Strategic Pet Recovery

Welcome

As of December 30, 2025, I have retired from dog recovery and trapping
The website will remain for awhile in the event others find the information useful

The information here provides specific and proven skills to find and recover lost pets. Sadly many pets do not return home because of common mistakes made by well intentioned people. Here you will find detailed actions which will greatly increase the odds of finding a missing pet using a strategy, techniques and tools for effective recovery. While most of the techniques and tools can be used by any pet owner, many of the actions are designed to create pet recovery expertise for individuals or groups with a passion for helping others get their pets safely home. For information unique to cats, please refer to the "Just For Cats" page.

The Journey Has Come to an End

After ten years of dog recovery and trapping, I have made the difficult decision that its time has come to an end.

From the very first dog I recovered, to the last, I have felt the same compassion for all of them along the way. As my skills and tools improved with time, my objectives remained the same - to bring lost dogs to safety from places or situations whereby they have a slim chance of survival.

Of course along the way, there were plenty of dogs that didn't meet my recovery criteria, but I made time for them when I could.

There is a darkside of dog recovery, rarely spoken of among dog trappers, I imagine we all cope with it in different ways.

Mostly I come away with some joyful memories of reuniting lost dogs with their owners and meeting some terrific people.

Why Have a Strategy?
Whether it's your pet, or someone else's pet that is missing, having a strategy to find it significantly increases the odds of recovery.

Knowing what to do, when to do it, and having the skills to do so is a very rare in our society. You can learn best practices
from my experience using the developed strategy and the techniques and tools that best meet your needs.

Whether you're a novice seeking resources to find your pet, or an amateur pet recovery specialist seeking to help others, the objective of this website is to provide skills that have been field tested and ready to use.

Read more about having a strategy here

Can You Hear Me Now?
When a dog is missing, the natural inclination for the owner or unknowing searcher is to start yelling the dogs name. Sadly this is one of the worst actions to take and it only gets much worse if the dog is naturally skittish or has been missing for days or more.

A dog in good health can hear much better than a human, both in amplitude and range of frequency. The dogs DNA provides it hearing which surpasses the humans ability because of its ancestry to the wolf as a defense mechanism and to aide in hunting. While a domestic dog isn't going to be doing much hunting, its hearing does afford protections against anything it perceives to be a threat, including humans yelling its name.

Learn why to never yell for a missing dog

What Are the Odds of Finding a Missing Pet?
There are so many variables to finding, then recovering a lost pet. The environment makes a huge difference, urban, rural, or wilderness. Then the circumstances surrounding the pets disappearance, did it simply escape a fenced yard, jump out of the car while away from home, scared by fireworks, or maybe stolen. Has the pet been in the household a long or short time, is its normally calm or adventurous, or perhaps it likes to chase other animals or cars. The list is nearly endless.

The fact is, the better prepared you are, the greater the odds of finding a lost pet regardless of circumstances.

Read more about the odds here

The Top Five Reasons Lost Pets Are Not Found

1. Failure to Take Action
2. Actions Taken are Incorrect
3. Failure to Follow Through
4. Lack of Planning
5. Getting The Wrong Help

Get the details and solutions here.

A Sense of Urgency
It was Sunday morning, May 30th, and I was loading equipment into my car to continue the search for the little dog that had gone missing. A family had adopted her from a rescue about a week earlier. My optimism was high that the that the dog would soon be reunited with them given new sightings. Then my phone alerted me to an incoming message, the dog was hit by a car and subsequently died at one o'clock earlier that morning.

Just three weeks before I conducted an unsolicited brief search for another small dog that had "gone missing" from the owners rural property. After examining the area outside of the property I formed only one conclusion. Sadly it revealed itself to be correct the next day. The dog had drowned in a pond on the property.
These two heartbreaking situations seem irreversible and the circumstances beyond our control, but are they?

Read more about this important topic here

Lost or Displaced ?
Is the pet really lost, or could it be around the corner from home where it often travels?

When a pet is truly lost, it is unable to find it's way home because it is in unfamiliar territory. This means it's only probable means to get home is for someone to actively search for the pet so it can be recovered and brought safely home.

Conversely, when a pet is displaced, it is removed intentionally or unintentionally from it's usual or proper place. However, if motivated to do so, it can find it's way home on its own terms which may be hours or days.

Read more about this important topic here

The Pet Recovery Go Bag
Do you have a pet Recovery Go Bag? It is one of the most powerful tools you must have. A bag packed with essential items for use in the event of a pet recovery effort is a necessity for you and the lost pet. The last position you want to be in, is to delay actions while you try to gather the items you need to bring with you for an unplanned or planned search and recovery effort.

When properly equipped, your Recovery Go Bag will contain the minimum set of items and tools which are immediately available to you for first aide, nutrition and hydration, collection and dissemination of information, communication, documentation, navigation, and recovery of a lost pet.

See how to prepare a Recovery Go Bag here

Immediate Actions When Your Dog Is Missing
Nothing strikes fear into a dog owners heart like the realization their dog is missing. The good news is Fido is likely not far off and with the right actions taken immediately, odds are your dog will be home soon. A large part of recovery depends on your dogs breed and behavior. You are the best judge of how your dog behaves away from home and around strangers. So if your dog is super friendly around strangers, he or she may quickly be incidentally recovered by a good natured citizen that realizes the dogs owner is nowhere to be found. Conversely, if your dog is aggressive/defensive and skittish around strangers, he or she will be harder to recover .

Learn the do's and don'ts here