Lost dog

Tue 5 Dec 2023, 16:57 (last edited on Tue 5 Dec 2023, 17:01)

Every time an errant mutt goes missing I tell people about the device which was recommended to us by another Charlbury dog owner with a wanderlust canine. It's a terrifying experience when they run off and our two are terrors.

Pawfit devices - and there might be other manufacturers of similar things but we've never looked further - are GPS enabled devices using the mobile phone network to locate and transmit respectively the whereabouts of your errant mutt and display it on your phone or device with a mobile connection with either a map display or a Google aerial photograph showing with a point marking your dog's position. 

As both our are dogs are capable of great "naughtiness" it has saved us from panic and nervous breakdown on a number of occasions.

Pawfit is not cheap requiring a mobile SIM card for the collar device and whilst we are far from well-heeled we've found it worth the investment in terms of (somewhat ... it's still terrifying when they go walkabouts) peace-ish of mind. As said before, there may be similar providers but we've not gone looking.

PHONE TREE - Thought for a while "we" dog walkers should set up a Phone Tree of people to call out and search for disappearing dogs (especially when they run off at last light and time passes remain unfound until its dark). A couple of times one has run off at last light and as night fell we put out a desperate plea for helpers on the Charlbury Forum. Gratifyingly about 5 or 6 people showed up to find our then young Cockapoo pup. As a lesson in putting bright lights upon your dog even in daylight but its beginning to fade into gloaming and night, errant mutt was found by light stuck and hung-up by her harness in a hawthorn bush (and for some reason not barking, perhaps too frightened by calling attention to herself for a predator there being foxes about that area, and unusually for a normally quite noisy dog, so it was only a glimmer of light that located her). On another occasion she was spotted, lit up by 2 lights, half way to Woodstock on the Woodstock Road in the middle of the road going the wrong way at a run. Having no road sense whatsoever, if not lighted she would have been in high probability of being run down.

Lesson - always when light is even beginning to fail put lights on your dog. Secondly put a phone number or two and your address on the dog tag! A couple of times we've had errant mutts delivered back to our door by a finder, or been phoned up by mobile on our mobiles. I suppose for reasons of dognapping the RSPCA does not recommend putting the name of the dog on the tag.

I don't have much energy nowadays but maybe someone would want to develop the idea of a Lost Dog Phone Tree for searches?