What To Do If You Lose Your Dog

Before you start frantically phoning people up, take a few minutes to collect some information together.

Write down a detailed description of your dog (if you go to our report form page you will see the type of information that is useful), if you stick to this description each time you tell someone about your dog, we stand a better chance of finding it.........otherwise it becomes a bit like Chinese whispers!

If you can find a recent photo of your dog, that will be a huge help too. Even good descriptions can mean different things to different people (think of how many different types of "brindle" there are!)

OK.........once you've got your description of your dog written down, and details of how and when the dog went missing, the people you need to contact locally are:

• The dog wardens for your area and the surrounding areas
• The police (especially if the dog was stolen, in which case, make sure you get a crime number!)
• The local stray pounds and any rescue centers in the area
• Local vets
• Local radio, TV. and newspapers
• The local Highways or Refuse dept. of your council (in case of a road traffic accident)
• As many doggie people as you know (and get them to pass the word around)

One of the major breakthroughs in finding missing dogs seems to be the use of local posters. Make up a poster with the brief, but concise, description of the dog and the area it went missing from, plus a photo if possible. Get these photocopied and stick as many up as possible............in local shops, vets, pet food suppliers, village halls, community centers, libraries, schools, post offices etc. The more people that see it, the greater the chance of finding your dog.

Also, of course, contact us at Lurcher Search UK and we will pass the word through our contacts so we are all keeping an eye out for your dog, all over the country.

However..........a word of warning!!!! Police pounds and kennels only keep stray dogs for 7 days until they are rehomed or destroyed................time really does make a difference and you need to move quickly. We will help you and advise you in any way we can.