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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Weatherproofing Fliers

All notices posted should be weather-proofed!

Page protectors are common, as are large ziplock bags. Clear contact paper can be used.

Remember when using page protectors to put the opening at the bottom! Here's a sign I encountered once that was printed on really good quality paper, so the flier itself was fine. But can you tell that the page protecters is holding several ounces of water?

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sighting Responses

It can be pretty exciting when, while a dog is missing, a sighting is reported. Hope comes alive, especially after a time with no sightings.

Sightings can change the direction of a search. When a sighting report comes in that is 4 blocks from where the dog is thought to be, fliering starts up in the new area and feeding stations are set up in the new area

False sightings aren't good, of course. It goes with out saying. But when you really want sightings and there haven't been any for a time, that last thing you want a sighting to be is a false sighting.

But because the possibility is always there, standard procedure calls for verifying the validity of a sighting. Always do that.

When a sighting call comes in, most people know to go to the area and search to see if the dog sighted is still in the area. What a lot of people don't know is that you also want to canvass the area, talking to everyone you can find, asking if they have seen such a dog, or if they know of a dog with a simlar look that resides in the area.

If the lost dog's owner or a volunteer are quick to deny that the dog sighted could be any dog other than the lost dog in question, probe them. I've been known to demand that questioning continue "until you find the dog in the neighborhood that looks like our lost dog, because the dog sighted was not our lost dog". (And yes, the expected dog has been found in such cases.)

For pet detectives or lost dog recovery specialists, this is one of the discussion items that belongs on the (lengthy) list of those that get covered early on. Too bad there are so many items on that list.

So, what are you doing? You have a picture of the dog, and copies of the flier and biz cards. You walk around the area, looking for people you can see moving about, be they residents if it's a residential area, or anyone moving through it such as service or delivery people, mail carriers, professional dog walkers. Stop and talk to those you see, but also knock on doors.

Show a picture of the lost dog, and state that there was a sighting of a dog matching its description. Ask if the person has seen a dog like that, and ask if the person knows anything about a dog that might live in the area that could have been seen and believed to be the lost dog. If yes, ask where that dog lives, so that you can go there and ask if said dog had been out on its own recently.

It's tough to get pumped up from a sighting, and then have the sighting shot down in this way. But it's a necessary task. As disappointing as this is, sightings need to be uncovered as false when they are, in fact, false sightings.