How Good Are They

[Talien]

Ok so some of you might have noticed me mention a bitch in a few posts that is owned by my housemate. She is not de-sexed... Yet... (Don't go there I'm working hard on pulling my housemate around in thought)

I put her out on tuesday night. On monday morning she had artfully escaped THROUGH the fence. She never normally runs away but she's a little--- she's in heat at the moment.

We've called the vet.

We've called the local radio station.

We've called the Animal Shelters.

She's microchipped and registered.

We've canvassed posters everywhere.

We've drop-boxed over 100 missing notices in the area around the park where she is usually when she decides to take herself for a walk.

I KNOW it is irresponsible to have a dog un-cut. This is not my pet and so I can't just run off with it to the vet (as much as I might wish to). Elysia (the dog) is loved and cared for well. She is extremely fit and tiring her out is an effort.

What I want to know is the likelihood of getting her back now that she's been gone for so long? I am terrified that this beautiful girl will be used in one of Ballarat's notorious puppy farms if she is found by the wrong people.

Is there anything else that you can think I can do, or the owner Sue can do in order to find her?

I am so angry because her life is now in danger because the ONE person that is supposed to care for her wanted her to "be a mummy", I have lived with this dog for 3 years and feel like she is part mine (though I know legally she is not the love I feel for her is the same).

[dancinbcs]

How good are they at finding their way home? It depends on the dog and the breed. Some are great and others hopeless.

Why on earth was a bitch in full season put out in the yard without being supervised?

Hopefully she will end up in a shelter where she will have to be desexed to be released because she will almost certainly be pregnant by the time anyone finds her and your idiot friend does not deserve to get her back. If you are going to own an entire bitch then you have to take responsibility to keep her safe when she is in season.

[W Sibs]

I hope she is home soon

[Talien]

Elysia has only run away this year, she has never had the opportunity to escape a yard before, so we're not used to anything like this occurring. It's ok to turn around and say "it's irresponsible to have a bitch and not desex her", this is a sentiment I agree with 100%.

The reason she is kept outside is that she bleeds and when she does it makes a mess. We live in a rental and while we do our best to make her comfortable outside when she has to be out there we cannot have her bleeding on the carpets.

Secondly, I am not a breeder. It's not something I ever plan to do. I am trying to talk my housemate and friend out of it. I grew up with male dogs. Desexed male dogs. She grew up without dogs. If I knew anything about bitches in season then this probably wouldn't have happened. The problem is I didn't. She doesn't.

your idiot friend does not deserve to get her back

That's a little unfair. I agree she's an idiot. To some degree I may even agree with you that she doesn't deserve to get her back. That said, I would not want to see her in anyone else's hands. Some dogs are lucky if they are fed and loved and played with as much. Others don't even get given a chance :*(

Edit: She is a 4yo Black Labrador

Edited September 29, 2011 by Talien

[dancinbcs]

Elysia has only run away this year, she has never had the opportunity to escape a yard before, so we're not used to anything like this occurring. It's ok to turn around and say "it's irresponsible to have a bitch and not desex her", this is a sentiment I agree with 100%.

The reason she is kept outside is that she bleeds and when she does it makes a mess. We live in a rental and while we do our best to make her comfortable outside when she has to be out there we cannot have her bleeding on the carpets.

Secondly, I am not a breeder. It's not something I ever plan to do. I am trying to talk my housemate and friend out of it. I grew up with male dogs. Desexed male dogs. She grew up without dogs. If I knew anything about bitches in season then this probably wouldn't have happened. The problem is I didn't. She doesn't.

your idiot friend does not deserve to get her back

That's a little unfair. I agree she's an idiot. To some degree I may even agree with you that she doesn't deserve to get her back. That said, I would not want to see her in anyone else's hands. Some dogs are lucky if they are fed and loved and played with as much. Others don't even get given a chance :*(

Edit: She is a 4yo Black Labrador

I don't think it is unfair at all. All bitches in season bleed and yes they can make a mess but they still need to be kept secure inside or in a dogproof run when in season. This bitch had already escaped before so her owner knew it was possible and if she can get out, dogs can also get in to the yard. Many a bitch has been mated by a dog jumping into the yard and it is never safe to leave a bitch in season in a yard unsupervised. If the owner couldn't guarantee to keep her safe at home she could have boarded her for the duration of her season but instead she has allowed her to escape. If she wasn't prepared to keep her safe she should have desexed her. This is the ultimate in being an irresponsible dog owner. I am not having a go at you because it isn't your dog but the owner needs a big wake up call and I hope the poor dog doesn't suffer because of it.

The chances of a Lab coming home on her own are pretty good but it won't be until she is coming out of season and has most likely been mated by every dog she could find. Hopefully she won't come to any harm in the meantime. If you get her back please do whatever it takes to get the owner to immediately desex her before the pregnancy progresses any further.

[Talien]

Sorry. It's just hard you know, I love my friend but I know she is the worst pet owner. She doesn't abuse her pet, but in not caring for her properly she neglects (in my opinion) and it's really hard to see things like this happen. Elysia is loved and played with but it's not enough sometimes. :*(

I feel like there's nothing I can do. I am trying so hard but she just wont listen to reason. If she had have listened Elysia would be inside right now playing with the cat, or sleeping by the heater. Or trying to get fed a snack. gah.

I'm glad you think she might still come back, maybe there's hope yet and this might be fate convincing my friend for me.

[Alkhe]

Don't lose hope - my mum's dogs got out abuot 2 years ago, and one was lost for 6 days and 5 long nights. I'd all but given up hope, and he turned up in the Lost Dogs Home. He is a very anxious dog, and escaped being caught by people and rangers for that whole time. At one point he'd been contained in someone's yard and the ranger was on his way to pick the dog up, and he got out again.

All I can suggest is keep calling your council, and surrounding councils too. Rudy (our boy) was found 3 council areas away.

I also helped reunite a dog this year that was picked up in my suburb and then transported to someone's home and placed in a pound about 40km away. They thought they were doing the right thing, picking the dog up and taking him home. Keep calling everyone you can think of, and don't lose hope.

Good luck, I really hope you find her

[RuralPug]

Looked at your list, you've notified one vet - there are several in Ballarat, please notify them all.

Only one shelter I know of in Ballarat, they would have told you there to notify the local ranger as well - did you?

Please tell us more of "Ballarat's notorious: puppy farms" . I only know of one and that closed down a few years ago. Most of the stock were dispersed to other pf's interstate and in Gippsland.

I hope that your friend can now be talked into an immediate spay (spay/abort if necessary) as soon she stops bleeding.

[persephone]

if the dog has not been walked a lot around the suburb/streets and is actively searching for a mate-she will not 'find her way home' .

Please notify every vet , RSPCA shelter, pounds etc..and you might have a chance of getting her back. is she wearing a collar? does she have a microchip? I am hoping also that she gets impounded and desexed prior to the owner getting her back.

where she is usually when she decides to take herself for a walk.

:(

Edited September 29, 2011 by persephone

[Talien]

Sue called all the vets-yes more than one, and yes the RSPCA. We've also notified all the buy/sell/swap sites we know of that get a fair amount of traffic on FB.

We did the area as best we can but I've heard that a bitch can roam as far as 5km, sometimes more when she is heat.

Yes she has rego tags, name-tag with number, as well as a microchip that has current details.

"where she is usually when she decides to take herself for a walk."

By this I mean the park. If she gets out, which this week has now occurred twice we found her at the park, being held onto by some teens who live in the area.

Sorry ruralpug "Ballarat's notorious: puppy farms", i thought that there were more in town, obviously I was wrong but the whole idea of it is so horrific and my mind has a tendency to go to worst case scenario

We thought maybe the teens still had her because late last night we heard another dog barking that sounded like her, however today we found a lab her size and male, he has a slightly deeper bark. Because of our panicking though we have the rangers number. According to the RSPCA any dogs the ranger gets he brings them to the shelter so she, if found by the ranger, will be scanned for a microchip on entering the RSPCA.

Elysia has been walked all over the place. Sue is very sick but my partner and I take her for walks all the time, especially to the park which is her "ball time", I think that's why she keeps going there being on heat + boredom.

I hope we hear something soon, and that if we don't she finds a home that will care deeply for her (and get her desexed).

[persephone]

By this I mean the park. If she gets out, which this week has now occurred twice we found her at the park,

That's what's sad

Well, looks as if your friend will get her wish - that her poor dog will be pregnant . Hopefully that is all .. and she has not been injured during mating , or worse...argued with traffic or something.

hope the dog is safe and well somewhere.

[Talien]

I hope she stays away a few days, comes back safe and sound and preferably not pregnant (highly unlikely) and that this ordeal terrifies my friend enough to book her in to get desexed.

It sounds mean but I think that for Elysia's health and safety, it is the best thing that could happen for her (not that she went missing but that the ordeal causes her to get desexed)

None of that sounded right but I'm sure you all get what I mean

[sandgrubber]

Good luck!

When I was a kid, one of our dogs killed a calf and was given away to a family that lived ~200 miles away. He escaped and made it home in about two weeks.

A dog with a will can make it home if people don't interfere.

A stolen dog is not likely to reappear.

Labs are almost all friendly, and if they wander, have a very high chance of being taken in by someone and reported to vets, the local shelter, or anyone else the well meaning person can think of to report him/her to.

If she it pregnant, see your vet. They have 'morning after' treatments for dogs that work up until . . . I think it was . . . day 43 of the pregnancy.

[Fit for a King]

I'm confused by the "I put her out Tuesday night...by Monday morning she had artfully escaped"...does this mean she was out from Tuesday through to the following Monday - 6 days? In season? Unattended?

[Talien]

No it means I'm an insomniac with a reallllly bad sense of time! Lol I swear I thought it was Wednesday yesterday and lost a full day somewhere... I put her out tuesday night after playing with her inside/ having her by the fire for a little while. I was so tired that ***I*** forgot to chain her up like I said I would. We don't normally chain her up but obviously we were worried about her getting out. So you can see why I'm a little upset.

It was my responsibility to chain her up that night and I feel like the worlds worst surrogate mum because I've never done something like this :*(

I'm angry at my friend for not getting her desexed but at the same time I was livid at myself for being such an idiot. I am and will be a great dog owner but this just smacks that in the face. I didn't want to admit it because so many would look at me on here and go "you should never own an animal, your irresponsible" but I guess if you cannot accept your mistakes you cannot learn from them :*(

[persephone]

Chaining a bitch in season outside is just making her an easy target for entire males who come looking if she can get out - they can get in. Hope you get some news soon.

[poodlefan]

Why you simply couldn't put a pair of 'bitch pants' on her and let her live her normal life beats me.

[Talien]

Me too. I was (and still am in a sense) disgustingly uneducated when it comes to "whole" dogs/bitches. I've personally only known two other dogs that were not desexed and they were owned by breeders that I rarely saw as a child. I think that if I am going to own a dog then this is something I'm going to have to take a crash course in, i want to know everything so there are no surprises

We're putting an ad in the paper soon so hopefully that or our canvassing will turn something up.

[ems999]

We once lost a dog 50 kilometres from our home .He turned up at home a week later. He was a kelpie/border collie rescue dog. don't give up hope, some dogs are amazing at finding their way home. All the best and good luck.

[Ellinnet]

I hope your housemate's girl is home with you again soon. It is a horrible feeling not knowing where they are.

I hope that your housemate then listens to you and has her desexed. Or you find a way to keep her safe when she is in season. As someone has already mentioned, if she can get out, dogs can get in.