photo: Dawn Endico
The below post is brought to you by Pet Amber Alert…
Recently I learned about Pet Amber Alert and I smiled. Every day when I drive home, I see signs phone poles of lost dogs. I told my boyfriend once that I would tear apart Marysville looking for our dogs. They’re both micro-chipped, but microchips are apparently company specific and if a shelter or veterinarian doesn’t have the right scanner or a universal scanner (is there such a thing?) then your pet may not make it home.
Did your heart just stop? Yeah, me too.
So what do we do if our pet is lost? Do we Google “lost dog philadelphia?” Do we look on Craigslist? Do we call the local shelters? Probably all of the above.
Pet Amber Alert is just another system to help us find our lost pets. Personally, I think services like this should be free, but I do understand that they’re using many resources to help us and those resources aren’t always free. And, to be perfectly honest, I would pay anything to see my pets happy, healthy, and safe at home. I blew my savings on Riley and she had been with us less than a week.
What dog owners will get from Pet Amber Alert…
Pet Amber Alert will fax and email your lost dog or cat poster to veterinarians, animal shelters, and animal control officers within 10 to 100 miles of the location last seen.
They’ll leave voice mail messages with your neighbors; they’re exempt from the Do Not Call Registry. Today, most people I know passed on a land line and exclusively use their cell phone, but not everyone and every little bit helps.
And Pet Amber Alert will utilize social networking (Facebook and Twitter) to help expand the search within our connections.
When your pet is found, you’ll be notified immediately.
Things to do to keep our pets from getting lost….
Neutering (or spaying) your pet greatly reduces incidents of roaming.
Obedience training is important. Our dogs understand “come,” “back in the yard,” and “stay in the yard.” My boyfriend and I work together on training our dogs, but we started with a professional trainer and animal behaviorist when they were puppies.
Install a fence around your property or a dog run in your yard. Our dogs have their own 1/4 acre yard with access to indoors on bad weather days as well as their food and water.
I’m not a fan of the invisible fence system, because I wouldn’t want to be shocked no matter how low the voltage and I’ve learned that some systems are set off by a neighbors garage remote – so not helpful. But I also know people who have had great success with the system.
This post contains a paid link.
May 16, 2012 at 10:52 am
Great nformation, Kimberly…thank you! I’m going to check into Pet Amber Alert.
Twitter: SnazzyJazzyPet
May 18, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Invisible fences are terrible! We had someone coming around our neighborhood when we first bought our house. We have a 1/2 acre backyard with a stream and our cats loved to go down there and play. I was so worried when we moved in that they would get into trouble, so I wanted to install a fence. Well, I listened to their propaganda, spend nearly $2,000 putting it around our property.
Let me say it was the worst mistake ever. I only believed it because it worked so well for our neighbors. Our cats would run though, then couldn’t get home. We called to tell them it wasn’t working and we wanted our money back. The answer was to give it another week and had a training person come. Well, they didn’t tell us they ‘upped’ the voltage. They just said they were putting more flags up to us. I heard the most terrible sound, went outside, and saw my poor baby having seizures on the ground. We got the collars off, did an emergency vet call. She was fine, but I demanded that thing be taken out of my yard and I have told everyone how terrible they are!
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Susan recently published..Raw Diet for Pets
May 18, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Susan, I have only heard good things about the invisible fence from a few people. I’ve heard more people list complaints like you shared and it freaked me out. We live on 5 acres and it would be so nice to have an invisible fence so that our dogs could roam while staying on the property, but I didn’t want to take the risk. It’s crazy expensive to fence our entire property so we just work on training them.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It’ll help someone who’s making the decision; even if they decide to make the investment, at least they can ask some intelligent questions about warranties and guarantees.
Kimberly
Twitter: thefurmom
May 25, 2012 at 4:39 pm
We had to build a new fence after our English Setter dug under the fence
Like all hunting dogs he is very obedient, but stubborn! Good to know about the amber alert for animals!
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Frugal in WV recently published..Gnocchi, Sweet Corn and Arugula in Cream Sauce
May 26, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Our fence is really low, but our dogs stay in it. I think we’re going to have to make it a bit taller later this summer, but we’ll see
Thanks for stopping by!
Kimberly
Twitter: thefurmom