1. Search the area.

Search inside your home & around your property. Check in closets, under furniture, in sheds, window wells, pools, etc. Do not rely on your dog making noise in order to locate. Frightened dogs that have escaped outside tend to be fearful and look for quiet or dark places to hide. If you have another resident dog, bring that dog out for a walk while calmly calling the dog’s name as you normally would. A very scared dog may emerge from a hiding place after dark or in the early hours of the morning when the area has quieted down. With a flashlight, walk around the area with smelly treats and calmly call the dogs name. If your dog appears, sit down and calmly talk to your dog. Do not chase your dog, if the dog is evading you by staying out of reach walk toward home and your dog will likely follow.

2. Contact your neighbors & post online.

After you have searched your home, time is your most valuable asset. Dogs generally remain within 1-3 miles of the location they where lost for 24 hours, so the more quickly you mobilize people to help you look for your dog the better the chances of you locating him/her. Notify your neighbors that your dog is missing, ask them to help you look around their property and provide them with your contact information. To spread the word, you can also post a photo of your dog on Nextdoor or on Facebook community/lost pet groups such as Lost/Found Dogs Minnesota, Lost Dogs of Wisconsin. You can also send out a free lost pet alert to your community utilizing Pawboost. Be sure to include the location the dog was last seen and your contact information.

3. Report your pet as lost.

Complete the Report a Lost Animal form on the Companion Animal Control website, once submitted the lost pet will be automatically posted on our website under the Lost Animals page. Also call your local County Sheriff Department Non-Emergency number to file a lost pet report, the dispatcher will collect your information and notify you if an animal is found matching the description of yours—however everyone describes animals differently so do not rely solely on the lost pet report to match up with a found animals. Call dispatch to check records of found animals and check the Animals In Our Care page daily to see if you animal has already been found/impounded by Companion Animal Control.

Anoka Co., MN 763-427-1212

Ramsey Co., MN 651-767-0640

Washington Co, MN 651-439-9381

St. Croix Co., WI 715-386-4701

Pierce Co., WI 715-273-5051

4. Help your pet smell their way home.

Dogs have a much stronger sense of smell than humans. Place a blanket, dog bed or a used clothing item such as a sweatshirt outside near your home along with your dog’s food and water dish. Place smelly food in the dish such as sausage, salami, canned cat food, etc. If you have a trail camera, set it up so you can see if your dog returns back home overnight. If you have a garage leave it cracked open approximately the height of the dog.

5. Contact the microchip company.

If your dog is microchipped, contact your microchip company to report your lost dog and to make sure your contact information is correct. If you don’t have the phone number for the chip company, contact your vet or the shelter that implanted it. To look up any microchip company, visit Pet Microchip Lookup

6. Hang posters around the area your pet went missing.

Hang posters and flyers at intersections around the neighborhood, post them at eye level for a driver of a vehicle. Be sure to maintain the flyers through inclement weather & take them down once you’ve found your dog.

7. Check local animal shelters & impounds

Companion Animal Control lists impound partners on our page, however members of the public may not know to contact us and might instead bring a found animal to a local animal shelter. Be sure to check these sites daily as state required stray holds in are not long, in MN animals are held for 5 days and in WI standard stay holds are 4 days. After these holding periods the impound facility or shelter owns an animal, so many shelters remove photos of animals from the website.

Animal Humane Society (Woodbury, Golden Valley, Coon Rapids, St. Paul)

River Bluff Humane Society (Redwing, MN)

Northwoods Humane Society (Wyoming, MN)