Catching Strays

A dog behaviorist taught me several ways to get a stray or a loose dog to come to you. I am very careful and pay attention to the dog's body language before I attempt any of the ways to catch him. I have a really hard time emotionally when I come across dogs who seem either aggressive or so afraid of humans they run far away.

Last night I saw a dog walking in the middle of the road so I turned around and was going to keep him overnight so I could take him to the humane society the next day. He looked so pitiful. It was a tan chow. I was extremely cautious from the start since it was a chow. I stopped my car and got out and he started trotting away. I didn't pursue him too much, just tried a few things that didn't work. Since I wouldn't be able to rescue him, I drove my car and herded him to a residential area off the main road.

I still always feel so bad when I try to rescue a dog and fail. I was already emotionally unstable because of what's going on with Harley so I got into even more of a mess.

I thought I'd share a few of the methods I've learned to catch loose dogs. I'd only do this with dogs I trusted or exercise extreme caution if its a dog I don't know. One is you just start running the opposite direction and some dogs will chase you. Another way is to get on the ground and pretend to be looking at something in the grass. A dog behaviorist here was telling me that when she was trying to catch a stray on the highway and none of this worked, she layed on her back and kicked and screamed. I wouldn't think that'd work but it did with the dog she was trying to catch. I thought it was pretty funny.