The basic recipe for recovering a lost dog once the dog's general location is found, but the dog won't readily come or be contained, is to lure the dog to a humane trap, and contain the dog that way.
Typically, we start with feeding stations located in spots that we can swap out with a humane trap once the dog is conditioned to come to that spot for his food when he determines that the food source is reliable.
But food isn't the only lure that works for some dogs. In cases where the lost dog is bonded to someone (meaning this doesn't work with a dog who just landed in town via transport from a shelter in another area, for example), is the scent of a person, or a dog, with which the dog was bonded. I offer a simple story to illustrate.
In the case of Rocky, a toy poodle lost while hiking in the mountains, was found after three days -- having not touched the food that was set out for him, by lying some distance away on a sweater of his person's, with his scent on it. Read Rocky's story at: http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/05/20/news/news3.txt
There are a ton of stories of scent having been the ticket to luring a dog successfully. The beauty of this story is that it demonstrates the power of the familiar scent OVER the scent of food, even after three days, for a dog bonded to a specific person, since both were available to him.
Can you contribute a story by comment that illustrates how the scent of a familar person can help lure a dog, or condition him to stay in or close to a specific spot?
No comments:
Post a Comment