Lost Dog

The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Pointing Dog Journal.

Pass Along PDJ
June 2009

Lost Dog
by Steve Smith

If you have been running dogs for any length of time, eventually you’re going to lose one. It’s something that pointing dog people share with our counterparts in the hound community. Retriever and flushing dog people, it doesn’t seem to happen as often; their dogs aren’t bred to quest to the degree our pointers and setters and shorthairs and Britts and all the rest are. Pointing dogs are supposed to go out there and find birds, and sometimes, they don’t find their way back.

I have lost dogs on three occasions. I calculate “lost” as anything more than an couple hours. I calculate “really lost” as pinning a picture of the dog and your phone number on the bulletin board at the local diner and laundromat. I’ve never had to go that far, but I’ve been with people who have. Invariably, it’s in an unfamiliar place at the worst possible time - on an out-of-state trip the day before you have to leave, something like that.

Of course, there’s the third level of lost, and that’s just plain gone. At first, we hope someone hasn’t stolen him. Then, after a while, we hope someone has - at least he’d be alive and maybe even, after some time has passed, happy again. After all, no one’s going to pick up a stray bird dog and keep him unless he’s at least thought about being a bird hunter, right?

It seems as though every year or so, we hear a story about a dog that was lost for months, even years, that somehow finds his way back home - just shows up one day. But those are rare, Disney-like occurrences, which is why we hear about them. Most dogs that are recovered are found within a half-day, usually an hour or so. The longer they’re gone, the worse the odds of getting them back.

A dog getting lost in strange country is both good news and bad news: It’s easier to get lost in strange country so the likelihood of his being injured is more remote - he’s more than likely just lost. But the dog may wander because nothing’s going to look familiar and end up a long way off, especially if he hasn’t been thoroughly trash-broken. In familiar country where the dog knows his way around, if he’s lost it’s more likely to mean he’s injured or has been stolen.

The best thing we can do, of course, is to not lose them in the first place, and these days, if you don’t mind spending a little money, there are two tracking devices that make a lot of sense. I’ve used both, and they’re great. The first one to come out was the Tracker that uses radio telemetry, followed by the Garmin Astro , which uses GPS technology. The second best way to not permanently lose your dog, of course, is to have good ID on him, the simplest being: Reward: Call 121-555-1234 Collect. No dog name; knowing his name makes it easier for someone to steal him because the dog will be more likely to cooperate, especially if he’s also a house dog and well-socialized.

Three seasons ago, on the edge of a huge tract of state land in Michigan, a fellow pulled up to me and my dog as we were unloading from my truck on a two-track; he had a pointer in his van. The dog had the ID collar with Reward and an out of state - it may have been New York - phone number on it. He also had a beeper collar, which the guy couldn’t figure out how to shut off, so I did. The fellow had called the number - no answer, and no answering machine, so it was pretty much useless. He was driving around looking for the owner, obviously an out-of-state hunter who must have been around because the beeper collar still held a charge. I watered the dog, gave the guy my business card, and asked him to let me know how things turned out, but he never did.

The obvious lesson there is if your dog’s collar has a contact number on it, make sure there’s someone to answer the phone or a gadget to take a message. I think the best number to put on the tag is your cellphone number. If you’re like me and your cardi-ologist knows your voice on the phone, you always have it with you in the woods. 

The full article “Lost Dog” by Steve Smith appears in the July/August 2009 issue of The Pointing Dog Journal.   If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue is in the mail!

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