A couple of weeks ago John and I took all three dogs hunting pheasants in the DNR public hunting grounds. There were enough people out hunting in all the fields so we picked a field set back from the others and set off hunting. We hunted for over a hour with no birds in site. Nellie got on a couple of scents but they were a bust no birds at the end of the scent. We decided to cross the road an head into a field that is thick in cover. I’m not sure what the cover is but it’s almost like switch grass (might even be). All I know is the stuff is tall (comes up to my head) and thick. There were some hunters going around the edge of the field so John, I and the dogs went down the middle to try and kick up the ones that were burrowed in the thick cover. The dogs were sticking by us good and unable to pick up a scent. 3/4 through the thick stuff John said “let’s get the heck out of here this is not working for us”. Usually when we turn the dogs turn with us and stick with us. We got to the edge of the field and only two dogs…..where is Nellie? Nellie was just in front of me but when we turned she didn’t turn with us. We called and called and no Nellie, we went back in to where we turned off and no Nellie. For 50 minutes we walked around the field, walked in the field, went to the truck to see if she back tracked her way back to the truck, drove around the two roads to see if she was out on the road and nothing, no Nellie anywhere’s. All I could think about was we lost her and we would have to go home without her……not a feeling anyone should ever have. How was I going to explain to people what happened to her. What scared me the most was that I knew Nellie didn’t have a collar on her so she had no dog tags on her. Sure she is microchipped but unless someone took her to a vet clinic, police department or humane society they wouldn’t know she had a chip or what the number was. Not many people have Chesapeakes in our area so they might of known she was ours but a lot of the hunters that hunt there come from all over to hunt on the public land. I wasn’t going to give up so I told John I was heading back in the field where we last saw her, John headed to the truck again to see if she was there and we said we would call each other if we found her. So I called and called and out of no where’s Nellie came running down the lane. I was never so happy to see her in my life. I quickly called John and told him she was fine. We headed back to the truck and the whole way she kept sticking her head down and picking up scent and wanting to follow it. I told her no more hunting and back to the truck we went. When I got back to the truck John was talking to a gentleman who said he had seen Nellie on the other road and tried to catch her but she ran off and jumped back into the weeds. All we can figure is that she got on a scent and kept on it and got separated from us in the thick cover and being older and not so good hearing anymore she couldn’t hear us calling.
Now you might ask why we didn’t have a collar on her. We use remote collars and only have two so the young dogs wear those and Nellie being better trained doesn’t need one. We don’t put a regular collar on her with tags because for duck hunting we don’t want the tags to make noise or to shine in the sunlight and scare the ducks away. So we just never think to put a collar on her. You can bet your ass she is wearing a collar now.
I wasn’t going to let a stupid mistake on our part cost us to loose our dog. So I came home got on the net and ordered up some new tags that could easily fit on their remote collars. I found some laser-ed tags from Providence Engraving on Amazon Marketplace.
Hopefully this is one mischief that we will never have again.
Moving on to other mischief. A couple weeks ago I did a post on Petplan’s Pet Poison Guide, you can see it here.
I want to do a follow up since Thanksgiving is coming upon us so I would like to share their new page to their guide for Thanksgiving. You can view it here. Be sure to scroll to the bottom and get the pet friendly recipes that are safe for your pets.
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Heart stopping fear when the four leggeds go missing. So glad everything was just fine.
OMD! I am SO glad you found her!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I am so glad to hear that you got Nellie back! Nothing instills fear in us than losing one of our dogs. I had a scare like that when Nikita was a puppy and she slipped out of her harness & collar and ran like crazy all over. I am not sure how long I chased her, it could have been five minutes, could have been 30, but I had that horrible lump in my throat that she got off her leash. I collapsed in the house after I caught her and got her back into the house. I never want to feel that ever again.
What a scary story. I’ve only ‘lost’ mine a couple of times – TIno did the same – he chased off after a deer and Sally wandered out of the yard. Both time they were gone less than 10 minutes or so, but it seemed like forever I know. So glad you found her…
That is such a terrifying feeling – glad this scary story has a happy ending. 50 minutes must have felt like an eternity.
One of my worst fears is to lose a dog that way. So glad for a happy ending.
Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats.
So glad it turned out OK.
So happy to hear all is fine!
OMD! Ma would’ve been in a complete panic! I am so glad you found Nellie and that she was 100% okay. I was worrying just reading the post. :-O My collar has a tag like those that fit over the collar – no more jingle-jangle of tags. It is great that you got them for all the SS gang!
Oz
I have been there and know that heart stopping fear. So glad that you guys found each other!!
I have tags like that, plus their name is embroidered onto the collar w/ my cell #…just in case the tag falls off. It is SO scary when they run off. And even the best trained dog will do it! I am so glad you had a happy ending.
I understand how you felt.
Glad all ended happy.
Silly me, I was biting my nails as I read the post! I too have similar tags and other devices for Harley. Can’t be too careful – that’s for sure! Have a wonderful holiday, and be blessed this Thanksgiving season.
Oh my! How scary! We don’t know what mom would have done! Glad things turned out ok!
Hi Y’all,
We used to have plastic covers for the tags, but love those tags you got! I’ve seen collars with the dogs names and phone number, but I’ve never seen a neat tag like those!
Come on by,
BrownDog’s Human
Oh my God, UI would be freaking out, too! What a horrible, sickening 50 minutes that must have been for you! I’m so glad you found her! Great looking tags!
Oh, that’s scary mischief! That’s so scary when the pups go missing. I came out of the house one time and realized some workers had let our beagle out. I had no idea how long she’d been gone (she was a runner!) and she was also collar-less (we used to let her hang out in the house naked sometimes. Ooo. Shocking!). Luckily one of the workers helped me run around and look for her. We found her behind the house with her head in a rabbit hole! I’m so glad you found her! The sewn-on tag collars are a great idea!
oh, I’m glad you found her! That must have been so scary for you.
That is so scary, and I’m so glad you found her! I know what it’s like, from when our beagle Kobi used to escape and run the neighborhood (luckily he went to a neighbor’s house most of the time and they returned him). He at least had a collar on though so they knew who he belonged to (he was not microchipped). My hubby thinks I’m obsessive about always having the collars on the dogs when they go out in the fenced in yard. But you just don’t know what could happen….they could dig out or a gate could accidentally get left open.
I’m glad that you got those new tags so at least if that happens again you would know she had ID readily seen, as well as her microchip.
That is so upsetting to all of us, and I’m sure it happens to almost all of us at one time or another. We taught our GSD Logan to play hide and seek, and one time he took off or so we thought, he was gone from our site for a couple hours. We search everywhere, drove around and couldn’t find him. We were so frightened that he was lost forever~BUT~we found the brat, hiding behind a tree about 200′ from the house, playing hide and seek! NO, we haven’t taught Booth to play hide and seek 🙂
Glad everything turned out with Lil Nellie!!!
Thank goodness you were reunited! That would kill mom too. Just the thought of not knowing where we ended up would kill her. Happy it all ended well and you got the new tags out of the ordeal for piece of mind!
This is why I wouldn’t make a good hunter. I’d be so afraid of losing my dogs. Of course, Bentley would run off on a hot scent and he doesn’t do recall. My father-in-law used to rabbit hunt with Beagles and he’d sometimes come home without one. They always went back without the other dogs and usually the one they left sitting on the side of the road waiting. I’m so happy that you found Nellie. Whew!
Very scary. Glad you found her. That is one reason that we normally only hunt one dog at a time. Much easier to keep track of one dog. Hubby has grouse hunted two at once, but it ends up being more work than fun because you have to keep track of the dogs. Like the tags.