Lessons from the detective from Lost-Pet named Kat

In 1996, Ben Albrecht was a policeman and guide Bloodhound at Santa Cruz, California. Her dog, AJ, was part of many search and rescue efforts, smelled and located lost people in the forest.

But when AJ escaped from the yard Mrs. Albrecht, there was no band of animal rescuers experts he turned to. That is why she was looking for support from a friend who had his own tracking dog, Golden Retriever named Kea. “We knew that KEA understood:” Smell this pillow and followed the trail of the smell of this missing person, “recalls Albrecht. “Did she understand:” It smells of this smelly blanket and found my smelly fire? “

Within 20 minutes, Kea found AJ lying on the porch of the stranger. For Mrs. Albrecht it was a turning point. “We have all kinds of dogs detecting: drug detection, bomb detection, detection of thermites,” she said. “Why don’t we have cats detecting dogs? Why don’t we train dogs to follow the fragrance trail of lost dogs?”

Mrs. Albrecht decided to do this, creating a unlikely career as a detective for Lost-Pet. Along the way, she cooperated with scientists to examine the behavior of missing cats and founded a missing network of animal reaction, which trains people to locate lost pets and helps panicked pets owners. She is no longer looking for lost pets, but trains others to follow her footsteps.

Mrs. Albrecht talked to the Novel York Times about her work. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What strategies and techniques do you employ to find missing animals?

One of the most fundamental things is the analysis of Lost-Pet behavior. Dogs and cats are like apples and oranges. They behave differently from each other when they get lost.

Cats will hide when they are afraid, ill or injured. And it is often found on their territory – in his yard or one of the courtyard of a neighbor. It’s okay to publish the missing cat on the internet, but you must get permission from your neighbors to their yard to carry out a snail-paced, methodical search. Because in this place research has shown that cats will most likely be. They are close, but silent and are hidden.

Other techniques and tactics would be the employ of cat detection dogs. We choose dogs who want to get a kitty, but don’t “get” a kitty. I can share the story of one of these recovery. His name was Karen, and her dog’s name is Halo. The inner cat escaped. Halo followed from the escape point to the neighbor’s house, and then alerted: There is a cat under this deck.

When the owner crawled under the house, she didn’t see the cat. But Karen was so sure of her dog. She said: “My dog ​​insists that there is a cat here.” So the owner was crawling and found a miso, a cat.

Is there no risk that a paddish cat will be scared by a dog and delve in hiding?

This is what Miso did. He went back to the house. When Karen knew that the cat was under this deck, she put a hello in the car. Yes, there is a risk. But the dog’s ability to tell us that under this house is a cat under this house or a pile of wood is a very crucial clue.

Let me go back and say: many people think that the search dog is a response to finding a missing pet. This is just one tool. We employ cameras to monitor traps and nutritional stations. We also used reinforced auditory devices. It is simply inventive, seeing what technologies are there.

How is the behavior of missing dogs different from cats?

We had cases in which the dogs hid, for example when fireworks explode. But generally dogs run.

An engaging thing in dogs is that their recovery depends more on people’s behavior. When people see this dog of a poaching pavement, do they think it’s a lost dog?

The dog, which is in rural areas – people assume that he has been dropped. They do not realize that this dog could escape home or was involved in a car accident. So even if he has an identification tag, they will not call the number there, because they think that if the owner cares about this dog, he would not let him relax.

What should people do if their dog is lost?

You have to get there and fit there. So you do things such as publishing on Facebook, creating immense, neon lights. We have something that we call the principle of five plus people: you want to employ five words that people can read in five seconds if they travel at a speed of 55 miles per hour. For example: “Lost black box, blue collar.” And you place them at the main intersections.

You also need to conduct a physical search for your own property. Because we had so many cases in which the owner believes that the dog is lost and the dog is there.

Do you have any other advice for pets owners?

It is a process of recovering a lost dog or a missing cat. Don’t give up too early.