Xena has had some medical problems so we have been using Chewy on a few searches. The process I have been using is to start with Xena get a direction of travel then put Xena up to rest and let Chewy follow up and see where she alerts. Then I can spot check with Xena if necessary. Anyway the system seems to be working as the last four cat searches have resulted in recovering the cat. Not that I can take credit for doing more than helping point the owner in a direction or some likely places to focus on.

Lost pet detection is really a venue where teamwork is necessary for success. The team includes /the dog (The actual scent detector.) The handler (To interpret what the dog is doing.) The owner or in some cases helpful people in the area where the cat may be. (To follow up with trapping and additional searching.)

It seems to work in many cases

In one case it took weeks but finally the owner called to say her cat was trapped behind the school where Chewy thought she was. (we could not count on kitty footprints or hair on shrubs since there was a huge feral cat colony living there.)

In one case footprints were found in a neighboring barn sure enough the cat was in the barn. They did not even need a trap just a little quiet so that she came out to the person waiting. (this was a real example of team work aside from the owners driving many hours to the location where the cat was lost for weeks.) we were aided by another dog team Xena did the initial start from the barn where the cats were lost to another barn a couple of houses away. Then Salsa followed up at that barn showing interest in an overturned boat. We brought Xena back into the barn where she found a stall full of cat prints. A neighbor let the strangers into the barn where the owner found them waiting for their cat hours later. The owners of the barn followed up by feeding the cat to keep her in the barn and watching for her. Another visit and they were bringing their cat home.

In another case the lady brought the cats housemate out to wait with her. The cat in the crate yeowed enough to bring her partner out of hiding where the owner could grab her. She traveled from her home to the city where she lost the cat for weeks. Many people in the neighborhood supported her efforts checking the trap and watching for sightings between her visits.

I found it interesting that the success is primarily due to the perseverance of the owners in all of the above cases the cats were lost a distance from home in two of the cases it was several hours from the owners home. They persisted until they recovered their pet. The dog was able to help by allowing the owner to focus on a particular area, but it did not catch the cat the cats came home because the owner used the information effectively.

River and Buck

An experiment to get the movie on line.