My 16 month old Chocolate Lab has been missing since wednesday evening (5/9). He is an inside dog and is only outside to do his business or when I'm working or playing with him. Recently I have been taking him across the street to play with a neighbors golden retriever. Their yard is fenced as is mine and I really never worried about it. Well, wednesday eve I go to get him just before 8pm and I find they are both missing. Not sure how they got out but that really doesn't matter now. I spent the rest of that evening until around 10:30pm looking for them. Then I was up before daylight and spent all day looking for them yesterday...took off work to do this. I must have handed out and posted a 100 flyers with their descriptions and drove a 100 miles yesterday. No calls as of yet. I live out in the country so there is no telling where my lab is. What scares me is that someone picked him up....I live in an area noted for it's great waterfowl hunting. I just wanna puke!

Here we are after his first bird hunt...dove season last year.


My lab came home this evening. He has lost a little weight and smells like he found out what a skunk is, but he is home. Thanks to all of ya'll for the encouragement....I was basically resolved to the fact that I would never see him again. But I spoke to so many dog people that had their own stories of their dogs coming home after days of being gone.....that kept a glimmer of hope in me.

Thanks again

Hard to lose a friend, but hopefully he'll turn up. It's been only a couple of days, keep driving the roads in that area, we found one of mine about 10 days after she "disappeared" took off, or whatever, about a mile and a half from our house laying on the front porch of an abandoned house. I'd keep looking for at least a week. Good luck.

Keep looking. The 2 dogs might have run off and went on their own hunt together.

Hope you had a collar with a name tag and phone number on it.

I'll keep looking for sure. Yeah, he had a collar on but recently lost his tags that were on it. I've saturated the area with flyers so hopefully they will call.

Thanks guys

Contact your local Animal control and leave them your phone number also.

That was one of the first things I did. I may try to leave early today and continue the search. It's hard to be here at work.

One of my favorite pics....This is when he was a puppy. We were both napping after an afternoon of training and my daughter snapped this.

Wes,

Losing a friend is always difficult. Call the folks at the local animal shelter every couple of days too. Call more than once! Go down and look at what is there. (Hard to do sometimes, but necessary.) Talk to the neighbors. Put an ad in the newspaper.

Walk the property and call. If they're hunters and you live in a rural area ... take a shotgun and make some noise.

Just keep after it ... don't get discouraged.

Very best of good luck finding the kids. We're rootin' for ya!

Thanks Mike,

I'm trying to get out of here early today to get out there looking again. I can't seem to focus on anything here anyway.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone

I'd also let the Police/Sheriff to be on the lookout for him (them). They tend get around and see them or have an idea who might know something.

Best of luck.

Please let us know what happens.

Roi

Keep lookin. I know how you feel. It sucks.

I realy hope you find him. I had thought mine was stolin but I eventualy found mine.

I asked everyone I had seen in the area and finaly a women said my dog was at her house a day before romeing lost and I eventualy found her.

My lab came home this evening. He has lost a little weight and smells like he found out what a skunk is, but he is home. Thanks to all of ya'll for the encouragement....I was basically resolved to the fact that I would never see him again. But I spoke to so many dog people that had their own stories of their dogs coming home after days of being gone.....that kept a glimmer of hope in me.

Thanks again

That is good news -- glad to hear it.

TXPO. Good to Here. Glad he came home .

I was thinking , The the fact that you had left him at your neighbors house away from "his home"(Your house), I bet he took off with your neighbors dog from their house, like a couple wild explorers.


I bet your a sure happy now!

Hot Damn! Great to have a good outcome once in a while. Congratulations.

Makes one grateful for the "opportunity" to clean up the baby

It'll be a little while, but eventually you'll chuckle just a little about this one.

Thanks all......yes, I'm extremely happy again. Now I can get on with my normal day-to-day stuff.

Unfortunately his golden retriever buddy hasn't returned. When I let him out the front door he goes to his buddy's yard to see if he is there....kinda sad.

Wes:

Glad you had a happy reunion.

Now that he's home, I've got a couple of thoughts and suggestions. First, always be sure he has id tags with your phone # on his collar. Second, I would strongly suggest having one of the id chips implanted in him. Costs about $125 and if he is stolen and ever taken to a vet, or sold to some research facility, they'll know it ain't kosher.

Finally, I can tell you from my and many others personal knowledge, as your dog gets older, if he smells a bitch in heat, he will almost certainly disappear, often even while you are hollering at him. Be aware of this and take appropriate precautions, especially if you've got him away from home.

Good luck.

Thanks,

I've been lookiing iinto the chips and possibly getting him tatooed. I'm going to get a collar that has the metal plate, with my info, that is riveted to the collar so that it cannot come off.

What's funny is that in this situation none of the precautions mentioned would have been helpful. I think he just went hunting and came home when he got tired and/or hungry.

Thanks again everyone......

I've never lost a tag on a dog collar yet.

First, you need to throw away the S hook you get with the tags and get a small split ring from the hardware store. These are like the rings for keys only smaller and never come off.

Second, get a tag with your phone number and your name to go with his rabies tag. I've been told not to put my dogs name on the tag because some people are more likely to keep your dog if they know his name.

Third: You should also engrave your phone number on the back of the rabies tag in case the ID tag is lost.

You can also write your phone number in sharpie on the dogs collar in case both tags are lost, which is how my friend got her dogs back.

Good luck.

I do not collar my dogs unless I'm out working them BUT I do micro chip them. A friend lost one of his pointers about 100 miles from home & a week or so later got a call from someone who found his dog hung up in a fence by the collar dead.