How to Search for a Missing Dog

Place scent items nearby

Immediately take scent items that the dog is familiar with and place them near where the dog went lost. The items may be the dog’s personal items, such as dog beds, blankets the dog has used, toys, etc. Additionally, if the dog is bonded with you, place worn clothing items out as well – the smellier (to a dog) the better. Worn socks and sweaty shirts are excellent scent items to use. If you have (or can get) liquid smoke, pour or spray some around the area.

Update Microchip and ID Information

If the dog is microchipped, ensure that the contact information is up to date, and immediately notify the microchip company that the dog is lost. That way if their chip is scanned and looked up they can pass that information along.

Post on Lost Pet Platforms

Utilize online platforms dedicated to lost pets, like Petfinder, Pawboost, Nextdoor, or local Craigslist sections. Many people report found dogs online, and it’s a great way to connect with other pet owners who may be able to help.

Post on Social Media and Local Pet Networks

Leverage social media to spread the word. Post to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Nextdoor. This will spread the word to neighbors and local businesses quickly and efficiently. You only have one set of eyes, but posting on social media will bring hundreds of sets of eyes into the search.

Create a Lost Dog Flyer

Prepare a clear and eye-grabbing flyer that includes a recent photo of your dog, their name, your contact information and any distinguishing marks or features. Using bright colored backgrounds are effective at catching the attention of people passing by. Colors like bright red and bright green are excellent backgrounds to use.

Contact Local Animal Shelters, Rescues, and Veterinary Clinics

Call and visit nearby shelters, rescues, and vets to see if your dog has been found or brought in. At a minimum leave them with a photo of your dog and your contact information – though ideally hand them one of the flyers if you’ve already made them.

Reach out to Delivery Drivers

Delivery drivers such as Fedex, UPS, and Amazon are everywhere and are already driving around. If you can safely speak to one of them, explain the situation and hand them a flyer.

Walk and Drive Around the Area

Take the time to walk or drive around your neighborhood, especially where your dog was last seen. Bring a leash, treats, and something that smells familiar to your dog, like a blanket or toy. Dogs often respond to familiar scents and may come out from hiding when they hear or smell something they know. As your are walking or driving, stop to both ask people if they’ve seen your dog, and physically hand them a flyer. If you do not yet have a flyer let them know where on Social Media the animal is posted so they have a way to reach you. Speak to your neighbors, offer a flyer, and ask them to check their yards and/or cameras and contact you should they see your dog.

Reach out for Professional Help

When you decide to reach out for help is a personal choice – you may find your pet on your own, with the help of your community, or with various different tools. However in the event that additional resources are needed, those additional resources lose their effectiveness over time, and search areas get rapidly larger over time. Different organizations provide differing levels of support and capability.

The capabilities that drone searches provide are best leveraged in large open fields, wooded areas, creek beds – areas that are not readily searchable or completely inaccessible from the ground. We can help in many different environments and topography, however in densely populated urban areas the posting of flyers and social media are very effective tools on their own.

Considerations When Looking at Aerial Lost Pet Search

Thermal Radiometric Optics

Lost Pet Search is most effective when leveraging Thermal imagery. Animals tend to blend in with their environments in the visual spectrum. Even a dog that’s a totally different color than it’s surroundings may be easy to miss from the air in an environment with many different colors and shapes. Additionally, searching optically might miss cases where the dog is next to another object or partially obstructed by an object.

Thermal cameras have no reliance on visible light, just detecting differences in the amount of radiation emitted by things in it’s field of view. From the above examples, a dog partially obstructed by another object, regardless of amount of visible light or color, will show up starkly different than an object it’s obstructed by or next to. A tan dog, while quite easy to miss on similarly colored soil, will look completely different to a thermal camera than it’s surroundings as the heat it’s body generates as a warm-blooded mammal will emit a different radiation signature than the inanimate soil around it.

While it is possible to find an animal using a typical camera, doing so is much more prone to false negatives given the relatively “noisy” (in the visible light spectrum) environment full of different objects and colors.

Powerful Zoom Camera

Most consumer drones that people have do not have the necessary zoom capabilities to perform a search from the air. Whether a thermal camera is being used or not, having a visual camera that lacks any meaningful level of optical zoom makes it virtually impossible for most drones to effectively see animals the size of dogs from the air. Your neighbor’s DJI Mini drone will almost certainly not help in the search. Some prosumer type drones have the necessary zoom capabilities, but generally lack the thermal capabilities.

For drones that have thermal cameras, once a heat signature of interest is located, the pilot will rely on the visual optics to identify the heat signature. At altitude it’s not always possible to tell the difference between a rock that’s absorbed a ton of solar radiation and a dog from the thermal camera alone. A pilot will need to switch over to the visual zoom camera in order to identify the heat signature. Without an effective zoom camera it wouldn’t be possible to effectively distinguish and resolve what’s being looked at.

Climate Considerations

Thermal cameras, as the name suggests, can be thought of as heat detectors. While this is not strictly true (they detect radiation emanating from an object, not heat), it does pose a challenge in the Texas climate. For most of the year the solar radiation absorbed by the environment during the daytime will make materials such as stone and asphalt extremely hot. Thermal cameras need a differential in radiation in order to “see” anything. If every rock is 90 degrees and the thing we are looking for (a dog) is that same temperature, the thermal camera will be unable to distinguish between the two.

This largely makes Lost Pet Search most effective when the sun is not out and objects are not absorbing solar radiation. Lost dog searches are typically done between sunset and sunrise for this reason. The drone operator will take these factors into consideration when deciding when to come out.

Time of Day Considerations

Extending on the climate considerations above, the absolute “best” time to do a lost pet search is an hour or two before sunrise. There are two primary reasons for this.

The first, and most important, reason is that the environment at that time would have shed as much of the absorbed heat from the sun as practical. During hot summer days, the rocks may still be 80+ degrees at this hour, however this is effectively the “coolest” they will get before they begin to absorb solar radiation and heat back up.

Secondly, this is a time when dogs wake up and start becoming active, looking for food and/or water and “starting out their day”. While it’s not an absolute necessity that the dog is moving around, seeing movement on the thermal camera is extremely helpful. Rocks don’t tend to walk around much, so if it’s moving in an environment full of very warm rocks, the pilot will immediately identify it as an animal on the thermal camera, and then switch to the visual zoom camera to identify what kind of animal it is and if it’s the animal that’s being searched for. Another reason why movement is good is due to animals’ tendencies to hunker down somewhere that provides some protection from predators. Often times, the places they pick may be obstructed from the air, so having them move around ensure that they are in a place where the thermal camera can get clear line of sight on them.

Starting a search immediately before sunrise has it’s downsides however, and that’s the time limitation. Once the sun rises, the environment will immediately become loaded with solar radiation, generally putting a stop to the search.

Another common time to start the search would be at sunset. While the environment is generally still at it’s warmest, sunset is another time that dogs will tend to move around as they go around their business looking for food water after likely sheltering from the scorching heat of the Texas sun. This helps immensely in exactly the way described above, and helps mitigate the fact that the environment is at it’s warmest.

Equipment Considerations

A drone equipped with a powerful zoom camera and a thermal camera is a formidable tool on it’s own. However as most searches here in the Austin area are conducted at night, a powerful spotlight is essentially a requirement. Without a spotlight the zoom camera is effectively out of play as any type of optical system requires light to be reflected off of the object to be seen by the sensor. Note that thermal cameras do NOT rely on reflection of light and solely are detectors for the (apparent) radiation coming from an object.

Thermal systems are very expensive however, and the sensors equipped in most search and rescue drones only have a modest resolution to keep them in a manageable price range. While an equivalent detector from the ground will give you a very clear and crisp image for anything within line of sight, at a distance (or altitude) it’s much more difficult to distinguish small characteristics. Is that a coyote or a German Shepard Dog? That identification would almost certainly require using the visual zoom camera to see and positively identify it. Without a powerful spotlight positively making that determination would be next to impossible. Similarly a small dog curled up in a ball looks just like the many rocks in a creek bed on the thermal camera. Being able to turn on the spotlight and verify will vastly reduce false positives.

We are always happy to give our take on what we think the most effective tools for your particular case are, and even more generally help formulate a plan. We don’t take every case that comes our way, and if we don’t believe our equipment and expertise is warranted for your case, we will tell you.