Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel podcast . I'm Lauren Langman . I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority . In each episode , you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before , creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world .
Speaker 1Okay , so the adventures of bobble what to do with a missing dog and I'm actually going to give you an example of me losing a dog who actually we worked out wasn't actually even lost . I just lost her . And here is a big place so they can find little places to hide in a in a scenario . However , we're going to talk through all of that this week's Sexing the Squirrel what to do with a missing dog . Now let's talk into how the missing dog scenario even started . Bobble is a toy poodle . He's tiny , he's cute , he would be very , very likable and he's very , very much wanted . So people would love to find a dog like Bobble , I'm sure . Also , he's easily scared because he's he's fairly small , like he's easily the type that could , could , could go , he's a baby and he's only young . Uh , what happened , linda ?
Speaker 2so what happened was I had was out on a walk with my naughty but nice dog , with my whole pack , and because I have to manage my naughty but nice dog by moving away from other dogs , my procedure with Bobble at that point was I would move away , scatter feed but hold Bobble in my arms because he was still like six months old , so six months old .
Speaker 2I'd pick him up and then I'd scatter feed for the other dogs and as the strange dog came down the footpath , my phone rang and I'd been talking to . I had taken some serious calls on my phone so I was distracted momentarily and in that moment my naughty but nice dog chose to launch himself at the passing dog and I have my dogs on a waist belt and as I , as he pulled , he twisted me around and I realised I was going to fall over . So I've got Bobble in my arms and I'm on the way down doing those split-second decisions . What do I do in this moment ? Do I crush the dog onto the floor ? Do I throw it onto the floor ? Will I break its legs ? Do I throw him in the air ? What ?
Speaker 1do , I do Parachute movement . We need to make light-hearted of it because if not , these things haunt us it is . You know , it's like everything slows , oh yes isn't it same as when you come off a horse and I remember making that decision when a horse was rearing on me and I just thought I'm gonna jump and I did . I jumped and lisa said no , you were so brave
and I just jumped . But you do , you have that moment . You make a decision . Everything slows right down .
Speaker 2So I made the decision that I was going to fall onto my arms and brace myself so that he hit the floor on his side . But he didn't get crushed Anyway , he didn't squeal or anything . But the people by this time were shouting get your dog off of my dog . There was a kerfuffle going on so I jumped to my feet to sort out my naughty but nice dog and my other one that had followed him , and I was talking quite loud as well . So , bob , I presume at that point he's shouting a very unsafe person , ping , get here , lie down there . I'm really sorry to these people and they just linked it . They just wanted to part the scene very , very quickly . I turned around no bubble , bubble vanished , bubble had evaporated .
Speaker 1So I'm going Tiny poodle , scared , worried about voices , doesn't understand a fuffle needs to go into flight mode . He's gone , flight mode .
Speaker 2He's just gone . He's gone , he's hidden somewhere or he's run away . I had no idea which direction he'd gone in . On one side was a wheat crop , there was a footpath that the people went down . I was pretty sure he wouldn't have followed them because their dog would have told them them that he was following them , if you see what I mean , that he would have . Their dog would have picked up . They'd been followed by another dog . I didn't think he'd gone that way . But then there was this woodland area with lots of brambles and hawthorn and cleavers and I don't know what else .
Speaker 2So I'm calling , I'm calling , I'm calling , I'm calling nothing , absolutely nothing . So I took the rest , my other pack , back to the van , which was about about three-quarters of a mile away . So I walked them back and I came back with one dog . My dogs do tracking and searching , so I prompted the dog to search and they went into this woodland , but they didn't direct me . Well , I couldn't see Bobble . So that was sort of right . So I got one of Bobble's blankets and put it right at the point where he had gone . So I put something that's not familiar on the footpath , went back to the van , phoned my husband I've lost the puppy and he came down and he was calling and nothing . So I con I put on a local facebook group that this puppy had gone missing . My concern was that if I , if he was out overnight , I don't think he would survive . I mean , I have a feeling a fox would have got him or something , because he's like little one one and a half kilos , two kilos .
Speaker 2So I phoned the drone to home people . The charity and the advice they gave me was A to leave something that was my smell near where he went missing and , b to leave the vehicle
where it was , but with the doors open . Now I wouldn't have thought to leave the doors open , but anyway , leave the vehicle where it is with the doors open . Now I wouldn't have thought to leave the doors open , but anyway , leave the vehicle where it is with the doors open and stop calling , and I think we should have stopped calling much earlier , but anyway we didn't . So it was about half past three in the afternoon . We did a lot of searching , tracking , walking about , walking through the crop , walking through this room no sign of him .
Speaker 2I took the other dogs home in my husband's car , left the van where it was my husband was there and a couple of friends were there who know about poodles , and it was just about nine o'clock , so he'd been missing about five hours and the one of the friends walked past my van and they saw a little face , look out and there was Bobble and he'd made his three quarters of a mile back up the track covered in cleavers . So he'd obviously been in this woodland covered in cleavers and he'd got on the van and the van was his safe space . Bless him . So a tiny little poof .
Speaker 1Huge , huge learning there , I think the stopping calling , the , not having so many people out , like not turning it into a big , which I think a lot of people do , and you do yell for them and you yell yeah , but he couldn't have been more than a few meters away from .
Speaker 2Yeah , I've gone into flight , so he'd gone in . He'd gone into feral mode . He was just into surviving . Yeah , flight mode . He just in . He covered himself up somewhere you know .
Speaker 1I've had a couple of scenarios and I think it's worth us talking through these and with you to know what to do in a situation like this . Of course , communicate with everyone , but also make very clear that you don't want someone calling them and trying to grab them . It's more that you want to know if there's a sighting so that you can actually start to move things in that direction . The other thing that was really big for me is that when we lost our dog our dog actually she'd heard , I think , some sort of plane or red arrow or something go over and she'd bolted and she'd gone and hidden in behind a water pump at the site where we live . And yet we were calling , we were yelling like we were in desperation of where she'd , like no one had seen her , like we couldn't understand it , how she'd gone from the garden . It was almost like she'd been pinched , but she hadn't . We knew no one's been on site . We looked at the cctv as well . The thing was until everything went quiet and the only reason we saw her is because we put a flashlight , and we put flashlights around and we saw little eyes and she was hidden and she was right underneath rubble and everything she was in behind a water pump . But when they go into that mode , the verbal cue or the calling cue is actually not at all relevant and it's not helpful at all . It's actually almost the opposite , isn't it ? It's unhelpful . And the other thing I thought was really worth telling people I , I looked at a drone site straight away as well , and I I contacted the drone company and I paid them and I was actually paying scammers and I paid a scamming company and in that moment of desperation I think we paid 575 pound .
Speaker 1In that moment of desperation you do stupid things . And it wasn't that I had anything like . I literally was just desperate . I didn't have anything on the company or anything . I just looked up UK drone ,
jumped onto UK drone and they actually had scammed me , which was a shock , and I didn't realize that until they didn't come out and we were still looking , and then I rang to say we'd found her and I actually was going to say I'm really appreciative that you were going to come out . There was no one to phone me . They'd gone , and so I think there are a lot of things we might do in an incident of a dog .
Speaker 2It may never have to use it , but check out bona fide search sites . Dog loss sites . Yeah , and there are some great ones and they're actually a charity . Yeah , so Drone to Home is a charity .
Speaker 1Yeah , SAR Search and Rescue Drone is a charity , and these had cloned a page and were acting like another page and the other page couldn't shut them down . But actually all of the communications were odd and if you'd seen it in a logical way , you'd have reasoned with it and gone . No , no , no , that's not okay , whereas actually when you're in panic you often don't . So I think there are some things to learn here from a lost dog , and you've run through a few tips . One was leave a blanket that's not familiar to him and of you . Two was leave the vehicle open and in the place that it was .
Speaker 1So you could track it back . Three was actually be quiet , Stop calling , Stop calling . Four and I think this is just one for everybody to know , because I think this is an interesting one You've got all your dogs there . It was useful to take them home in that scenario , and actually they went out of the equation .
Speaker 1Yeah , so they were gone and it took away some complexity from the situation . Yes , them out of the equation . Yeah , so they were going and it took away some complexity . Yes , from the situation . Yes , and five for me if you do use a drone company and I think the drone company is fantastic check them out to just make sure that they are directly the company they say they are . There are people that scam in situations where people are vulnerable . I was very vulnerable . I was pushing matt . I was like matt , you need to pay this company 575 pound , whatever . It was bang gone . There was no comeback on that . There was none . And if we paid with , like a credit card or PayPal , we would have had some level of but these charities don't charge Drone to Home .
Speaker 2didn't ask me for any money . Yeah , they sent me a whole load of YouTube videos on what I should be doing . They straight away set up a dog loss poster and had that on their site , on their Facebook page . So they did all of that .
Speaker 1it's a charity without ever asking yeah , it's a charity and then you can donate to them if you feel appropriate at some point . I think the other one I would say with with dogs lost is , for those moments , just no potentials for them . And and I've seen a couple lately with one of our dogs where something spooked her and actually I'll just put her straight back on a lead . Yeah , so she can just go on a long line or a flexi or a normal lead . I actually don't give her a second choice or a second chance . Actually , we're putting her on lead and we're not because I can see it coming and I can see hers is noise triggered and at the same time let's not leave it to chance and also let's not then put her in situations that I know are going to be a struggle for her .
Speaker 2So if Linda's going to
be a situation maybe isn't in the equation or it's different , like you said , you've managed now observing Bobble and certainly there's been times when I see his ears go back , his nose goes up and his tail goes down and that's back on lead time something it's in the environment . That's probably part of this episode . Yeah , he goes straight back on the lead .
Speaker 1yeah , and you said the same with Ulla Yesterday . You walked her rather than her being up in front and adventuring for whatever reason , something had spooked her and she was behind you . These are things you notice and you notice them .
Speaker 1And you notice them and you want to put them on the lead or be a little bit aware of what they're doing , or even align or just become a little bit more aware to them . One of my dogs only recently went and hid in a bush on a walk and something annoyed or upset her . I think it was a bailing machine , a hay baler , and I think it clunked a few too many times for her and for whatever reason , she hid in a bush . The thing is , if you hadn't seen her go and hide in that bush , you'd never have known . It was like needle in a haystack , because she could have hidden in . It's a bridal path like there was no sign of her , just blows you away . Blows you away how , how , and you could call her until you're blue in the face . If they can't , they go into space . They just can't respond .
Speaker 2Well , if their instinct has told them they're in survival mode , then they can't respond to recalls , it's literally . It's like you might be calling , but you can be calling until you're blue in the face and you're just going to make it worse because it's putting pressure on them when they can't respond . Yeah they're not able to . No , they need quiet , always need quiet .
Speaker 1So I hope that Bobble's adventures have enabled you to think about whether your dog hopefully never goes on an adventure . But if they do go on an adventure like Bobble , then you actually have a bit of a backup plan . For me with Easy when she scooted on a noise , I think the panic that hits you as an owner is is huge , and you know what henry ford said . He said fail to prepare . Yes , prepare to fail , and I feel like the preparedness of talking through things like this . It also stops you panicking because you have a plan and of course , you're in panic , but there's slightly more strategic plan as to what you're doing , because at least when you know what you're doing , there's a chance that you can make logical decisions , where actually it probably did allow you to make more logical decisions as soon as you've spoken to them and now , knowing that , it calmed me down .
Speaker 2Yeah , the other thing that I'm very particular about and he had on him ,
he was wearing an identity tag . Yeah , yeah , yeah , he's so tiny he doesn't have a collar on , but he has an identity tag on . Yeah , yeah , and that he's so tiny he doesn't have a collar on , but he has an identity tag on his harness . Yeah , and I'm very particular about I mean , he doesn't wear anything in the house . Yeah , when he's out and about , he must always have an identity tag on , um , although he's chipped as well , but yeah , just that easy .
Speaker 1And with your chicks , have your information up to date , so I think that's also really important . So , dog loss no dog found . You guys are going to get this and sort this and have this and the preparing is really important and ultimately we hope it never happens to you . But maybe share this podcast because it's worth sharing , isn't it ? It's worth your obedience students knowing , it's worth my agility students knowing , it's worth life knowing and , most of all , make it a great day with your dog . Hopefully this never happens and , most of all , make it a great day with your dog . Hopefully this never happens and if it does , you know what to do .