Disposable Dogs
All of my dogs were unwanted by their previous owners.
Disposable Dogs
My dogs were unwanted. They came to me because their previous owners did not want them. It won’t surprise you to learn that my dogs are the most important things in my life. Porter, my first dog, came from the shelter. He was challenging at first, and he wouldn’t do anything I asked. Then I started to appreciate all of his wonderful qualities, and I stopped trying to make him something he wasn’t. He taught me so much about listening to dogs. Kelsy, my first search dog, came from a shelter, unclaimed by her previous owner. She was absolutely perfect in every way. Kelsy became such a huge part of my life that I haven’t been able to let go of her at all, even six years after her death. I still think of Kelsy every day. I couldn’t forget about her if I tried, but I make a conscious effort to weave thoughts of Kelsy into my everyday life. I talk to her all the time. Tess lived with a family that didn’t have time for her. She fit in perfectly with our family, and we were so glad to have her. Fozzie was seen running down the freeway. After I caught him, I looked for his previous owner for two months. Fozzie is such a perfect dog, I can’t imagine anyone not wanting him, but his previous owner must not have been looking for him. Mu was kept on a chain in the yard as a puppy, and I bought him for $100 just to make sure he had a better life. Mu and I have gone on at least 1200 searches for lost cats, and we have located at least 300. He is my partner, my friend, my brother, and my son. I have written extensively about Mu, and you could essentially read all the newsletter articles about him as a book. Sky lived in a cemetery for several months, and it appears her previous owner was not looking for her. Viktor was living on the streets when I caught him. In 2016, I was called to help a black German Shepherd wandering in the mountains at 3,000 feet. I caught her, and Valentino was born the next day. No one ever came forward, looking for Tino or his mom.
If you know me on Facebook, you have seen that I post pictures of Tino at least once a day. Currently, I have 146,725 pictures and videos on my iPhone. Just scrolling through them, a minimum of 25% of the pictures are of Tino. Possibly half. That’s 35,000 to 70,000 pictures of one dog. Of course, not every picture is a masterpiece, and in many pictures he looks basically the same, but with a different background. With all of those pictures and videos, I still feel I haven’t captured Tino enough. He says funny words, and I have tried to catch some of them in audio recordings. I have audio and video of him howling. Tino and I have been on hundreds of searches, and I have written about many of them. I have more pictures of Tino than of the other dogs, due to several reasons. First, Tino was born just as Kelsy was dying. As I was losing Kelsy, I was acutely aware that I didn’t have enough pictures of her, especially as a puppy. I wasn’t going to make that same mistake with Tino. I have thousands of pictures and videos of him as a puppy. Mu doesn’t like to have his picture taken, for unknown reasons. He often gets a worried look. He doesn’t understand that when I brandish my iPhone at him, it’s not correction. In dog language, holding a non-edible, non-toy object up to a dog in that way can seem like an unfriendly gesture. I only get good pictures of Mu when I have treats, or when he’s working or playing, and too busy to worry about the camera. Tino has had his picture taken every day of his life. As far as he knows, it’s just a basic part of living. Another reason I have so many photos of Tino is that he is magnificent, beautiful, and highly photogenic. Taking pictures of an all-white dog like Fozzie, or a black dog like Kelsy, can be challenging, and you have to think about the lighting and the background. Tino has light and dark colors on his face, which naturally and easily makes for good exposures.
Beyond working with Tino and taking his picture, I spend an inordinate amount of time just observing him. I like to watch him sleep. When we are working a case, or running a training exercise, it is my job to observe him. I pay close attention to his movements, the angle of his ears, how he holds his tail. I watch what he is paying attention to. We play fetch. Well, we don’t really play fetch. I throw something, and he chases it down, and then he doesn’t give it back. If it’s a stick, sometimes the stick will break when I pull on it, and then I can throw the half I have. If it’s a ball, it’s impossible to pry it out of his teeth. Tino comes with me almost everywhere. Even if it’s a day when Mu has a search, Tino comes along for the ride. Tino has known me every single day of his life. He spends every moment with me. I am very proud that Tino and Mu are my working partners.
I love my dogs, obviously. You protect what you love, and I have redundant protection measures for my dogs. They all have health insurance. They have tracking devices, in case they go missing due to some accident or disaster. If I had any extra money in savings, I would establish a trust for my dogs in the event of my untimely death. I have scent articles stored for them, so Tino or another search dog could search for any of them if they were missing. I have photos of all my dogs just because they are beautiful and I love them, and I like taking their pictures. I also have many clear photos of them in case they were ever needed for a Lost Dog poster. When we are working or playing, I am always looking out for their safety. When I stop at the store, and I have Tino with me, I set up a wildlife camera to watch him in the car, and the camera also tells me the temperature. I put lights on them when we walk at night. When we go for walks in the neighborhood, I have planned avenues of escape if we are approached by other dogs that might get my dogs a little too excited. I have taken a CPR course for animals, and I have a first aid kit.
My dogs and I have been finding lost dogs and cats for almost 15 years. We have been on thousands of searches. I have consulted on at least 10,000 lost pet cases. I started my company, Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, in order to help as many people as we can, as they search for their lost cats and dogs. I started a nonprofit charity, Useless Bay Sanctuary, to help stray dogs with no known owner, and that volunteer organization helps at least 100 dogs a year. I started the Facebook group, Lost Dogs of King County, and that group helps about 10,000 lost dogs each year. For 15 years I have worked 60 to 80 hours per week helping lost pets. In all that time, working at the problem from so many directions, I have completely failed in the most important aspect of my work: loss prevention.
I have written several guides to loss prevention, looking at the problem in different ways. The Three Retrievers web page has a Guide to Finding Your Lost Cat, which has been viewed 916 times in the first 20 days of April. The web site also has a page on loss prevention for dogs, which has been viewed 13 times in the same period. The number of dogs posted as missing or stray in the Lost Dogs of King County Facebook group only ever goes up. This is in part because more people are finding out about the group and using it to help find their pets. The group has at least 30 posts for lost and stray dogs every single day, which is more than 10,000 dogs each year. 10,000 dogs missing in King County every year! It’s probably at least twice that many, because not all lost dogs get posted in our group. Seattle has about 730,000 people and an estimated 150,000 dogs. King County has 2,270,000 people, so there must be about 450,000 dogs in King County. Other sources estimate that about a third of all dogs will go missing at some point in their lives, so roughly 150,000 dogs would go missing during the 11 years of the average dog’s lifespan. This approximate number matches up with our actual numbers of more than 10,000 lost dogs posted in our group every year. The numbers aren’t going down. I am failing to get the word out. Almost all of those losses were preventable, and most pet owners have not taken steps, such as ID tags and microchips, which would help get those dogs home quickly. Our shelters are overcrowded, many at double or triple capacity, when all of those dogs and cats could have simply gone home if they had tags or microchips. I am a complete failure at motivating people to do a better job of loss prevention.
Quite often, I work with the owners of lost dogs who are completely devastated. They are so upset, they can hardly function. When they get their dogs back, they are getting a family member back. It is one of the best days of their lives. I have seen people in the worst possible grief when I’ve had to tell them that I’ve found their dog deceased. Can you imagine if I lost one of my dogs? What wouldn’t I do to get my dog back? I would take out a loan to hire a blimp to float around the city, telling people about my lost dog. You would see posters for miles. I would take out an ad on local television. I would use search dogs and drones, and every tool I could think of. Yet, these dogs I love more than life itself, they were all unwanted. No one was looking for them. I have picked up the bodies of dogs from the shoulder of the freeway, and they had no microchips, and the bodies were never claimed. Porter, Tess, Kelsy, and Viktor are buried in a sacred plot of land and I maintain the vegetation to look wild an natural, but free of invasive weeds. I walk by their graves several times a day, and look at the forest that grows up around them. I think of them always.
Why is there such a disparity in how people value their pets? Why is it that even people who value their pets highly, who think of them as family members, maybe even the favorite members of the family, still don’t take proper precautions for loss prevention? What can I do to get through to people, to get them to take loss prevention seriously? I’m asking you because I obviously don’t know. I have been preaching loss prevention for 15 years, and I have had very little impact on the number of dogs going missing in my community. I would like to hear from you. What inspired you to learn more about loss prevention and take measures to protect your pets? How have you ever succeeded in getting someone else to take more precautions? If you aren’t currently doing everything you could to prevent your dog or cat from going missing, or to recover them quickly if they do go missing, what could I possibly say to you that would change your mind? Please tell me in the comments section.
Articles on Loss Prevention:
Loss Prevention when using a Pet Sitter
I get emotional every time we get a new foster dog or I help with recieving dogs at a rescue transport. Because I have to realize. Each one of them Someone decided they were disposable. But I also look at it as those people have now lost out on the oppourtunity to experience the unconditional love these dogs are capable of. And the people who adopt them are very lucky people. I always try to find a way to tell them that in a PC way. You are the only person other than me that says they carry a dog first aid kit. But I always carry a quite advanced first aid kit in all our vehicles. So it was not very hard to add a few dog specific items. I had to get permission from my Fire Chief. But he allowed me to put 2 sizes of dog oxygen masks on our Aid Car. Which their can be several different reasons a dog my need O2. And usually it is due to an exposure issue. That a few minuets of pure O2 can clear up. And yes I have taken a dog CPR course. But being certified in High Performanc CPR as an EMS provider. The only difference is how to position your patient. Secureing the airway is also similar. But with a dog they are on their side. And you need to make sure their toung is not falling back and blocking the airway. And FYI. If you have a large and a small (Small Animal) O2 mask. That will take care of almost all dogs. And for those who know what I am talking about. If you have what is called a Pocket Mask. Which is used to safely give mouth to mouth respirations to people. You can take the removable one way valve off of the Pocket Mask. And it will fit on the Small Animal O2 masks. To make your mouth to snoot attempts on a dog. Even more efficient. Ok, sorry my comment is too long.
All of mine were rescues, too, and my Anatolian Shepherd was even declared "Unadoptable" before the wonderful people at NASRN got him. (He wasn't unadoptable. He is an Anatolian. These are wonderful animals but definitely not the dogs for everyone!)
Some of our loss prevention is basic things like not being allowed outside of the house or dog yard without a leash attached to a human and a fence that is at least four feet tall. Physical fencing only. Never invisible. No doggie doors. EVER. I don't want them outside without us home. None of ours are escape artists, but at our last house, we rimmed the yard with heavy poles to discourage digging.
We have them travel in harnesses belted into the vehicle with limited range of motion, i.e. not allowed in the driver's compartment, for safety.
We bought all of them BreakAway collars by Chinook. We did not want our pups to be without a collar at all for loss prevention. But neither did we want them to be in a standard collar, get stuck, and be killed. This is the best of both worlds.
These collars will "break" when stress like getting their head stuck in a fence or bush, in rough play, or under something occurs. They are not expensive, and THEY WORK.
We just had a crisis or loss prevented when one of ours actually BROKE broke his. He probably thrust his Hound nose through the fence and his neck followed, then got stuck. The collar generally just breaks apart and can be put back together, so for this to break indicates there was enough stress on the collar to have caused him to strangle in a "normal" collar.
Three of ours have microchips, but the one is an old microchip. We tried to get a new one, but the vet refused saying there was no way of knowing which would be scanned. The old microchip was registered to a company that insisted on a very steep annual fee, unlike the ones our two newest pack members have. We've tried to get it transferred without success.
So there is another thing! An article on the ins and outs of microchips and how to be sure they are current and registered to you, especially if you have a rescue, would be helpful.
Maybe one issue is how visual information has gotten, especially with the younger animal lovers. Many will not take the time to read an entire article like those of us who still remember wall phones and pay phones.
Do you have a YouTube channel? Or do you do videos on Instagram? Perhaps videos featuring your pups, various rescues, with permission of the owner, of course, and the individual loss prevention topics could be helpful.
We, too, are working on providing for any animals we may have in the event we suddenly expired. That is a different kind of loss prevention. Our plan is to work out the trust within the estate rather than just from a savings account, so that the proceeds of the house sale would provide for them.
It's tricky, though. Many of us whose lives are in our animals do not have extended family members who would continue that, and perhaps have no children without paws at all. It has to be in a trust so that whoever is our beneficiary cannot just run through the money and say whoopsies, too bad.
There is also a need for a different kind of pet sanctuary, one that would have a network of long term fosters whose expenses were covered by the trusts. And a brick and mortar home place where packs would not have to be separated and lose each other as well as the people and home they loved.
Then there's also a need for animal lover centric assisted living facilities, so the loss doesn't any happen earlier than need be. I have an idea on that one, but I don't have the financial resources to make it a reality. Maybe one day!