Finding a lost pet: fliers and advertising

If you don't find your missing pet within the first day, you should expand your efforts. Get as many other people involved as possible, through fliers and advertisements.

Fliers:
After 24 hours, it is time to make fliers. Find someone who has a computer and a printer with graphics capabilities. A friend for free is great, but if you have to, hire a professional (if they can produce it for you quickly). Studies in different fields have shown that a flier that appears professional gets more attention and is remembered longer than one that has that "loving hands at home" look.

The flier should be as simple as possible. People won't read anything that takes longer than 2-3 seconds to make the main points, so avoid lots of print that makes it look busy and complicated. If you are offering a reward, make that the top line of your poster. If you aren't offering a reward, put the word "Lost" as your top line. Buy bright-colored paper (yellow, orange, bright blue, bright green, etc.) to print your fliers on.

Include a description of your dog (the same information that you gave the shelters), your dog's call name, and any distinguishing marks. If your dog is tattooed, include that fact but keep the actual number a secret. If there is a colloquial description of your breed ("wiener dog" or "miniature Doberman" or "Lassie dog") include that. Put in a phone number where a message can be left and remember to include your area code with the phone number.

Find two recent pictures of your dog; ideal is a standing body shot from the side and a close-up head shot. Don't use show photos; there are copyright problems, and your dog isn't going to be groomed to the nines and stacked when he's sighted. If you can't find a good photo of your dog, look for a generic breed picture -- one of your other dogs who looks similar.

Place fliers everywhere you can. Pet shops, vet offices, and grooming salons are a good place to start since the people that frequent these places are "pet oriented" and might be quick to notice a stray animal. Then move on to places that have a large number of people coming through them, such as post offices, supermarkets, grocery stores, malls and even gyms or hair salons.

One of the best places to spread fliers is at local schools. Grammar schools, high schools and places where there are a lot of kids are great places to start. Offer the children the reward if they will help find your pet. Children will get on their bikes and ride around all day in hopes of finding your pet, and unlike adults it can be a fun pastime for them. Get the kids involved ... they notice things adults won't always see, especially when it is an animal involved. Get on school buses (only with the driver's permission) and hand each kid their own flier. Kids can be a great resource to you, especially if there is a reward involved.

Send fliers to every vet, humane society, pet shop and groomer in your area and the surrounding areas. If you can, get an actual color photo made up, and send one of those with each flier. If someone finds your pet, they may bring it in for vet care, or to a groomer to be bathed, or they may stop at a pet shop to get food or other necessities.

Advertisements:
Call your local newspapers and place "lost" ads. Use the rules of thumb above, similar to your flier when placing the ad. Do not forget your local radio stations. Many of them will broadcast your lost pet description for three days, at no charge. After the three days, call them back and try to get them to continue broadcasting your pet's description.

Don't just place an ad in your local newspaper. Call them and ask them if they will do a feature article on you. Most newspapers have a "local" section in the paper. Do whatever you can to promote yourself as the subject of one of those features. It will reach more people that you could possibly hope to in a day's time. If you have trouble getting someone to take your call or listen to your story, go to your local library and browse through recent back issues of the newspaper. Look for articles sympathetic to pets or animals and note the name of the reporter, then try asking to speak directly to that reporter when you call the newspaper.