Find out about the best sites and apps available to help lost dogs and their owners be reunited.
None of us wants to imagine a situation where our pet goes missing. Sadly, it happens more frequently than most people realize. It’s good to know that if it happens to you, there is help available.
It can be a lonely and frightening experience, searching for your lost pet. Even worse, you can only do so much searching, and every minute counts. Knowing sites and apps are available to help you with your search is so reassuring. There are even sites and apps available to help you avoid losing your pet in the first place, which is much better than having to find them if they have gotten lost.
Here are the best sites and apps for lost and missing pets available in 2020:
Find Shadow
Shadow is a free app that enables owners to use technology combined with volunteers, to reunite with their lost dogs. Once you post that you have lost your dog, you get a personalized action plan and a personalized lost dog street flyer to download and distribute locally.
Volunteers with Find Shadow help comb through databases of local missing and found pet websites, shelters and other online listings in an attempt to match missing and found pets.
PetHub
Pet Hub uses a combination of methods and technologies to reunite lost dogs with their owners. The organization is award-winning, and a vast majority of the pets they recover reunite with their owners within 24 hours.
Missing Animal Response Network
MAR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that lost pets are reunited with their families. It does this by partnering with animal welfare agencies and by educating owners on how to avoid losing their pets.
The missing animal response network offers courses in loss prevention, as well as typical animal behaviour once the pet is away from the safety of home. Knowing how your pet is likely to respond to the stimuli of being lost can help you understand the best way to find them. You will find crucial information such as luring a lost or stray animal instead of chasing them, and why it is safer and more effective.
Lost Dogs Of America
LDOA utilizes volunteers who want to help owners reunite with their dogs. A significant emphasis on the work the organization does is on decreasing the number of strays in shelters.
Helping Lost Pets
The site provides a database where every lost and found pet can be listed. These listings then create a network where the information goes into social media. In addition, alerts are generated based on location and relevant to the owners’ needs.
BarkHappy
Bark Happy is an app designed for dog owners to find other dog owners nearby. You can then set up playdates and let other users know about great dog parks and spaces. Most importantly, it has a feature that enables owners to report lost or found dogs. BarkHappy uses local information proving useful to alert the entire community of nearby dog owners when a dog is missing. The local alerts ensure that the community of dog owners close by can mobilize to help search for a lost or missing dog.
Whistle Legacy
This free app is designed to keep your pet healthier by determining the activity and location of your pet. The app provides the temperature, pulse, and weight of your pet. Most importantly, GPS technology provides accurate tracking of your pet, including text alerts, when the dog leaves the safe zone you have listed.
DOTTpet
DOTTpet is a pet app designed to help you keep your pets safe. It is a free app that provides lost and found alerts in your local community. You can meet other pet owners, find out about local scams and dangers, and put out lost pet broadcasts.
Finding Rover
Finding Rover found acclaim within the last few years because of its success in helping pets and owners reunite. It works using highly advanced technology to match the photos of found animals with the photos provided by owners reporting lost pets.
Finding Rover is using facial recognition software to match found pets located on websites and in shelters with pets listed as missing. Using facial recognition is a new technology in pet finding apps, garnering attention for Finding Rover. There are few statistics on the success of facial recognition software, but it is an exciting leap in technology.
Dog Monitor & Pet Cam
Investing in a dog monitor or pet cam allows you to keep a check on your pet when you are away from home. Some monitoring systems and apps enable pet owners to communicate with their pets from anywhere. Most importantly you can ensure that your pet is safe and OK, and if there is a problem, you will find it out very quickly. So if your pet is unresponsive and may have broken free, you will be able to act speedily, giving you the best chance of finding your pet quickly.
The apps and sites above are just some of the best 2020 offerings to help you avoid losing your pet, and to help you find them if they do go missing. By utilizing modern technology, we can all be better pet owners and ensure that our pets remain safe during their time with us. Familiarizing yourself with the apps available, and potentially serving as a volunteer to help reunite pets, can be a lifeline if your pet goes missing.
Remember, prevention is always the best way to keep your pet safe. Invest in sturdy tags with updated contact information on a collar that fits your pet safely. Consider having your pet microchipped. Microchipping is relatively inexpensive and it increases the chances that a lost pet returns home safely. If you move or your contact information changes, remember to update the information with the company that manages your pet’s microchip. Unfortunately, the microchip is useless if owners forget to update their contact information.
