When you see a dog loose and running around, do you call animal control?

No. I’m pretty fearless or stupid? so when I see a dog running around I usually call it over and check for tags and call its owner.

No. We know the neighbors’ dogs. We call them or try to catch the dog.

Funny and true story. The elderly woman across the street lost her dog. She started walking up the road calling the dog’s name. She gave up about ½ mile away, turned around and walked home. When she got inside about ½ hour later, the dog was waiting for her in the house!
One of the US Border Patrol agents who regularly cruise here in their white and green SUVs saw the dog running free, picked it up, drove to her house and let the dog inside. Wonderful. :-)

I don’t know this dog. Update. He was standing in our driveway barking and barking at something. I craned around and it was animal control telling the dog “Come here! Get in the truck!” The dog just barked and barked and barked. He acted kind of skittish. That’s not a good sign. Then animal control drove away without taking the dog!

So now what? Do you call animal control again and chew somebody’s ass? I would. They have one friggin job and they didn’t even do it right. Fail! lol

What happens if you call the police? They won’t shoot it, will they? :0(

The police (the non emergency line) is who I called.

Update! Went out back and this guy comes running out of the alley and hung a left, racing toward the next street. The animal control truck was right behind them! This is kind of funny! Go Dog, Go!!

We live on 80 acres and our dogs have gotten way more adventitious lately. I’m hoping that they don’t go bother the neighbors even though they’re pretty far away. We’re thinking about getting GPS trackers for them.

I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about. Dogs stake their territory and always come back to the den.

We’ve whistle trained them but sometimes it takes 10 minuets to get back.

@Judi 10 Minuets? Not a waltz? They are fussy!

Lol. I always screw that up. Wish I could blame it on spellcheck but not this time.

Depends on the kind of dog, A boxer is big and powerful, and could hurt a child, but where I live there are loads and loads of dogs, and the only ones that ever bite anyone are the little yapping ones.

Would I call it in if I came across a boxer? , well, maybe.

If it looks clean and well fed, then it is likely a domesticated and loved pet that got out of an open door, and you are perfectly safe, it is probably just a bit excited to be out and having a good time while it lasts.

If it looks dirty, and has a long rusty chain hanging from its neck, then it obviously got out of a junk yard, or away from someone who is not treating it right, and it is probably hungry or hurt and yea, you should probably call that in because if it is not already trained to bite, it probably is not trained to not bite either.

EDIT: I say no one ever gets bitten round here, well sometimes they do, but 4 or 5 cases in 30 years is not much when you consider that most people here own at least one dog.

@Dutchess_III The AC officer just called the dog, told it to get in the truck and then drove away? What an idiot, as IF the dog is going to simply obey and jump in the truck. lol
What a loser, you ought to complain to the county, the officer is supposed to be TRAINED to capture animals, use a come along, whatever. Moron!

I usually wouldn’t in my neighborhood unless the dog looked wild or unsafe. There are a lot of well-loved dogs here; I would try to find the owner.

Depends on the behaviour of the dog. It’s truly unusual to see a dog sans human here, but it’s a big city, so if something unusual happens, a quorum will soon be reached to solve the problem. I therefore assume I wouldn’t be alone, and wouldn’t be so afraid to approach a non-aggressive lost dog.

If it were aggressive, then obviously I wouldn’t approach it – and either I or another onlooker would soon call the authorities.

@Coloma Well, they came back around.

When it was in the drive way barking at the AC officer it seemed kind of skittish and…kind of cowardly. That’s a dangerous dog, IMO. Anyway, I think they got him. His owners need to fix their fence or something.

@Dutchess_III I don’t know… if you were lost, and strangers were trying to kidnap you, you’d probably be a little skittish, too. :)

We stop and call the dog. Then we take it home and contact the owner.

There was a spell when our dogs got out several times. The dog catcher said that from day one all he had to do was call them and they’d just jump in the back of his truck! They, of course, thought they were going to the lake. He got to know their names even. He said they were a couple of the best dogs he’d ever met.
One time they got out just as the kids were going to school. Our dogs really loved that! Ended up the janitor took them into his janitor room and fed them pop tarts until AC came.

I would have considered that @marinelife, but wasn’t sure how my dogs would react.

I usually try to catch the dog myself first (if it doesn’t appear to be aggressive), and try to reunite them with their owner myself. I have in fact done this three times; twice the dog was happily returned home and once it was a starving, filthy stray with no collar or tag. That one stayed with me overnight, I fed and bathed him and took him to the local police station the next day. (I would have kept him but my partner refused).

I’ve never not been able to catch a loose dog, so that’s what I do, like @Katniss I have no fear when it comes to animals for the most part.

All have had tags so I either take home until the vet’s open (to scan for microchip) or call the number on the tags, and talk to the owners, drop them off to them or whatever. My dogs always bark if a loose dog is around to let me know..lol

I LOVE ALL OF YOU THAT CATCH AND REUNITE, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Dutchess_III If you are not comfortable catching a dog, I think you probably do the right thing called the dog catcher, but I personally am very uncomfortable with that option, it just seems very unnecessarily cruel and stressful. Even skittish dogs are sometimes just freaked at being ‘lost’ or ‘without their owners’, like a child without a parent, try not to think of it as being aggressive, just scared. There are a lot of good books about non-verbal communication with dogs that may help you conquer feelings of fear, although healthy respect is optimal. :)

I never have, but I am afraid of dogs, so if I saw the same one around two or three days I might call. Also, if I felt the dog was suffering in some way I would.

In TN I had two freinds who would take in dogs and worked with a charity organization that helped stray dogs find homes, so I probably would call one of them first if I still lived there.

I took a Rottweiler home once because he was running free with no owner in sight. When I got him home I called the dog warden as he didn’t have tag with a address or number. He was a very sweet dog so I was more than happy to take him home with me but I would always check out the dogs body language before calling it over.

Usually I try to get the dog to come to me, look at (or for) a tag and call the owner direct. I have never called animal control.

I try to lure him over, which is easy because I have my own dog with me most of the time. I’d call animal control if he seemed aggressive or if I was unable to catch him. In most cases, I trust myself to know ahead of time whether a dog is friendly.