Luna, a cockapoo/labrador, managed to escape while visiting a relative with her owner in Stockport SK5 on Friday 7 January 2023. There were no sightings of her until the early hours of Sunday 9 January.
We contacted her owner with an offer to help on Saturday and advised owner to ask people not to search or approach her as Luna needed to settle and feel non threatened so she wouldn’t put herself in any danger due to the roads, motorway and railways which were all very near. We needed her to stay where she was and not be forced out of the area. Nick, who is nearer to the area, thermal scoped the area on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (thank you Nick) but Luna wasn’t to be seen.
On Sunday 9 January, Luna was seen and she was still in the area. Plans were made which would lead to trapping her and owners posts were edited so her name was removed (if people know her name and see her or search they will shout her name which causes confusion in a lost dog and if those people chase her she would associate her name being called with being chased as at the time she was out there people were predators to her). The actual location was removed as per our advice too. Again, so people didn’t go searching for her. We encouraged her owner to walk around the area as Luna had revisited the place where she got lost from during the night.
Most often, the lost dog will retrace their steps and return to where they went missing from. What stops them doing this is when people search and approach the dog as it sends them off track and pushes them further away. Luna’s owner took our advice on board and stopped any searching by people.
Luna was allowed to build her confidence up because of this and settle. This morning, at approximately 2am, her owner did one last walk for the night in the area where Luna had been previously seen. Luna appeared, recognised her owner and went to her 
. Safely caught. Welcome home Luna 
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. Safely caught. Welcome home Luna .Lost dogs need to be allowed to calm down and settle. They need to be respected as sentient beings who become frightened when people, especially strangers, approach, chase and search for them. We always advise not to search and thankfully Luna’s owner listened to us and acted on our advice. Luna stayed in the area, she remained calm and wasn’t made to feel threatened. She was able to retrace her steps back to where she went missing from (she couldn’t get back inside as she ran from a block of flats) and stay around the immediate area. And when she saw her owner she was calm enough to realise who it was and therefore able to go to her .
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