Dogs go missing for three reasons: a slipped harness, an open door, and panic at a loud noise. In a small country with dense traffic and a great deal of woodland, the outcome depends almost entirely on what happens in the first few hours and on whether the paperwork was in order before anything went wrong.
Do this before it happens
Start with the register, because a microchip is worthless if the telephone number attached to it belongs to a previous country or a previous provider. Confirm your details today and update them whenever you move or change number. Then add a physical tag with a mobile number, since that is what a passer-by uses in the first ten minutes, while a chip requires somebody to take the dog to a vet.
Keep two recent photographs on your phone: one from the side showing size and shape, one showing the face and any distinctive markings. Check the equipment while you are at it, because most escapes are not open gates but dogs reversing out of a loose harness, and for a nervous or newly adopted dog a second attachment point to the collar greatly reduces that risk.
Finally, write down in one place the things you will not be able to find under stress: the chip number, the insurance policy, your vet's address and how out-of-hours cover works.
Around New Year and the national day, check all of this in advance. Firework nights produce more lost dogs than any other cause in the calendar.
The first hour
Stay where the dog disappeared and search outwards. Most dogs are found fairly close to the place they were lost, and many of them are hidden rather than travelling: under a parked car, in a hedge, behind a bin store, in dense undergrowth at the edge of a path.
Send anyone with you back to the point of escape and have them stay there. Dogs regularly return to the spot they ran from, and finding nobody there is the reason a dog then moves on.
Call differently
This is the part people get wrong. A frightened dog in flight often runs from a shouting human, including from its own owner, and a group of people calling a dog's name spreads it further. Instead:
- Speak in a normal, cheerful voice rather than shouting
- Crouch or sit down and turn sideways, which is far less threatening than standing and facing the dog
- If you see the dog, do not run towards it. Turn and walk or jog away, which triggers the follow response
- Use the sounds that mean good things at home: a squeaky toy, a food bag, a car door
- Leave something that smells of home at the point of escape: a worn jumper, the dog's bed, or a bowl of strongly smelling food
Who to contact, in order
Once the immediate search is under way, or if the dog is not found within the first hour, make these contacts. Delegate them if you can, because you should still be out looking.
- Police grand-ducale. Report the loss. Dogs picked up by the authorities or handed in by drivers are recorded there, and a dog involved in a road accident will be reported to them
- Your commune, and the neighbouring ones if you are near a boundary. Communes are involved in stray animals and will know where a found dog is taken
- The microchip register, to flag the animal as lost, so a vet scanning the chip sees it immediately
- Every veterinary practice within a few kilometres, including the emergency service. A found dog is usually taken to the nearest practice to be scanned
- Animal shelters and rescue organisations in the country. Call rather than email, and call again the next morning
- Neighbouring countries if you are close to a border. A dog in the woods does not stop at the frontier, and a dog found five kilometres away may be reported in France, Belgium or Germany
If your dog is on the list of breeds classified as susceptible to being dangerous, the loss must be reported to the police within twelve hours. Do not let that deadline pass while you are searching.
Spreading the word usefully
A good notice contains a clear photograph, the place and time of the loss, the dog's size, a note that the dog is chipped, one telephone number, and the instruction not to chase. It is worth adding a line in French, German and English, since the person who sees your dog may read only one of them.
Post in local community groups for your commune and the surrounding ones, and ask a few specific sets of eyes to help: the postal delivery round, bus drivers on the local line, the people who walk dogs at seven in the morning in your area, and any building concierge nearby. Those people cover more ground before breakfast than a search party does all day.
Put physical notices at the point of escape, at the nearest junctions and at the entrances to any park or path system in the area. Many of the people who will see your dog are not in a social media group for your commune.
If it goes beyond the first day
A dog that has been out overnight usually settles into a small area and becomes nocturnal, moving at dawn and dusk. Search at those times, quietly, alone or in pairs rather than in groups.
Set up a feeding point with your dog's own bedding and food at the last confirmed sighting, and check it at first light. Some owners use a wildlife camera or an old phone to monitor it. When the dog is coming back to a known spot, the approach changes entirely: stop searching, sit at a distance and let the dog come, then sit still and let it decide. Grabbing at a dog in this state usually costs you another day.
Keep the police, the vets and the shelters updated with every confirmed sighting. Sightings are what turn a country-wide search into a two-hundred-metre one.
When your dog is back
Check the paws, the pads and the legs, and look for ticks, cuts and signs of dehydration. Offer small amounts of water rather than a full bowl, and small meals. Have a vet check anything you are unsure about, particularly if the dog was near a road or has been out for more than a day.
Then fix the cause. Refit the harness, add the second clip, replace the worn lead, repair the gate, and if the escape happened at a specific noise, treat the noise phobia before the next season. Dogs that have escaped once are considerably more likely to do it again.
The part a walker owns
The person walking your dog should know the escape protocol before it is needed: where the dog would head, which harness and which clip, what the recall word is, who to call first, and whether the dog is permitted off lead at all. At PAWLY the answer to the last question is that off lead happens only where you have agreed it in writing, and newly adopted dogs stay on a lead or a long line without exception.
General information for dog owners in Luxembourg, not veterinary or legal advice. For your own dog, ask your vet, a qualified behaviourist or your commune. How this journal is written and checked.
Away from your dog all day?
PAWLY provides individual dog walks, home visits and overnight care in your own home, across Luxembourg City. Same walker every time, written report after every visit.
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