I just read this article about lost dogs (and cats) in the U.S. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...tate-and-fate-of-lost-dogs-and-cats-in-the-us And here is the referenced report: https://pet911.org/post/lost_found_pets_usa?from=inst I found it interesting. Some of my takeaway points: 1. The number of lost cats is far lower than one would think. I expect this is so because cats are still seen as "throw away" pets and are often outdoors roaming freely. This results in two things - a) the owner is less likely to go looking for the cat if it disappears; and b) others are less likely to think a roaming cat is lost. 2. I fear this report glosses over the impact of owner behavior. Each finding is followed by an excuse as to why this breed, this day, this season, this state, etc, has a high number of lost. But the truth is, at least 95% of the time, it has nothing to do with those factors and everything to do with the owners' attitudes and behaviors. For instance, take the seasonal differences. The report suggests that animals don't go far from home if it's cold out. The truth is that owners are less likely to leave their pets out in the cold - fewer pets left outside for hours, fewer lost pets. Or take the breed numbers. The blame the number of lost huskies simply on their breed traits, yet chihuahuas are the #2 lost breed and, as they point out, they have very different traits. They make no attempt to explain that. Well, it is really simple. The five top breeds are the five breeds most likely to be in less educated and/or low income homes. Those homes are most likely to have holes in fences, multiple persons coming and going, etc. In addition, they are more likely to leave the dogs outside in yards AND to not neuter the dogs. Unneutered dogs left outside for hours on end (often 24/7) are more likely to take off. 3. The low recovery rate for lost dogs. I believe this has less to do with "animal volunteers" and more to do with attitudes about shelters. Here, people will post that they saw a lost dog but won't try to capture the dog, even if it is running in traffic. This is because they don't want to take it to the local shelters because "they are evil". So, the dog runs further and further away from its home and no one does anything. The owner will frantically try to follow the sightings, but they may not get posted for hours after the dog was in the area. Likewise, owners don't want to take the time and effort to go physically check at the shelters. They rely on the postings on the shelter's website which are usually not complete. In addition, while our city law states that if you find a dog you cannot keep or rehome it until 90 days of actively searching for the owners, the city shelter can place that dog up for adoption after THREE days. So, if your dog got lost on Tuesday and you wait until Saturday to check the shelter, your dog may have been adopted out or a rescue may have pulled it from the shelter. And often rescues will pull from shelters outside their area (eg, a rescue in a city may pull dogs from a shelter in a rural area). So, by the time the owners bother to check the shelter, the dog is long gone. In addition, many "animal volunteers" will find a dog and decide it must have been abused so they ignore the 90 day wait period law and give the dog away to the first person to show an interest in it. Often, a finder will find and capture the dog while at work and then drive it home to look for its owner. Yet many social media sites will only let them post the found notice to their home area. And they may work 90+ miles away from their home - so the found notice gets posted but the owner will never see it because it is outside of their notifications parameters. And then there are the really lazy owners. The ones who will post a lost notice but will not bother actively looking for the dog. They don't even check the shelter's online listings. They don't look for found reports. They simply post that they lost their dog (often weeks after the dog took off) and expect the dog to find them. I found one mama and puppy years ago and put an ad in the paper (pre internet). A woman read the notice and took it to her neighbors and said "I think these are your dogs". The people told HER to check it out and get their dogs back. Note: the dogs went to two VERY wonderful homes! Mama got spayed and was never again "let loose so she'd get pregnant and we'll sell the puppies". She was treasured and loved. Puppy had an 8 year old girl who saved her allowance to buy him a leather jacket and studded collar and taught him to ride a skateboard and do other tricks. The family had wanted to get a boxer puppy too, but after a week with Bulit they decided he was all they needed.
"The five top breeds are the five breeds most likely to be in less educated and/or low income homes." Good point. Although, in the US, the less-educated and low-income homes often own pitbulls because the shelters are full of those. It's cheap and easy to adopt one. Or "lab mixes" or "shepherd mixes", which usually seems like a shelter's attempt at disguising a pitbull. I found this image on another website. Someone shared how a shelter near them is trying to call this dog a Labrador + Cocker Spaniel mix. When I still used Facebook, I saw more than one post - in local/community groups - asking why people are losing their dogs. There were always angry responses, with the asker being called "judgmental", disrespectful, etc. More than one person had a dog who "gets out sometimes", but "a neighbor always brings him back". Or "Those dogs are [Local Person's] dogs. They get out sometimes while she's at work; she will pick them up on the way home." Or "Everyone knows that [Whatever Breed] is like this; you can't stop them from getting out!"
I know years ago when I was a kid , dogs would just wonder round the streets and take itself for a walk because people just didn’t bother to walk them their selves, open their door and let it out, they didn’t care where it went or what it was doing, but since the law changed and people got more responsible for their animals, we don’t have many dogs loose now, ‘ well not where I live’ just the odd one or two that escapes from the gardens, but someone usually knows who’s dog it belongs to and will usually pick it up or make the owner aware. I know when I lived at home we had a Jack Russell and he would get out of our garden and we had 6 foot fences right around the garden, we was always told that once a JR learnt how to climb you won’t stop them and it was true, he only disappeared when he could smell a female dog in season close by, to the point he did it one last time and got run over by a car so we lost him. But that picture has no more cocker in it than my springer, lab yes but not cocker, haha, unless they think a bully can disguise as a spaniel.
I forgot about "Plott Hounds" in my earlier comment. Some shelters will now disguise brindle Pitbulls as "Plott Hound mixes".
According to the report, the top five breeds are: Husky Chihuahua Shepherd Pitbull Lab I've always said that if your dog gets out once, it's an accident. If they continue to get out, then it's the owner's lack of action. And I've had dogs who were escape artists. One little poodle terrier would go out to potty. If I didn't let her in within 30 seconds of her bark, she scaled the 6 foot fence - even if I was watching her. If I didn't open the door as soon as she wanted, she was leaving. I learned to just do it immediately. It's difficult trying to place bully breeds. There is still a stigma attached to them. Many shelters will try to avoid using the term "pit bull" if at all possible. If they can see even a glimmer of another breed, they will use it. Many also don't use "pit bull" because it is misleading. Many breeds of dog can look like a pit bull. Growing up, my Mom rescued a purebred boxer. She was an all white boxer and the breeder was going to put her down at birth, but some kid wanted her. She ended up as an adult in a yard being fed 1/2 can of cat food a day. My Mom and her rescue group took her from the yard and she became my dog. I'd take her to the park and kids would run up to hug her. The parents would run after the kids screaming "stay away that's a pit bull!" This was in the 70s when the pit bull scare was at its start (before that, they were staffordshire terriers and not so commonplace). I'd have to explain to people that my dog was a purebred boxer and had no pit bull in her. Meanwhile, the parents never reached their kids before they reached my dog so the kids would be hanging all over her while the parents berated me for bringing a "dangerous animal" into the park. To be fair, at a 4-H dog show, we were sitting on the lawn waiting for the next competition and a woman came over and said "I'm sorry to ask you this, but is that a boxer?". My Mom and I sighed and said "it's OK, we get that all the time. Yes, she is a purebred boxer.". She replied "No, it's my fault. You don't understand. I breed boxers." Even a boxer breeder wasn't sure if she was a boxer. Back to Finn the lab/cocker. It may be that he does have some cocker in him. Not every mix will show physical traits of every breed in that mix. And the more breeds in the mix, the less likely they will all show up physically. It could be that Finn was given up by his original family and they knew his parents so know he has cocker in him. Or it could be that he has a personality trait that marks him as a cocker in the rescue group's eyes. Or it could have simply been a mistake when they posted him. If you look at the breed list, nearby to cocker spaniel is collie and curly-coated retriever. The poster could have meant to choose one of those and slipped up. If they didn't notice their mistake, it could have gone unnoticed for weeks. I find that most rescue groups try to be good about picking the right breed mixes, but there are limitations. The person making the identification may only have seen the dog for a few minutes. Or they just aren't that familiar with breeds. The most common error is simply that most people assume a dog is a mix of two breeds and only two breeds. So, they look at the dog and pick two breeds. But that dog may have 29 other breeds in their genetic makeup. And those breeds may combine in a variety of ways.
Our situation is a little different - we have the controversial Dangerous Dogs Act which aims to prevent certain breeds, or types, becoming established in the UK. This group includes Pit Bulls and XL Bullies, often identified by resemblance. The most common type of pet dog would be a Poo of some description - the variety is mindblowing and can be a cross of more than two breeds. ie. The Cavapoochon. These crosses usually cost a lot more than a carefully bred pedigree breed, though the market has been so saturated that prices have fallen a little. We really shouldn't have any dogs which can't be traced to an owner as compulsory microchipping has been the law for several years now, but if backyard puppies don't go for vaccinations how would anyone enforce this. Even with a microchip you do occasionally see a Dog Found notice with the sad, Owner is Aware endorsement. Our top five pet breeds would be very influenced by fashion, and fashions frequently change. eg. the bulge in unwanted Chihuahuas. Usually bought purely on the look, or on which celebrity is being seen out with it, there has usually been no research into whether the breed real suits their character or lifestyle. The Cockerpoos that turn up matted are rarely claimed by their owner. Presumably the grooming and training have proved too much of a challenge. Another type of dog that turns up in rescue the dog who gets himself lost after following his instincts - the scenthound. This usually happens when the dog has accompanied the family on a day trip in unfamiliar territory. There seem to be fewer dogs being stolen lately than during the craving for dogs during lockdown. Gundogs were particularly vulnerable, not only field trained ones which always command high prices, but also any Cockers which could be used for breeding Cockerpoos. Some of these dogs can be returned to their owners as much as eight years later when they get discarded and their microchips are read in rescue. The last problem group are what are referred to as status dogs. These are strong and often aggressive bully and working dog types. Maybe they have a bite history or their owners have realised that the dog is, 'too strong for us'. Some owners lose their dogs by not wishing to control, insure, neuter, and muzzle their dog in public. I believe that the majority of these dogs only show aggression because they have been mishandled - too much strong-arm grabbing and eye contact - but when humans are getting killed there is only one answer, and it isn't being passed on to a dog fighting ring! Hope I haven't rambled on too much.
Interesting how things are so different there. Most attempted breed restrictions have been beaten here. In my opinion, they put too much emphasis on the dog and not enough on the breeders and owners. With your last category of status dogs, I wonder how they are different from a "pit bull"? The problem is the same - the dog is purposefully bred to be more aggressive and/or the owner is unwilling or unable to do the research first and take responsibilty for controlling the dog. Our "dangerous breeds" have evolved over the years. First there was the doberman, then the shepherd, then the rottie, and then the pit bull, and now the XL bullies. At one point they were breeding extra large labs but they never could really train them to be aggressive enough. At another point they tried the akita but male akitas are just goofy goofs. They've been most successful with the bully breeds which is a real shame. At one point, cockers had the number one place for biting. That was because they were touted as great family dogs and kids would pull on their ears constantly. As they were more succeptible to ear infections, that often caused them pain and they bit. My Mom saw them come through the rescues a lot because of that. Nowadays you only ever really see cockapoos (our term for cockerpoos) rather than purebred. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a purebred cocker. The fad breeds are the worst. All the wrong people will rush out to get that cool dog on the tv show or commercial. For awhile there in the 90s and 00s, things started really turning around for shelters. The rescues and shelters were all spaying and neutering their dogs before adopting them out. Microchips were the big thing. And the cross breed fad hadn't started up. Shelters actually had space available and were going no kill. And they could afford to turn away bad homes. Then the cross breed fad with doodles started. The Game of Thrones husky fad hit - the worst because huskies are not dogs for casual owners for many reasons. Covid hit. Backyard breeding exploded again. Now our shelters are giving away dogs for free because they are so overfilled. And even with free adoptions, there are hundreds of people on local social media looking to buy puppies - because they don't want a microchip connecting them to the dog when they dump it and/or they want to breed the dog for "extra money". Many rescues are now keeping the microchips registered to them because people are dumping the dogs or giving them away to anyone instead of taking them back to the rescue. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I know the cause is 99% human.
On a more humorous side of this, there is the Waylon Jennings song "'Im Not Living Long Like This". It was actually written by Rodney Crowell. At the time he was living in LA and had a dog. The dog kept getting out and picked up by the pound. At one point, he was fined for it but didn't have the money so he spent the night (or a few nights) in jail. He wrote the song while in jail. That was back when there were "animal catchers" who drove around looking for loose dogs. Nowadays our local shelter will not come get a loose dog. They will come out to get an injured dog but it could take them days. If you find a dog, you have to call and schedule a drop off with them. I have my side yard fenced off so I can hold a found dog for a while. But with Cat-dog, I can't even do that because it's just a chain link gate separating them. Before Cat-dog, I took in a couple dogs running loose. One was a very very very sweet pit bull female. Young but oh so sweet. She spent the day sleeping on the couch with me while I called rescues. Bat-dog was getting jealous so I had to take her to the shelter. I emailed the pit bull rescue and gave them her ID info and said to please get her out of there as quick as possible. I checked the shelterwebsite and she was removed from the system by the following day. I'm hoping she got pulled. The other one was a sweet little girl beagle. I saw her following her nose past the house so I rushed out grabbed her. She came with me, after longingly looking down the sidewalk at the scent trail. I had her for several hours after posting online. She was being petsat by a family around the block from me. They had left to go grocery shopping and she found a way out of the yard. They went home and secured the yard and kept her inside when they went out - they really didn't want to have to tell the owners they lost her. @CaroleC I always worried about losing my dogs (and cats) while camping or hiking. I started using those old barrel style dog tags and would write my campsite number on a paper and put it inside - but they always came apart. So, I got engraved ID tags and wrote my vehicle license plate(s) on them. My current ID tags have my suv and my caravan license plate numbers as well as my cell phone number. This way if I go where there is no cell service, someone can still get the animal back to me. I've never needed it, but it's just one more layer of protection. I will say that the majority of my dogs don't stray. My sibling left my gate open once and Dog and Bear-dog got out while I was at work. When I got home, they were at the front door waiting for me. My neurotic shepherd went to my car and waited for me.
Thank you, I was only young at the time and I always remember coming home from school and the vet being there, telling my mum he had to many injuries to save him. They never had another dog for years after that until I was in my late teens and we ended up re homing a collie that was like Velcro.
I have never lost a dog, though I did come very near to it once. I bought in an adult Löwchen from a breeder 300 miles away. He was in Lion trim, but I wanted to introduce him to the immediate area so took him for a walk on the golf course. A retired farmer with his Dachs appeared from behind a wall and of course the Dachs barked at this strange dog. Spike backed up, slipping his collar and disappeared into the distance! I was almost in a faint but the old chap said, 'Don't worry lass, a dog that's been up a road will always find his way back down it'. We spend the rest of the day calling and walking, until it got too dark. Chas went to bed, I sat making posters to fix to the lamp posts. This was November and as I said, Spike had been freshly clipped out. At 2am. I decided to make one last torchlight search, opened the back door and nearly fell over Spike, who was huddled on the doorstep. I don't think I have ever felt so relieved. A big learning experience!
So the farmer was right, although it was round the block a few times beforehand, but so glad you got him back in one peice. I know once woody slipped out of his new lead once walking down the road all because I couldn’t find his usual lead so had to use a new one which was all stiff and hard and not a proper slip lead, I didn’t realise that he had backed out of it and when I looked he was walking by the side of me not on his usual away from the road side, he was actually on the main road walking, luckily the car that was coming up that way stopped for me while I got him back on the lead, I know he didn’t run off or anything but I did apologise to the woman and she was understanding about it, I’ve never used that slip lead again after that, I only got it because we went to the beach with him for him to paddle in the sea and I’d forgotten to take his with me, so I called in a shop and picked up a cheap one towards the beach, Might add he actually loved it.there.
I know how that can happen. I had a Golden who was always very light on the lead. At home I used a check chain and lead, (1960's), but in the ring I used a fine leather gundog slip. At one show I went for a look round the trade stands after judging. I looked down to my dog and all I had was an empty slip. Vicky was padding along about 5 yards behind me, quite unconcerned. I don't think I could do that with a Beagle!
True - a lot of people do (1) assume breeds by appearance, and (2) assume only two breeds. One of our worst experiences with another owner involved a Welsh Corgi. There are definitely crazy people who can own any breed/mix.
When I had first moved out on my own, I was living in a house in a rural area. There were several houses all in a clump (all owned by the same couple). One day, the neighbors brought over a puppy they had just gotten. It was a pit, rottie, dobie, shar pei, chow, lab mix. They said "we're gonna raise him mean so he'll protect us". The next morning, I opened my back door and saw the puppy wandering around alone. So I quietly called it over and brought it inside. I got dressed, put the puppy in a cat carrier, walked to the car saying " it's OK little cat, we'll have the vet look at you". I drove two hours to a family friend's boarding kennel where my Mom was working the front office. They took the puppy and found him a wonderful home where he was loved. When I got home, I was outside talking to another neighbor when the other neighbors came by asking if we had seen their puppy. "Oh no! Is he lost? Did he get out? Have you checked along the road? Oh gosh!" They did not get another dog - I think they spent more money than they had buying this puppy. Things were simpler before microchips.
Yes...I hate to think how the poor puppy would have ended up if he stayed with that family. Glad they didn't get another dog!
Back in the day, there weren't any laws at all to protect the animal. You sometimes did what you had to do. I happened to look out the window one evening to see the landlord's son kick his dog across his living room - literally the dog went flying and it was a sweet dog of border collie size. That dog disappeared too after being let out to roam loose a day or so later. It was a different life doing rescue back in the day. Nowadays, if I see animals abused like that and then let loose, I take them straight to the city shelter. With our law requiring persons to actively search for the owner for 90 days before you can legally keep or adopt out the dog, it makes it much more risky. But the shelter legally only has to hold the dog for three days before adopting it out to a new home or releasing it to a rescue group. And as most owners like that won't actively search for their dog, the dog has the best chance of getting a better home that way. And as the rescuer, you avoid any legal mess since loose dogs are a crime and turning found dogs in to the shelter is legal and the preferred action. The shelter can also legally require the owner to pay a fine, including for neutering, before they can get the dog back - so many of these bad homes will refuse to pay to get their dog back and that allows the dog to be immediately put up for adoption as it is considered abandonment or releasing ownership.
