followed but came back after 10 mins, I contacted my neighbours in case she ran home and one of them stayed at home and then others split up looking for her, after 2 hours I went home and got a blanket and a flask of coffee and prepared to spend the night in my car where she had left me. Friends were going out that night and saw her trotting slowly along the road and they scooped her up and bought her to me. She was exhausted and so was I…. She had gone missing before but never on our evening walk , it was just getting dark when we got her

 

[MissTyc]

I lost my terrier for 30 minutes while on holiday in New Forest - it was very frightening, but thankfully he was wearing his tractive so we were able to trace and intercept him, albeit he headed in a completely unexpected direction as he was in a total panic. It could have been a very different outcome. I was beside myself. He was there one moment, and then gone. At first you expect them to pop out of the undergrowth. My boy has excellent recall and is rarely very far away ... and then it's like someone steals the air from your lungs when you realise you can't hear them at all and there is no rustling in response to calls. Just gone. I'll never know how he lost his way but I think that is what must have happened.

 

[meleeka]

I’m very proud of the fact that I owned my JRT until she was 17 and didn’t lose her once. She was a year old when we got her, from FIL and was always escaping then. I suppose she’s made me quite paranoid, so my garden is very secure. Current dog doesn’t leave my side, so it would be very unlike her to go anywhere (although she does wear an airtag, just in case).

 

[SkylarkAscending]

I’ve tried to lose my JRTs….. nope they are like glue

 

[Rowreach]

Mine went to the butcher’s last year (about 200m away in the middle of the village). I still don’t know how she got out of the secure garden and she’s not done it since. But she was very pleased with herself.

There’s a missing beagle locally. The first post about it stated “she’s not usually gone this long …” ffs

 

[islander]

Just going back to the car on a friend’s farmland (there with his permission) when my lurcher took off after a hare, the dog only had three legs but could still cover the ground. There was a pheasant shoot on the land as well, luckily it wasn’t a shoot day, but it was the day before one. I was concerned that he would riot all the pheasants and flush them off the land for good.
After ages searching and bellowing for him, walking and using the quad bike as it was getting dusk, we found him lying down quite exhausted in a clump of willows. He meekly allowed himself to be led back to the car.
l apologised to the landowner, he was fine about it. Apparently the shoot was a success next day.

 

[JoannaC]

Does just thinking you've lost her count, I shut Honey in the barn when my hay delivery came and then went in to make my lunch after which had a complete panicked 20 minutes searching the house and garden for her before remembering where i'd left her When the boy first hit adolescence and changed from being perfect to a complete knob he ran off out on a walk after a squirrel and I couldn't find him anywhere. Asked everyone I passed, noone had seen him so was convinced he'd been stolen as it was the first time he'd done it. Finally got a phone call from one of the ladies i'd passed who found him back at the car park and kindly kept hold of him until I got there. It was horrible so I really feel for people whose dogs properly go missing.

 

[ArklePig]

My grandad lost his pointer out shooting many many years ago. He was distraught, everyone was out looking for her for weeks/months. One day a few months later, my aunt opened the front door to get the milk and there she was on the doorstep wagging her tail.

 

[Marnie]

Bunny has disappeared around the farm hunting rats a few times but I can find her pretty quickly using her tractive. Her recall is great out on walks - at home and round the farm, not so!

My old 2 were worse, I remember losing them one day and getting a phone call from someone a couple of miles away. It turned out that they had been on the pavement outside the yard where I kept the horses as someone had left a gate open. The people were driving by and picked them up, put them in their car and took them home. They phoned me a couple of hours later - the pups were tagged and I went to pick them up. The people told me that they were such lovely dogs that they thought about keeping them but then had a conscience attack - I really think they might have kept them, it was a good few hours. I don't know why they didn't call into the yard to see if they belonged there as apparently they were literally just by the gate. It was a nightmare, it was well before trackers, and we were searching everywhere from them and I really thought I had lost them. I was so relieved when I got them back.

 

[Moobli]

Three times in the last 20 years we’ve lost sheepdogs when out gathering. The dogs work out of sight at times and whether they got disoriented or got distracted by sheep in the distance (or something else) we aren’t sure, but after fruitlessly searching for a few hours I posted details online. One turned up a few hours later on the hill road a few miles from where he went missing and a helpful couple put him in the car and took him to the local police station 20 miles away. One was caught by the neck in a snare and found by the gamekeeper. Thankfully she sat quietly rather than panicking so no harm done. The third found her own way home a few hours later.
It’s such a horrible feeling when they haven’t turned up after a short period of time.

 

[Moobli]

I helped in the search for a beagle that went missing chasing a hare when on holiday. There were two but one came back. Sadly the other was never found . My heart broke for the family when they had to go home after their holiday without their dog. They stayed to search for as long as they could but in the end they had to leave.

 

[blodwyn1]

My last working golden retriever was a wanderer. If he found a way out he was off! Even in his last days when he could hardly walk the postman left the gate open and we had someone call asking if we had a golden so we said yes he is here then realised he wasn't to be told his wife had hold of him halfway up the hill!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I was frantically looking for Winnie once for about 20 minutes but I had accidentally shut her in the garage, it's only when a car stopped near the drive she barked and I heard her and realised.

I thought Mavis had gone missing but she was indoors and must have sneaked in without me realising.

I must admit both of my dogs are velcro dogs they rarely leave my side really especially on walks they don't go far at all, I'm very lucky really I hear so many people calling lost dogs in the woods opposite me.

 

[Equi]

When I was a kid we lost a poodle. Looked everywhere and no sign of him, we assumed he’d been lifted cause they were not very common around here. Quite a while later (like years) a farmer came to the house and asked if we had lost a little black dog because he found one tangled in a fence in a overgrown hedge it was horrific.

The second was my staffy. She would potter about the yard but never really strayed and one day she was just gone. We called the pound and all the usual things and they called back to say someone had lifted her at our gate (in order to do that they would have to come off the road and stop) but they wouldn’t give us their number. They went back and fourth a few times because the lifter wouldn’t bring my dog to the pound or bring her back to us..then said they had given the dog away to their son and he didn’t want to give her back. We eventually had to get the police involved and they made the pound give them her number and they contacted her and said if she didn’t give the dog back in 24hours she would be done for theft. Eventually after about a 2 more days (this was all going on for about a week) she brought the dog back and was all “oh look she knows where she lives, we just assumed she was a fighting dog so we didn’t want to give her back”

The door was promptly shut in her face.

 

[Indy]

When I had my two collies, one of them, Flyn went missing at Cleethorpes. I was frantic and spent nearly four hours looking for her. Eventually found her in the pub near the little railway. Two years later she went missing again in Filey, found her two hours later in a hotel bar.

 

[fiwen30]

Twice, both for just a couple of minutes. The first was a few years ago, just after moving into a new house - the bottom of the gate was broken, and he squeezed out and went trotting off around the corner down the cul de sac. The second was last month - a section of fence had come down in a storm, I hadn’t noticed whilst we were out in the dark at 6am, and he took himself round to the back gate.

I wouldn’t cope if he went properly missing, it must be terrible.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I lost my old jrt for about 20 mins, seemed like forever!! She was only tiny. On our walks she always trotted along in the first tram line of the wheat fields. For the only time ever I hadn't taken my mobile as it was on charge. I was walking her and our lab. Got half way down the track and the jrt just disappeared. She never left my sight. I sent the lab in to find her. I ran up and down the field in the area she had just been in. Luckily another dog walker came along so I borrowed their phone to phone my OH. He raced up from work. I then heard shouting, he was shouting he had found her!! She must of panicked and gone back to the road where she just sat on the path waiting for someone!! I felt sick to the pit of my stomach.

 

[Moobli]

My neighbours in the Highlands told me the story of a local elderly springer spaniel who was missing in the hills for FIVE weeks . Anyone who knows Glencoe and Glen Etive knows what inhospitable landscape it is.

“An ageing and partially deaf springer spaniel has survived five weeks and two days lost in the hills.

Oliver's owners had given him up for dead following fruitless searches after he ran off during a walk up Ben Fhionnlaidh near Glen Etive.

He went missing on 24 February, but was found curled up in a shed on 2 April - eight miles as the crow flies, but 44 by road, from his home in the glen.

His owner Deborah Wyton said Oliver had been very hungry and thirsty.

She said: "He is my wonder dog."

Mrs Wyton and her husband Michael spent hours looking for 12-and-a-half year old Oliver after he disappeared while on a walk with three other of the family's dogs.

She said: "We thought he had gone off to die because 12 weeks earlier he had a stroke and the vet wasn't sure how long he would last."

The dog was discovered at a property on the opposite side of the munro Ben Fhionnlaidh.

The man who found him gave him food and water and had to clean his tag of mud to see who the owner was.

Mrs Wyton said: "I think I almost deafened the man when he told me he had found Oliver. I screamed. I was so happy."

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Dog survives five weeks in hills

news.bbc.co.uk

 

[Esmae]

Lost my 3 twice in a week because of deliverymen leaving the blasted gate wide open. Dogs were in the garden at the time! Disappeared and were picked up 2 miles away! I was beside myself. Both delivery men told their fortunes in short order.

 

[Clodagh]

I’ve lost quite a few over the years. If you narrow it down to them actually being my responsibility and me a grown up then in Australia my dobie x kelpie went off after a kangaroo. I spent hours looking for him, went home in the dark to him on the front doorstep moaning that dinner was late. .
Then lost the lurcher when she got shut in the barn.
The terrier when she triggered the fox trap.
Nowadays as a proper grown up thank goodness no. Too many sheep round here to not know where the dogs are, and generally better trained dogs. But sometimes I send them on long retrieves out working and they are gone for a very long time. It gets terrifying. They have always come back though , , nearly always with what I sent them for in the first place.

 

[TheresaW]

One night, around 2am, Aled woke us up wanting a wee. Unusually, OH got up to let him out. 10 mins later, OH panicking because he’s disappeared. Both went looking, but so dark.

I couldn’t go back to bed, sat downstairs waiting for it to get light enough to go searching. About 4am, I can hear scratching. Check back door, nothing. Open front door, and there he is. He must have got into garden over back, and slowly wandered his way home.

We only found the tiniest gap in the fence, so no idea how he got out.

 

[Mosh]

My mum lives at the back of an army reserve base and her JRT managed to get out under the hedge.
They had gone to look for him and I was still at home, trying to see if he was in the garden next door.
There was a massive bang on the door and two soldiers bought him home. He apparently leapt straight into a big Army truck and was very happy about it. He made firm friends with the soldiers who thought it was brilliant. They normally have GSD's and not JRT as helpers...

 

[Bradsmum]

When I lived at home with my parents, my father took our 2 JRTs down to the yard to do morning stable chores which he did every week day on his own. He let the dogs out of the car and went about his usual routine. The dogs used to just mooch about the yard/field and never strayed too far. He finished and put my JRT (Joe) in the car, turned round to put his JRT (Bunty) in the car, shut the door and drove home. On reaching home Joe was not in the car so he dashed back to the yard but no sign of Joe. He called and searched for hours but no sign of him. I got home in the evening and both my parents and I went down and searched a wider area but again no sign. Obviously we were all distraught but had to go home hoping he’d turn up in the morning but no. I made signs which we put up locally, notified dog warden annd police and put a notice in the local paper. About a week later, when we were still out daily calling for him, one evening a woman telephoned to say she thought they had Joe as her MIL had seen the advert and telephoned them. I zoomed down there and as I walked into their living room, Joe just leapt from one side of the room to the other into my arms. They immediately said there was no doubt he was my dog . The husband was a farmer and had found Joe just wandering in a field with no collar and had taken him home. They had made no attempt to contact police or dog warden but thankfully had responded to my newspaper notice. Joe never strayed or got lost in his 15 years and I have never been so happy to get him back.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I remember reading how Lloyd Grossman was travelling around Irish countryside with his family and found a scruffy terrier at the side of the road (completely normal in some rural areas), so he just...took it.