October 16, 2013

Lexi  is a 13 month old German Shepherd who was on a home check visit and escaped from this huge house she had been visiting.

I called the owner to offer some help with tracking and this was much appreciated so we ventured down to the place she had escaped from and were given some of her bedding for Tiga to get the scent from and off we went. It was a long hard day as Tiga just didn’t seem to pick up the scent which was surprising when Lexi had only been missing a few days. In some places Tiga seemed to have it and in others he didn’t, I kept sniffing the scent item and thought this doesn’t smell doggy! I questioned the owners about the bedding but was assured it was from lexis bed. Tiga carried on trying hard to pick up the scent and after many hours we thought we should give Tiga a rest and went for a cup of tea. After this much needed rest we returned to the area where the sighting had been and as we approached I saw Lexi travelling at a speed I had never seen a dog go before. I got out of the van and immediately put Tiga on the scent – still he didn’t pick anything up which i thought was quite bizarre. After doing a number of door to door enquiries and seeing Lexi again we called it a night and planned to return the next day with a trap.

Puzzled as to why Tiga had not picked up the scent, I soon realized that although yes the bedding was from Lexi’s bed but it was from the inside of the bed and the smell of the fire retardant overpowered the dog scent and in fact Tiga was probably trying to find a discarded settee in the ditch!

Our plan was to return the next night with traps and this we did, I had also asked the owner to bring a better scent item of which they did. We had two traps set up at both ends of a long road that Lexi was using and facing in different directions and we planned to man them all night. Lexi didn’t come and while letting Tiga out for a wee I spotted Lexi some 200 metres down the road legging it fast. We jumped in a vehicle and tried to follow but she had gone. A member of the public came to tell us they had seen Lexi and told us which way they thought she had gone. We drove round but no sign so we returned   to man the traps and hope she would come round again. In the meantime I gave Tiga the new scent item and set off to see what he could pick up. He immediately responded and we picked up the scent but Tiga wanted to turn left and not right as per the directions of the member of the public and I trusted Tiga and went with him. We crossed over the busy A26 and off down a quiet country lane where no posters had been put up and no thoughts of her going that way were considered. My trust was with Tiga, we tracked down the lane and then around some farm buildings and back out onto the lane and soon spotted her and I called for the owner to come as she was still moving  in a hurry. The owner found me and I told her to follow as we continued to track. Now in open countryside and with nowhere to go except along this long lane I jumped in the car instructing the owner to drive slowly to see if we could catch up. This we did and I gave the owner a handful of food to throw out in the road, this stalled Lexi – the food was tempting, another handful was thrown out and Lexi circled the car sniffing. I gave another handful of food asking her to just hold her hand out with the food. Lexi sniffed the food and realised it was her ‘mum’ and started to eat. I told her to get hold of her collar and once this was done I got out to go and secure Lexi with a lead. I then had to control a hysterical owner and her daughter and one very happy dog without Lexi running off again.

Relief all round and one very happy Tiga!

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