Welcome home Candy. We were contacted on Saturday 24 June 2023 for a lost foreign rescue in Marple, Stockport. The dog had escaped on a walk when the owner dropped the retractable lead. Luckily the dog’s harness was found and it had been chewed off by the dog otherwise the dog would have had the retractable lead banging on the ground behind them as they ran.
Again, we advised to call off all searching and to open the house door and wait. At 1.30am, Candy came home 
.
.If you have lost your dog, and it’s not too far away from home, do not search (unless of course there is a valid reason why you must search). Instead, open your house door as your dog will try to come home.
Dogs are very good at keeping themselves safe out there and they will stay safe. What stops them from staying safe are people. Well-meaning people who want to help to find the dog. While out there, your dog is scared. And the main thing that he is scared of are people. People searching, calling his name, whistling, shining bright torches at him, approaching him and chasing him. Most of these people are strangers to him. Even people he knows, they are strangers too and it’s not until the dog is very near to those he knows well that he will recognise them by smell. But when he sees people approaching him, even his owners, he sees strangers. He sees predators. And he will do ANYTHING in order to get away, and get away quickly. He will run onto a road in order to get away. He could very easily run in front of a vehicle. Or he will run onto a motorway if close to one, in order to get away from people searching and/or approaching him. This includes railways. Some dogs have lost their lives in all of the above. Some dogs have lost their lives from jumping into a river or canal in order to escape people who have their attention on him. By having their attention on him, this means moving towards the dog, in a vehicle or on foot, talking, shouting or whistling to him, and looking at him. Also, a dog will move completely away from the area if he feels threatened by people searching.
We are always here to advise and to help and support you with your lost dog. We work by getting your dog safely caught as soon as possible but also we work by keeping your dog safe while he/she is lost. We do not condone searching (unless necessary), this includes drones and scent dogs. Our work with lost dogs over the years has proven that searching (by any means) is the worse thing to do with a lost dog. Lost dogs have lost their lives because of searching.