Pet Safety

My border collie spooked and bolted in August while we were hiking a portage trail in Algonquin.  Normally, she's extraordinarily attentive, always comes when called and I had never had any fear of her being off-leash... until this incident.

Anyway, while I searched for her along the 4500m trail, she made it out to the highway and 15km back to our campground.  How she knew where to go is beyond me.  She was caught by the rangers as she was making her way back to our site.  The rangers checked her tags, found the one with my cell phone number on it and called me.  Three hours after she bolted, we were back together.

My advice: always make sure that you plan ahead for getting separated from your dog.  A temporary tag with your site number on it sounds like an excellent idea.  Also: contact the rangers immediately if you become separated - if I had, they would have got ahold of me when she was spotted trotting down the highway as opposed to hours later when they finally were able to corner her.

It is absolutely amazing how they find their way to you even in a strange place. Mine is about 8 years old and we live in the country so am used to no leash walks and he minds and stays extremely well. Most campgrounds require leashes, which is good, but I did notice the minute the rpod door is open he darts out. One scent of a strange dog next door, and I could see him taking off on a new adventure Dougie looks like a little lap dog, but he definitely has the Cocker Spaniel part of him come out at a campsite and loves to take a long hike. New trees to tag every 5 feet!!

I have been looking at the petfinder tags/service.

http://www.finderproducts.com/products_petfinder.htm

Basically there is a tag with a 1-800 number and ID number you put on pets collar.   As pet owner you can call in at any time and change message that people would hear if they find the pet.    And you can set contact phone numbers as well.    The service will auto route the person who calls in to the first number, if no answer, it automatically rings second number, etc.

I paid a lot for the microchip it would be silly not to keep this information UTD. I can't tell you how many times I've found pets without a collar, probably why I found them in the first place all I can do is take them to a local shelter or call the pound services where the chip will be their only ID.

But I also have my chip info on the tag, it's accessible to anyone through their website, yes they will have to phone my cell but I would be willing to bet most wouldn't care about the costs if it reunites a pet to owner. The Petfinder ID option is good too, but put updating your chip info on your camping list of things to do before you go.

I like the idea of putting a temporary tag on them though with your campsite number on it and notifying the ranger or operator that would probably be a little more reassuring.