What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

So here's the story. DH and I were house hunting in our desired areas yesterday (which are about half hour from where we live now). As we were driving from one house to another, DH slows down and says "there's a dog wandering by itself" (mind you this is like the 5th time this has happened to us - I don't know if we're just sensitive to it because our dog is a rescue, or if it's some weird ju ju because we're dog people). Anyways, I get out because I'm better at getting dogs to come to me. This dog won't, and is barking at me. It clearly has no collar on. It starts to prance away and I follow at a distance to keep an eye on it. It goes into a yard that has a gate semi-open. At this point DH comes to stand by me. So now the dog seems familiar with this yard. DH closes the gate to contain it either way so it can't run off. I knock on the door of the house, no answer. I go to the neighbor's house and knock - no answer. The dog is now alternating between barking at the side door to the house and barking at the gate that we are on the other side of. It seems familiar with this space and territorial. We try calling the local animal care number (DH's parents live in this town and we have found dogs before so we know the number by now). But it's a recording, because it's Sunday. After about 15-20 minutes we decide to go because we're late for our appointment, the dog is contained and seems familiar, and it wasn't cold out. I told DH if we had time after our appointments we would drive by again to see, and he agreed, however we didn't have time because we have our own dog at home who needed to be let out and we were out a good portion of the day.

I'm still thinking about this and hoping we did the right thing. I'm wondering if we should call animal care today to report it - at the very least these owners let their dog in the yard with NO collar, and didn't check that the gate was secured. This was a residential street but only about a block and a half from a main road...the dog could have gotten hurt!

Thoughts? Did we act appropriately?

Re: What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

DH and I had pretty much the exact same situation happen to us on Saturday! Lost dog...no tag (collar though)...went into someone's yard... we knocked...no one was there...this is the dog that we still have. (It was our neighbor's yard so we were like 99.999999% sure it wasn't there dog, but we went back and checked when they got home.) I *think* you've mentioned house hunting not too far from where I live....so very coincidental.

I think that you guys absolutely did the right thing by containing him! I'm always afraid to call animal control though for some reason; I'm scared of where the animal will end up. Is there anyway of tracking down the house where you saw him and calling/sending a letter or something?

What kind of dog was it by the way? I've gotten lots of emails from people looking for dogs in this area since I put up the "found dog" posts.

ETA: I didn't mean that you shouldn't have called animal control then; I meant I don't know if I would call them now.

Message edited 1/9/2012 8:32:17 AM.

Re: What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

Yeah I know which house it was, and DH works near-ish to it so I may try to get him to stop by today. I also hesitate about calling animal control, but don't really know what else to do. We have taken lost dogs in before, to vets etc. But this guy would NOT let me get near him at ALL, and I'm pretty familiar with dog behavior, he did not look willing to budge on this matter.

It was a Yorkie, but a true Yorkie, not a teacup or anything, it looked about 15 lbs.

And yeah, we are house hunting not far from you!

Re: What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

I think you did the best you could've done. I probably would have also left a note on the door or in the mailbox of the house that the dog went into the yard. I would've just explained that the dog was wandering on the street and when approached, went into the yard. I'd also include my name and number so they can contact you with any questions. I figure if it's their dog then it's a good thing they know he got out and they can hopefully be more careful in the future. If it's NOT their dog, they'll at least have an explanation why there's a random dog in their yard. But still, at least the dog was safer in the yard than he was on the street!

Re: What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

Posted by jilliibabii

I think you did the best you could've done. I probably would have also left a note on the door or in the mailbox of the house that the dog went into the yard. I would've just explained that the dog was wandering on the street and when approached, went into the yard. I'd also include my name and number so they can contact you with any questions. I figure if it's their dog then it's a good thing they know he got out and they can hopefully be more careful in the future. If it's NOT their dog, they'll at least have an explanation why there's a random dog in their yard. But still, at least the dog was safer in the yard than he was on the street!

Re: What would you have done? Potential lost dog situation....

I think you did the best you could have done. There's only so much you can do, especially when you don't know the dog's temperment.
I just found a lost dog yesterday. He was very friendly and hopped right into my car. I knew he was a pet because he had a collar on (no tags). I took him home because he was so sweet. Honestly, if he were barking/seemed territorial I would have done the same things- called a shelter and tried to keep him contained.

We all want to help lost dogs so much but there's only so much we can do. I'm sensitive when it comes to lost dogs and want to help them fidn their way home, but I do err on the side of caution because they are unfamiliar.

Even if that wasn't his house hopefully it was a neighbor's and they know the owner! If not, hopefully the house belongs to dog friendly people who helped the poor guy/girl out. I hope he/she found his/her way home!!