I feel bad...Jake, my Dog ran away

[brin]

Jake came wandering up to our place about 4 months ago skinny with his ribs showing..He is a Brittany and we took him in and he was an inside dog..He had no tag and we called the vets and county pound and no one had reported him missing so the county pound said if you want him ..keep him. So 2 days ago he took off for the first time and was gone about 2 hours and came home. Last night he ran out and took off running and we have not seen him since then..He has been gone all night. We had a micro chip put in him so I have notified them and they have sent a flier to all the vets, animal shelters and volunteer pet rescuers within a 25 mile area.. We'll see if he comes back..We had an Irish Setter one time and she went missing for 3 days and finally came home with bloodied paws..I think someone had taken her , probably coaxed her into their truck and took her away and she escaped and came home but we had her for over 9 yrs. at that time. With Jake we have only had him 4 mos. and the micro chip company web site said Dogs are not like the Lassie movies where they come home..they actually get lost...especially in rural areas like where we live. I have driven the country roads and yelled for him to no avail so we will wait and see.

Does anyone have an experience with their Dog running off like this and finding it's way back home and how long ? Thanks

 

[Thomas]

We'll keep our fingers cross for Jakes return.

 

[jinjimbob]

Hope Jake gets home.

Always always have a tag on their collar, people can read that if they can get close enough to them.

Make sure your avid/microchip data is up to date.

 

[kidr]

I had a Brittany that did the same thing. Rain was the trigger. He would hang out with me all day, but if it rained he would take off and return a few hours later. I swear the rain short circuited something in his brain. Turned out he had epilepsey. Ran away one night and didn't come back. Found him a week later through lost and found. People said he would just lay down in the road for hours. He hardley knew me when I found him, and he was never the same, and I had to keep him confined. I finally had to put him down. A pro. dog man told me that certain strains of these dogs are prone to this kind of disorder. Hope you find your guy and he's OK. I know the things that go through your mind not knowing if he's OK or not.

 

[jinman]

Well, at least a Brittany is not a tiny little dog. He should be able to defend himself to a certain degree.

You didn't mention whether you had him neutered or not. I think that has a lot to do with a dog's inclination to wander. The Brittany was bred as a hunting dog and he has a naturally curious nature. Depending on how many interesting critters he can find and how hungry he gets, he may be gone for awhile. If he is a male lookin' for a female in heat, you may not see him for quite some time. As they say in Australia, he may have gone walkabout.

 

[Tig]

Ah spring is in the air. My dog ran off the first year we had her. She came back none the worse for wear. Just tired and pregnant.
Lesson learned.

 

[brin]

We'll keep our fingers cross for Jakes return.
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Thomas..NH > Thanks Thomas we are crossing our fingers too ! and toes..
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Hope Jake gets home.

Always always have a tag on their collar, people can read that if they can get close enough to them.

Make sure your avid/microchip data is up to date.> Thanks JinJimbob..We have tags on Jake & chip is up to date.
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I had a Brittany that did the same thing. Rain was the trigger. He would hang out with me all day, but if it rained he would take off and return a few hours later. I swear the rain short circuited something in his brain. Turned out he had epilepsey. Ran away one night and didn't come back. Found him a week later through lost and found. People said he would just lay down in the road for hours. He hardley knew me when I found him, and he was never the same, and I had to keep him confined. I finally had to put him down. A pro. dog man told me that certain strains of these dogs are prone to this kind of disorder. Hope you find your guy and he's OK. I know the things that go through your mind not knowing if he's OK or not.> Kidtr ,You're right ..we worry most wondering how Jake is doing..is he cold, hungry or being mistreated or worse...he does seem to have a wild streak in him..maybe it is in the breed..we have only had him 4 mos. and this just started ..that is why I wonder if it is a dog in heat..time will tell.
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Well, at least a Brittany is not a tiny little dog. He should be able to defend himself to a certain degree.

You didn't mention whether you had him neutered or not. I think that has a lot to do with a dog's inclination to wander. The Brittany was bred as a hunting dog and he has a naturally curious nature. Depending on how many interesting critters he can find and how hungry he gets, he may be gone for awhile. If he is a male lookin' for a female in heat, you may not see him for quite some time. As they say in Australia, he may have gone walkabout. > Jim - I think you are right ..he has gone on a run about..LOL .I saw him take off and would not listen to me - he is a hunting dog for sure and has a great nose..I hope he uses it to get home..Thanks.
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Ah spring is in the air. My dog ran off the first year we had her. She came back none the worse for wear. Just tired and pregnant.
Lesson learned.
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Steve, I hope Jake is like yours and comes home with a big smile on his face and then I will learn my lesson too and keep him contained...Thanks

 

[Western]

Remember the song "the wanderer" maybe he is just going 'around, around, around"?

His last owner may still be "wondering"
I hope "jake" finds whatever he is looking for. Like a teenager always wants to leave, not knowing how good they have it!

 

[Sigarms]

I sincerely hope Jake comes back. I sincerely know what it's like when a dog shows up and it becomes family, and you can't figure out how.

We've had our share of dogs who had made a "break for it" and have come back, but usually within a couple of hours.

However, after the first couple of "break aways" with certain dogs, we purchased this in a two dog model...

Dogtra 2300 NCP Advance


Worth every penny.

 

[2manyrocks]

My dog once disappeared with her puppies for about a week and then returned unharmed. I have no clue to this day where she went or what happened.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Experience? It is regular event for us. Venus - great pyreneese - typically leaves in the morning for a stroll in the neighborhood and comes back. I keep fixing our fences and she keeps digging holes. When any of the two airedales go with her, they are gone for 24 - 48 hours. When the two airedales run away together, we always get a call from somebody to come and collect them. They all have laser tags with name, address and phone number on the collar.

Airedales Montmorency and Clementine took off last 4th July and we got the call Sunday night from a place 8 miles away. We blamed it on the fireworks and brought them home. Those two bastages spent two days laying around the house pretending they are tired and limping and not climbing any steps and overall ready to go to physical therapy. Than on Tuesday they took of again and made five miles before 2PM - that's when the phone call came. I was so agitated I was ready to break them into 16 small puppies. After that they spent 7 days tied to different parts of the porch making guilty faces.

I hope your dog comes back or somebody finds him; been there many many times.

 

[Mousefield]

Hope Jake comes back safe and sound. Our neighbors sheltie/border collie cross went missing for over 3 weeks. The owner was sure he was dead but turned up alive and well about 10 miles away.
Happy ending so hope yours turns out just as well.

 

[Matt_Jr]

Hope Jake comes back. I know that feeling you have. That's a terrible feeling. When my hound and the wife's pug took off together one morning after a bath, they didn't have their collars on yet, and I only left the yard for a few seconds to answer the phone. I panicked. I knew the hound would come back, but pugs aren't that good. My wife would have used the kubota to bury me. I'm sure of it. I drove up and down the street, the next street up, than the next street up, with my head out the window whistling(the hound is trained to come when I whistle for her, the pug never picked up on it). Then I found the pug in the animal control woman's arms, getting ready to be loaded into the truck. She handed him over, and said he almost licked her to death, and said she saw the hound jump off a small ridge and leave the pug behind. She was able to catch our pug 'cause he just stood there watching the hound run down the mountain and he was too small to be able to make the jump. When I got home the hound was sitting on the porch wondering why I whistled for her, but wouldn't open the door to let her in. She takes off every once in a while, usually not for more than an hour, but the pug is walked supervised. He has no sense of how to get back.

 

[WayneB]

Brittany's are bird dogs and will run when given the chance. Our neighbor breeds them and has 7 of them that run on our property. Really great dogs but they need to be out and running. I hope Jake comes back to you. We take our wiredhair pointer out for a run twice a day or he is impossible around the house.

 

[galen1115]

Brin we had a weird thing happen this winter. My son's golden always stays near their house on 4 acres. I mean near the house. Never wanders. We had a Christmas snow of 18 inches. The next day my son let her out to potty and she was gone. The next 7 days we found nothing. Looked everywhere. Just vanished. Called for her at night but just couldn't figure it out. My son acted like his own child was missing. He really loves that dog. (Sadie) Then on the 7th night she was missing, after the coldest nights of the winter -10 to nights and another snow of 4 inches, Bryant's neighbor heard a faint dog bark at about 3 O'Clock in the morning. Craig has 20 acres next to Bryant's. Craig went out looking for her in the direction he heard that morning. Sure enough Craig found her under a big Eastern Red Cedar tree. The tree was shelter for her with very little snow under it. You could see she had been there for days. And where she had bed down. She had stayed put. We all thought she could not have survived. But she did. Yours will too.

 

[dcyrilc]

We've got our fingers crossed for you. Hope he comes home ok.

 

[dex3361]

I had an Austrailian Shepard come up missing for 2 weeks and my neighbor told me he saw her at his work about 10 miles away. He swore it was my dog I went looking in that area and came up empty. 2 days later she showed up at the house she seemed to be in good shape like someone had been caring for her. I figured some one had taken her and she got away and found her way home. I hope you find your dog they can be great friend.

 

[riggerjack]

dogs have incredible sense of smell. they can differentiate between skin and skin cancer better by smell than doctors can with all of modern medicine. the only trick i know of to help a dog come home, is to take a load of your dirty clothes, and place them in a field, then check them in the morning. often times the dog will come sleep on the clothes that smell of the pack. clothes smelling of the alpha of the household should work best. good luck!

 

[brin]

Thanks to you all...for the encouragment ..Jake is still not home and we driven and walked everywhere we can and leave the lights on for him every night..last night was the 2nd night and it is in the 20's here at night..I sure hope he finds his way back..I told the mail lady about it today so she could keep a lookout and the first thing she said is " someone will steal him " he is such a beautiful dog..." That is what I am afraid of ..we are in a rural area and he is a bird dog afterall..Thanks so much for the encouragement and stories, helps alot.

 

[Richard]

I'm rooting for Jake's return!

We've had one or two of our dogs (6) disappear for a day before but thus far, they've always returned. I live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by even more of nothing. Whey they disappear it's very hard for us to go searching for them as we have probably more than 1,000 acres (not ours but including the surrounding land that is bordered by a lake) in which to look. Where does one start?!?!?!

Good luck with Jake.