Homesick Sheepdog Escapes, Travels 240 miles on Paws to Reunite with Owner

Pero the English Sheepdog traveled 240 miles to reunite with his original owner

A homesick sheepdog made a remarkable 240-mile journey home to his birthplace in Wales after escaping from his new home in Cumbria.

In an incredible story that echoes the classic story Lassie Come Home, four-year-old working dog Pero is thought to have returned to the village of Penrhyncoch, Ceredigion by foot 12 days after escaping from his new owners in Cockermouth.

He turned up on the doorstep of his original owners Alan and Shan James limping and a little thinner than before, but in otherwise good condition.

To achieve the feat Pero would have had to travel an incredible 20 miles a day, potentially navigating busy motorways including the M6 and M62.

While the tale is reminiscent of fictional hounds like Lassie, who travelled hundreds of miles from the highlands of Scotland back home to Yorkshire, animal behaviour experts say it is not impossible that a dog in real life could make such a perilous journey.

Mrs James said it is a "mystery" how he found his way back home, after being sent to the Cumbrian farm for a trial.

“He obviously wasn’t happy in his new home, the farmer said he could see he didn’t settle. He was shy,” Mrs James, 48 said.

“He took him to gather some sheep and that was the last time he saw Pero, he was going across the field and not thinking of turning back.”

"I thought someone would get in touch because he had a microchip, but on Wednesday night after supper my husband went out and there he was on the doorstep waiting for him.

“He was jumping up at him he was going mad, just jumping around in circles. It’s just a mystery as to how he has turned up on the doorstep.

“They say dogs can find their way home but it’s quite a distance from Cockermouth. My sons go up there every year to shear and they have to use a sat-nav to get home so for a dog it’s quite remarkable.”

Dog behaviourist Stan Rawlinson said working dogs especially tend to have a "natural compass" and sense of spatial awareness.

The couple are now appealing for anyone who may have seen Pero on route between Cumbria and Wales to get in touch so they can piece together how me managed to get home.

After his journey Pero, one of 15 sheepdogs on the James's farm, is unlikely to be embarking on another adventure any time soon.

"I don’t think it would be fair for us to send Pero away again," Mrs James said. "He obviously enjoys his home. I’m sure Pero will see his years out here."

Is it plausible for a dog to walk 240 miles? 

Tales abound of dogs' incredible loyalty and ability to track down their owners, from the fictional Lassie to the real life Greyfriars Bobby who is said to have spent 14 years guarding the grave of his former owner.

Nick Jones of Alpha Dog Behaviour said while "240 miles is in the realm of the fantastic", there were examples of dogs having made such journeys.

Legendary hounds include Bobbie the Wonder Dog, said to have made a journey of over 2,500 miles from Indiana to Oregon in 1924 six months after becoming separated from his owners on a road trip.

Last year it was claimed a dog injured in a hit-and-run accident in Russia walked nearly 200 miles just to find the woman who had nursed him back to health.

For most dog finding their way home even a few miles away is too much of a challenge, but Stan Rawlinson, a dog behaviourist said some dogs, especially working dogs, have an "amazing spatial memory" and "some sort of tracking mechanism to where they live".

He added: "How homing pigeons do it is they work on the magnetism in the earth, which is how we use compasses, so it’s almost like a spatial compass they have in their head, and it is believed dogs could have the same thing."

For a sheepdog, 20 miles a day would be "very do-able", Mr Rawlinson said.

"A sheepdog is used to running round and herding sheep and doing 40, 50 miles in some places. They travel miles and miles in a day."

He added: "The bond between a shepherd and his sheepdog is very close. "It needs to get back to the person it feels totally secure with and that’s how it gets that far."

Source UK Daily Telegraph

Missing Dogs Massachusetts featured on CBS

Congratulations from Seattle to our virtual soul-siblings on the east-coast for this excellent piece of PR on the local Boston CBS affiliate. The group has been doing a fantastic job using Facebook to help Reunite missing dogs with their frantic owners. 


BOSTON (CBS) — Thousands of dogs in Massachusetts are lost every year.

On Sunday’s Pet Parade, WBZ-TV’s Kerry Connolly talked to one organization that’s doing its best to bring those dogs home.

Missing Dogs Massachusetts has helped to find 700 lost dogs since January, working through social media to raise awareness about missing dogs.

The group shared tips on what to do if your dog goes missing, and steps dog owners should take ahead of time to increase their dog’s changes of being found if it does run away.

Missing Dogs Massachusetts says newly adopted dogs often have a higher risk of going missing.


http://cbsloc.al/1TEOHYz

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Here's the advise the group's website gives to owners

Steps to Reunite a Found Dog with its Owner

1. Immediately contact your local Police/Animal Control (required by law).  This dog may already have been reported to them as missing.  If the dog’s appearance is alarming - do not assume that he/she has been neglected.  A dog that has been missing for any length of time can quickly become dirty, matted & thin.
2. If the Dog is wearing a tag, call the number on the tag. If there is no ID tag, but there is a rabies tag or a town license, call the number of the town clerk’s office or the veterinary practice that administered the vaccine – they should have a record of the dog’s owner.
3. If the dog is not wearing any tags, take the pet to the closest shelter, vet, or animal control agency, and ask them to do a full body scan with a Universal scanner.
   
   If the dog is chipped, and the chip is registered, the individual conducting the scan will be able to secure the contact information for the owner.
4. Take the dog for a walk (on a secure leash) throughout the area in which it was found. He/she may lead you back home.  Be sure to ask homeowners in the vicinity if they recognize the dog.
5. Create and post simple “Found Dog” flyers in the area in which the dog was found.  The flyer should contain a clear/ large photo and giant lettering/contact information so that it may be viewed from a passing vehicle.
6. Use the internet to search for postings for the found dog.  Review both “Lost & Found” and “Pets” category on your local Craigslist.  Create posts (with photo) and place them in those categories as well.
7. Fill out the MDM Found Dog Form so that we can create a post to share for you on our FB page  (NOTE starting in Spring 2016 No Lost Dogs in Seattle we will soon have its own active NLD Facebook page and forms)

Onyx the Black Lab Found Inside Stolen Car and Reunited with Owner

                                                     Onyx reunited with relieved owner Nancy

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (WHP) — Police in Franklin County say a dog and car stolen from a gas station parking lot have been recovered and the dog is back with his owner.

Chambersburg police said the car, which had a 10-year-old black lab named Onyx inside, was stolen from the Sheetz parking lot along Norland Avenue Wednesday morning.

Police say the car, belonging to 79-year-old Nancy Sheaffer, was left running.

The car was found late Thursday in the Greencastle-area of Franklin County.

Onyx was inside and later reunited with Sheaffer. "He's just like a baby to me," Sheaffer said Thursday.

Police say the person believed to have stolen the vehicle may have headed toward the York County area because of credit card transactions made on Sheaffer's cards.

"Every hour of the night I was out here walking outside to see if maybe he's trying to get home, or hurt or coming down the street...I mean every hour," Sheaffer said Thursday.

Police said their investigation into the vehicle theft was ongoing.

Source WHP

After 42 days, Jade the Australian Shepherd found in Yellowstone

David Sowers and Laura Gillice spent weeks searching for Sowers' missing dog Jade in Yellowstone National Park, motivated by the thought that she was out there, somewhere, all alone.

Sowers, 58, remembers thinking, "I've got to find her, she's my dog. No one else is going to put in the effort that I will," he tells PEOPLE.

Not anymore.

After 42 days on her own, Jade, a 17-month-old Australian shepherd, was reunited with the couple on Friday, bounding across a meadow to meet Gillice – a scratch on her mouth and looking extremely thin, but otherwise no worse off.

"She's one tough little girl," says Gillice, 58

It's been an emotional roller coaster since Jade's disappearance, Gillice says, and it didn't start out easy. On July 23, Gillice and Sowers had been returning from Yellowstone, in Wyoming, when they were involved in a car wreck; and Jade bolted as officials tried to retrieve her from her cracked plastic crate.

In the days immediately following, Gillice says she and Sowers – and later Sowers' children – searched, fruitlessly, for Jade.

Already leery of people before the wreck, Gillice says Jade was bolting from anyone who saw her.

Their efforts, accompanied by long drives to the park with no success, were devastating, she says.

What's more, Gillice and Sowers were recovering themselves – particularly Sowers, whose injuries included a broken wrist, broken finger and a kneecap shattered in 10 places

"We had pretty much given up," Gilice says.

But they continued to receive reports of Jade sightings, broken by two stretches – one for 16 days and one for nine days – where she seemed to disappear completely, Sowers says.

Sowers says it began to seem as though Jade had migrated about eight miles from the site of the wreck to the park's Canyon Village area, where Sowers' wrecked car had sat for several weeks before being towed. He believes she followed the scent.

So the couple went to Canyon Village too, and waited. By that point, Sowers says everyone in Yellowstone knew their story.

It was park employee Kat Brekken who led the organizing effort for Jade's search, he says, and helped spread the word on social media.

Brekken convinced the rangers to set out live traps, Sowers says, and asked for him to send some dirty clothes to help scent the area where Jade had been spotted.

Sowers says Brekken would take down posters for Jade and put new ones back up: "This dog is still missing. Don't give up on her."

Then "it finally paid off on Friday," Sowers says.


Gillice was walking her dog, Laila, around the meadow where Jade had been seen, near the gas station where Sowers' wrecked car once sat.

Out of the corner of her eye, Gillice says she saw a black head pop up, followed by recognition. Jade came "bounding at me, kissing me and everything," Gillice says.

Her survival was helped by her avoiding cars and by her strong nose, Gillice says. Jade always had a habit of searching out skulls and small animals while they hiked. Sowers says Australian shepherds are the smartest dog breed as he knows.

Jade is skinny now – "skin and bones," Sowers says – and is skittish around other animals. But around family, she's just like she was before.


Sowers says even Yellowstone officials couldn't quite believe it, and told him Jade's survival may have broken a record.

Sowers says he has received all kinds of emails and Facebook messages and texts. He's very thankful to everyone who helped them search.

He uses one word, over and over, to describe what happened: "amazing."

There's even talk, apparently, of a silver screen adaptation.

"It's a little overwhelming," Gillice says. "We laugh: 'Who's going to play us in the movie?' "


Source