Cover your tracks.

A dog can cover miles of territory before realizing that they’ve gotten lost. If you’ve discovered that your dog has gone missing, it’s absolutely imperative to start the search for your lost friend immediately.

Follow your nose.

Instinctive canine behavior can overrule obedience training and/or love for their family and the comforts of home. In some cases, a dog will take off because of a traumatic event in their life, a perceived danger like thunder, fireworks, other loud noises, or an actual natural disaster.

Know your dog’s personality.

A dog that is gregarious, friendly, and truly loves people is more likely to show up at someone’s back door in search of help, while a dog with an aloof and distrustful temperament will travel in the shadows, often mistaken for a stray or wild animal.

Make certain your dogs are wearing ID tags and are microchipped. 

This way, if the dog is rescued, any shelter or veterinarian will be able to scan the microchip to locate you, and reunite you with your wayward pooch. PetHub makes this easy, using technology to reunite rescued animals with the owners who are desperately searching for them. Adding a simple tag with a unique QR code on the back allows anyone who finds your dog, not just a professional, to use a computer or mobile device to pull up your pet’s profile page. 

Be proactive.

The sooner you take steps to seek out your dog, including searching within a 20 mile radius of your home, putting up fliers, contacting every shelter, pound, and vet within the area, and making sure they are well-identified, the more likely it is that the two of you will be quickly reunited.