Lab went missing

[Master Bowie]

Hi dog owners,

I thought I'd share a story that just happened to us when I took Bowie for a walk along the creek with me this morning. As I was walking back home, a girl stopped me and asked if I had seen her dog, a golden lab/retriever, called Chloe. She had been calling and looking for her but to no success. Chloe had been swimming in the creek (which was apparently normal for her) but this time she must have lost sight of her owner and vice versa. We spent over 30 minutes helping her finding Chloe, tracing the creek and scouring the vicinity, with no success. I could feel and see the worry, guilt, fear and stress on her face (which I would be the same too!). Chloe's microchipped but she has no dog tag.

Fortunately, someone found Chloe wandering in the town and took her to the local vet - she must have tried to find her owner and gone back to where they parked. Lucky for everyone and Chloe that this story has a happy ending. Chloe could have been bitten by a snake or got hit by a car (God forbid!!). It certainly reminded me not to be complacent with letting Bowie wandering off leash just because he's familiar with the environment. Also the importance of dog training, esp. the recall command. And I'm definitely going to order the dog tag with my phone number engraved on it.

Anyway, now Bowie's knackered after helping with the search and he's fast asleep.

[maddogdodge]

Glad she was found safe!

Losing a dog like that is my worst nightmare! Especially because one of my boys does not like strangers very much, I doubt he would willingly come to a stranger trying to help him

I've worked at a vet for a few years now and I'm amazed at the amount of people who find animals but won't take them to a vet for fear that dog might end up at the pound... so animals who ARE microchipped never get taken to a vet to be scanned... This is the reason my dogs will always have some form of ID on them. My Aussie has a normal collar with a tag which he wears all the time. My Poodle loves to bounce and as a puppy he got his tag caught on a fence (potentially could have hung himself if it didn't break) so now he wears a collar with my phone number stitched into it and I've adjusted it so it's elastic so if it got caught on anything it would just stretch and slip off... it's purely for ID, useless for walking haha. When I take him out I put a normal collar on him with a tag.

Even my ferrets have little tags on their harnesses that say "I am microchipped"