In 1996, Kat Albrecht was a police officer and Bloodhound leader at Santa Cruz, California. Her dog, aj, was part of many efforts to search and rescue, sniffing and locating lost people in the woods.
But when aj escaped in Mrs. Albrecht’s yard, there was no team of professional rescuers of animals to turn. Therefore, she sought help from a friend who had her own monitoring dog, a gold retriever named Kea. “We knew that Kea understood,” Smell on this pillow and follow the trace of the smell of this missing person, “Mrs. Albrecht recalled.” Would you realize, “Mirnes on this stinky blanket and find my stinky bloodshed?”
Within 20 minutes, Kea found her resting on a stranger porch. For Mrs. Albrecht it was a turning point. “We have all kinds of dog to detect: drug detection, a bomb detection, a termit detect,” she said. “Why don’t we have dogs to detect cats? Why don’t we train dogs to follow the smell of lost dogs?”
Mrs. Albrecht decided to do just that, creating a unlikely career as a detective of lost fat. Along the way, she collaborated with researchers at the study of the behavior of the missing cats and founded a network of missing animals, which train people to find lost pets and help panic the pet owners. She no longer looks for lost pets, but trains others to follow her steps.
Mrs. Albrecht talked to the New York Times about her work. This conversation is condensed and decorated for clarity.
What strategies and techniques do you use to find missing pets?
One of the most basic things is an analysis of the behavior of lost little things. Dogs and cats are like apples and oranges. They behave differently from each other when they are lost.
Cats will hide when they are afraid, sick or injured. And this is often in their territory – in your yard or one of your neighbors’ backyard. It’s okay to post a cat that disappeared on the internet, but you have to get permission from your neighbors to enter their yards to do a slow, methodical search. Because the studies showed that cats were most likely. They are close, but they are silent and hidden.
Other techniques and tactics would be the use of a dog to detect cats. We choose dogs who want to get a kitten but not “get” kittens. I can share the story of one of these recovery. The name was carried by Karen, and her dog’s name was hell. In a closed, ticklish cat escaped. Halo followed from the escape point to the neighbor’s house, then warned: There is a cat under this deck.
When the owner crawled under the house, she couldn’t see the cat. But Karen was so convinced of her dog. She said, “My dog insists that there are cats here.” So the owner crawled backwards, and she found a miso, a cat.
There is no risk that the dog will scare the Skittish cat and hide deeper?
This is exactly what Miso did. He moved further under the house. Once Karen knew she was a cat under that deck, she put a hell in the car. So, yes, there is a risk. But the ability of the dog tells us that the cat under this house or in this pile of wood is a very important mark.
Let me come back and say: Many people think the search dog is a response to finding their missing pet. It’s just one tool. We use cameras to monitor traps and feeding cells. We also used increased listening devices. It’s just innovative to see what technologies are outside.
How is the behavior of missing dogs different from cats?
We had cases where the dogs were hiding, as when the fireworks were extinguished. But in general, dogs run.
An interesting thing about dogs is that their recovery depends more on the behavior of people. When people see this dog suffering down the sidewalk, do they think it’s a lost dog?
A dog located in a rural area – people assume he was discarded. They do not realize that this dog may have escaped from the house or was involved in a car accident. So, even if he has an ID mark, they won’t call the number there, because they think that if the owner is taking care of this dog, he would not let him loose.
What should people do if their dog disappears?
You have to go out there and broadcast it. So do things like posting on Facebook, making large, neon posters. We have what we call the rule of five plus-pet-plus-55: you want to use five words that people can read in five seconds if they travel to 55 miles per hour. For example: “Lost black poodle, a blue collar.” And place them at the main intersection.
You also have to physically search your own property. Because we just had so many cases where the owner thinks the dog is missing and the dog is there.
Do you have any other advice for pet owners?
This is a missing of a missing dog or missing cat recovery. Don’t give up too early.
