I hope your week is going well. Mine is good now, but wow, did it ever start out bad! I have had Maremmas on this farm for nine years, and though a few of my Maremmas are escape artists who occasionally get out of their pastures, I have never had a dog leave the farm until Sunday.
Pax right after returning home from his 30-hour walkabout.
I plan to write a blog post about this crazy event and share some things I have learned that might help others not lose an LGD. But for now, to make a long story short, two of my Maremmas (Pax and Parma) managed to escape their pasture and wandered off around 6 am Sunday. Duck hunting season started that morning, and the shooting set them off. Pax busted through the pasture gate, and Parma followed. (It was caught on the Ring camera that overlooks their pasture.)
Parma came home Sunday night around 9 p.m., but Pax didn’t return until 11 a.m. Monday morning. I was distraught about Pax and spent all night Sunday and much of Monday morning searching for him with no luck. Our area has many farms and orchards, and the Kings River is less than a mile away, so finding a dog is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I posted about Pax on Facebook, and many kind people in my area showed their support and kept an eye out for him. Several “Pax sightings” were reported. He was making his rounds all over our area!
I finally laid down to get a little sleep Monday morning, and not long after, I heard all my dogs barking outside, which is always a sign that someone or something is here. I ran outside and found a muddy and tired Pax was home. Pax ran to me with rock-solid recall. It was a very happy reunion for us both, and after that, Pax took a nice long nap! One of my Ring cameras caught the grand homecoming on video:
All my dogs are microchipped, but a microchip alone can’t help you find a lost dog. Because of this scary event, all my escape artist dogs will be getting GPS trackers ASAP. I am still researching them, but one of my puppy clients highly recommends the Tractive brand, so I think I will use that.
GPS trackers could be very beneficial for LGDs, which often tend to wander, so I will add the info to my blog post once I have tried out the new devices on my dogs. Here is the info on Tractive collars if you’d like to look into them yourself:
What about you? Has your LGD ever run off? Do you use a GPS collar? What are your tips for keeping your dog home and safe? Reply to this email if you have anything to share.
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