If you’re reading this because your dog is missing right now, start here: go outside and search the nearby lanes, slowly, before you do anything else. Then come back to the rest of this list.

For everyone else, this is worth reading before you ever need it. The first day is when your chances are best. Your dog hasn’t gone far yet, the people who saw it still remember, and nobody else has taken it in.

The first hour: search close, and search quietly

Most dogs that slip out don’t run in a straight line across the city. A frightened dog usually looks for the nearest dark, tight place to hide: under parked cars, in stairwells, behind generators, inside construction sites, in a neighbour’s open parking or garden. Check these first, within a few hundred metres of where it was last seen.

How you search matters as much as where. Running and shouting a scared dog’s name can make it bolt again, even when it knows you. Walk slowly. Call in a normal, happy voice. If you spot your dog, crouch down, turn slightly sideways and let it come to you. Shaking a treat packet or its food bowl often works better than chasing.

If someone is at home, keep the gate or main door open with that person waiting there. Plenty of dogs find their own way back within the first few hours.

The next few hours: tell everyone who’s out on the street

In an Indian neighbourhood, the people most likely to have seen your dog aren’t online. They’re outside. Talk to:

  • Your society’s security guards, and the guards of the buildings around you
  • Delivery riders waiting near your gate, sweepers and housekeeping staff
  • The chaiwala, the paanwala, the vegetable vendor, the auto stand
  • Local dog feeders, who know the street dogs and will notice a new face quickly

Show them a photo on your phone and leave your number. A ₹10 photocopy of a poster handed to a guard does more than you’d expect.

There’s a local reason to move quickly. Street dogs in most areas are territorial, and a pet dog that wanders into another pack’s area is often chased away. That can push it further from home than it would go on its own, so widen your search towards the edges of nearby territories.

Get the word out online

Once the street search is underway, post in the places your neighbours actually read:

  • Your society or RWA WhatsApp groups, and ask members to forward to nearby societies
  • Lost-and-found pet pages for your city on Instagram and Facebook; most Indian cities have several active ones
  • Your own WhatsApp status and Instagram story

A good post has a clear, recent photo, the area and time it went missing, the dog’s name, breed or look, collar colour, and your phone number. Keep one distinctive detail to yourself, like a scar or a particular marking. If someone claims they’ve found your dog, you can ask about it.

One warning: be careful of anyone who asks you to send money before you’ve seen your dog. “Advance” payments over UPI for “transport” or “food” are a known scam on lost-pet posts. Pay any reward only after your dog is safely back with you.

Call the places a lost dog might end up

Phone the vet clinics and pet shops near you, the animal shelters and NGOs in your city, and pet boarding facilities. Send them a photo on WhatsApp so they can recognise your dog.

It’s also worth calling your municipal corporation’s animal department or the local Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre. Dogs are picked up for sterilisation drives, and a pet without a collar can look like any other street dog to a catching team.

Tonight and early tomorrow morning

Place something that smells strongly of home at your gate or building entrance: a T-shirt you’ve worn, your dog’s bed or blanket. Leave a bowl of water there too.

Search again late at night and around dawn. The roads are quieter then, frightened dogs are more willing to move, and you can hear more. Take a torch; a dog’s eyes reflect the light from under cars and in dark corners.

Ask your society office and nearby shops to check their CCTV. Even a single clip of which direction your dog went saves hours of searching the wrong way.

Why a tag makes such a difference

The person most likely to find your dog is a stranger who gets it to sit still for a minute. What happens next depends almost entirely on what’s on the collar.

With no collar, your dog looks like a stray. With a collar but no tag, the finder knows it’s a pet but has no way to reach you. With a tag, the finder can contact you while your dog is still standing in front of them. We look at this in more detail in how long it takes someone to identify a lost dog’s owner.

A Scan It Up pet QR tag works with any phone camera, so the finder doesn’t need an app. They can message you through the scan page, or tap to call or WhatsApp you if you’ve allowed it. You get a notification as soon as it’s scanned, along with the city it was scanned in. Because tags hang off collars and go through rain, mud and baths, print it small, laminate it, and use a sturdy tag holder.

Once your dog is home

Take your dog to the vet within a day or two, even if it seems fine. Look for ticks, cuts and paw injuries, and mention anything it may have eaten. Then work out how it got out: a gap in the gate, a door left open during deliveries, or panic during firecrackers. Around Diwali and New Year, keep dogs indoors with the windows closed, and check that their tag is on before the crackers start.