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Post by willow on Jun 22, 2007 21:54:55 GMT -5
Hey, all.......We are trying to catch a "lost" dog. A 2 year old female Choc. Lab. It's a long story, but a friend of mine bought her from a kennel/lab rescue and she was not leash trained, which I didn't know, until I put one on her and she went beserk! I was doing fine with her and even got her to walk forward etc., and then I handed the leash to my friend, she went beserk again, knocked him down and slipped the martengale collar I had on her and ran off. This all took place last Saturday. She has been staying in the area, but she will not come to anyone....not even the previous owner's, but that is a long story in itself! They are angry at us, even though they were remiss in collar/leash training her and now have said they have washed their hands of the whole thing, because she is now "ruined" and even if they got her back, they could not "sell" her to anyone else! We have rented a live trap from one of the local shelter's and the first night we are sure she went part way in, but we had her blanket in there and we think she pulled on the blanket to get at the food and tripped the door. Now, of course, she won't go near the trap again! Tonight wonder of wonder's, she showed up in our yard! I quick got some food, but when I called her, she took off again! I put the yummy food where she can find it if she comes back, but I need some suggestions on what to do now! How can we catch her if she doesn't go in the trap, won't come to us and doesn't have a collar on? Laura....have you ever been in this situation? So many people have said we have done all we can and we should just give up, but I am not ready to yet, unless she leaves the area or gets killed on the road, but how can we catch her? ? Thanks for any help anyone can give us.
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Post by Richard on Jun 23, 2007 8:25:18 GMT -5
Hey Loey, I'd keep doing what you're doing and if she eventually figures out (or gets tired/hungry enough) that you're not the bad person, you may get your hands on her (and not let go!!). It's just going to be a matter of time and while I don't wish to see anything bad happen to her, you are doing everything you can to get her back and have nothing to apologize for (especially to us). Having said that, I'm also amazed at these people who had her before - well not amazed - said these comments: They are angry at us, even though they were remiss in collar/leash training her and now have said they have washed their hands of the whole thing, because she is now "ruined" and even if they got her back, they could not "sell" her to anyone else! What a load of pure unadulterated bull*hit. They don't do any training whatsover and it's YOUR fault she's ran away and on top of that, they say she's RUINED Where the hell do people come up with this type of logic??? Gawd, how the stupid continue to exist on this planet is beyond me. It seems these people at the rescue blame everyone else but themselves for their careless handling of this dog. Now if, and I hope this doesn't happen, she gets hurt (or worse, killed by a car) while running loose around the area, they won't feel any guilt because they've blamed Loey for the dog getting away from her - conveniently forgetting they never did little or any leash/obedience training with her at all - talk about passing the buck eh? Good luck Loey. I hope you get your hands on her soon and then get her some training and into a good home. If you ever see those original owners again, flip 'em the Bird for me will ya!!! Keep us posted.
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Post by willow on Jun 23, 2007 12:48:48 GMT -5
Thank you, Richard, for your kind words. I feel we have made mistakes along the way, like putting her blanket over the trip plate in the live trap . If we hadn't done that, she would have had to go all the way in before it tripped, but I have not given up hope yet that we will catch her some how. We are going to set the trap up in our yard in hopes that she won't associate what happened the other night with it being in our yard and maybe go in. If that doesn't work, our neighbor has an outdoor kennel and we are going to ask him when he gets home, if we can rig it up with food in hopes that she will go in there, because she is used to an outdoor kennel and Duane used to rig our kennel so the door would slam shut/lock when a dog went in and pulled on the bone inside, to catch the dogs running at night in our neighborhood! I put some yummy food out last night...just beyond our underground fence so my dogs wouldn't eat it and the dish was licked clean this morning, but we don't know if Karma ate it or stray cats. There was too much food for one cat to eat all at one time, but several could have polished it off. One of the neighbors also said she saw a sheltie running around here last night. We also caught a cat in the live trap last night and had a very frightened kitty to let out this morning! I will keep you posted. I am also getting the name of this kennel/lab rescue out there to warn everyone not to go there! Just the name and names of the dogs leads me to believe they want their dogs to be "free spirits." The name of the kennel is " dream Kennels/lab rescue" and this dogs name is "Karma". Our friend said it is not a very clean place, they have 20+ dogs running wild on the 3 fenced acres, and running in/out of the house at will! All the rescue dogs are wearing nothing around their necks but orange ribbons with their names on them! I told my friend not to do anything, not even tie his shoes without coming to us first from now on!
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Post by Aussienot on Jun 24, 2007 2:33:36 GMT -5
There is a device called a catching pole, which has a loop attached to a stick that you drop over the dog's head and tighten. Perhaps your shelter can rent you one of those. It is necessary for her to be in a somewhat contained area, like a fenced yard for you to get close enough to slip the loop over.
I'd keep up the baiting of the trap, and keep your fingers crossed. Sooner or later she will seek out human company; hopefully sooner.
That's very funny. If you were trying to catch a cat, I bet you'd catch the dog instead.
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Post by willow on Jun 24, 2007 6:38:41 GMT -5
Thanks, Aussie, but the problem with the "catch pole" is that if we could get her into an enclosed area, we could "walk her down" and catch her. She is not (or at least wasn't!) aggressive and eventhough scarred out of her wits, she never once growled/snapped at us. She is running loose all over our small town and the countryside outside of it! Miles and miles of open country and woods. I even thought of darting her, but we are certain she would run off into the woods and we wouldn't be able to find her. We brought the trap home and set it up in the back behind our yard and I thought we caught a "polecat" last night, because the smell was so intense it woke me up, but the trap was empty and not tripped this morning. I had put a "trail" of small amounts of canned dog food from the front to center of the trap, hoping to lure Karma in far enough, but this morning the canned food was gone, and dry untouched, so something just ate the canned food and didn't trip the trap. This is beginning to get frustrating and discouraging. (sigh) What we need now is a camera to see if she is even coming around at night, because if she is, even if we can't ever catch her, I would put food/water out for her as long as she is coming here.
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Post by Laura on Jun 26, 2007 21:09:45 GMT -5
Loey, I'm so, so sorry I didn't see this until today, I've been offline for over a month . Anyway, yes, I've had to try and catch loose dogs like this one, and if she stays in the area, you'll get her eventually. Go to the areas where she's been sighted, and get prone, flat out on the ground. Surround yourself with a nice stinky food, hotdogs, cooked steak, whatever, at a decent distance away from you, 15 feet or so. Don't move, don't make a sound, just let her eat. If she does come up to you, don't make a sound, just let her nose around you. Look bored and totally unconcerned. She'll probably leave, but that's okay, you're going to repeat the same routine the next day, only moving the food a little closer to you. Each time you do this, you'll be building up the trust, and you will eventually get her close enough and calm enough to GENTLY grab her and slip a noose leash on her. In the meanwhile, rig up that outdoor kennel on the edge of your property, that's a great idea. The other thing you can try is to use another dog to try and find her, if she's dog social, the need to be around her own kind might also be enough to bring her out. I'll keep my fingers crossed, keep us updated! PS - That kennel/rescue is to blame for this, not you, and I would have happily smacked them for omitting that very important piece of info when you picked her up .
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Post by willow on Jun 27, 2007 7:22:13 GMT -5
Thanks, Laura. It has been an unusually busy summer for every one.
Well, Karma is still missing and we have not seen her since the other night. We have not gotten any more calls either of some one seeing her, so I am so afraid she has left the area....or worse.
My husband insisted on keeping the trap set at night and we caught an Oppossum Monday night and another cat last night. That is the problem with live traps in an area like ours.
I went and put food where she was first hanging around on Monday night, but have not seen her over there again and the food was not touched when I checked yesterday morning.
I am going to make up more flyer's saying she is "still missing" to put around town in hopes that some one will spot her again and call us so we at least know where she is!
I have shed many tears over this poor sweet lil' girl, and this is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I have visions of her out there scarred and starving to death and it breaks my heart!
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Post by sibemom on Jun 28, 2007 6:56:51 GMT -5
Don't worry Loey YOU WILL CATCH HER I am so disgusted with that SO CALLED KENNEL/RESCUE I did call the Menominee, Escanaba, Green Bay, and Shawano shelters yesterday. I told them about these people and what they are doing. I figured Jason at Oconto already knew because you got the trap from him. What I do not understand is HOW can they get their hands on fully intact Labs from a shelter I mean it is standard procedure for all shelters that I know of to spay or neuter before they adopt the dog out, unless they are pups and to young, but then they give you a time line, and do a follow up Somebody must not be doing their job. The Green Bay shelter said they would put out a posting to all neighboring shelters etc... about these people so I AM ON IT This way maybe we can STOP them Karma will be caught I just know it ;D
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Post by willow on Jun 28, 2007 7:49:58 GMT -5
Hey, Ann....YOU GO GIRL! ;D Thank you so much for calling the other shelter's! These people have to be stopped! I can't figure that out either, how they get intact Labs from Shelter's, but that is what Cindy told my friend and also another lady from town here who purposly went up to check on their "Kennel/lab rescue" when she heard about Karma. There has been developments and I will post an update later, but right now I have to go out. Thanks again!!!! You are great!!!!
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Post by willow on Jul 12, 2007 9:16:06 GMT -5
Update on Karma. She is still running loose in our area! I went all over and posted notices and then talked to the local sheriff and she told me the self appointed rescue lady in town was also trying to catch her, so I called Frankie and talked to her and she expressed the desire to have a female choc. lab, so when my (former) friend heard that he called her and told her if she caught her, she could have her, because he wanted to "move on" and get another dog...which he did!!!!!! It would have been nice if he would have waited until the issue with Karma was settled, but as ignorant as he is, he says she is now "ruined" and didn't want to "mess" with her even if she was caught! So, anyway, I am still getting calls on her being spotted by people, plus I have seen her several times when I am driving around at dusk (when she comes out of hiding) and almost had her twice, but Frankie and her "gang" of kids came and began chasing her, because they drive around too, so that took care of that! Karma got to know my car and came right up to it and I think with a little more time she would have let me catch her. I had several talks with Frankie and I am uncomfortable with some of the things she is telling me, but since the dog is now hers, there isn't much I can do about it. Oh! And one more thing. Karma came into heat....the previous owner's had said they got her to raise puppies and she didn't and that is why they didn't want her anymore. People saw her with a couple of male dogs, so now she is probably going to have puppies on top of it. I am just so frustrated and don't know what else to do, and once again I am in the position of mopping up after someone else's mess, but I won't rest until she is caught.
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Post by Richard on Jul 20, 2007 7:27:26 GMT -5
Hi Loey,
This story just gets more bizzare every time you update us.
eeeeesh, I think I've got it straight.......Frankie and her kids, Karma in heat (and probably pregnant now) and last but not least, the guy who started all of this who has already moved onto to his next dog - which is not really surprising given his lack of interest in finding Karma - can you say "expendable"?
I hope you get her first Loey and find her a REAL family to love her and take care of her.
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