"George," Beagle, Pescadero - Found!

This photo was taken just after George was found on a large farm tied up in tall weeds and his Flexi lead, and we were walking back to the road to get a ride home. 

_____________________________________________________________

I received this nice letter from George's person:

"From: Dee Harley

Subject: Thank you!

Date: August 6, 2012 2:03:30 PM PDT

To:         Jackie Phillips <jackie@thesocialpet.com>

Jackie,

I cannot thank you enough for such a wonderful gift you and Dino gave back to our family last week. You are the talk of the town, everyone is seriously impressed, especially George!!!!!

Talking about George he is a different dog. He wags his tail he comes to us and he now sits on the couch next to me and watches the Olympics. As you said. He wanted to be found. Thank you for your true care and interest in Dino that you can do this for people.

I hope you don’t mind but I have passed your name on to www.smilindogs.com who have a very successful dog walking company in San Mateo. Conrad the owner is very interested in talking with you in case any of his dogs escape or run away. He walks them on acreage around Pescadero and they run free so it does happen. 

I also gave your name to a woman in Pescadero, Cindy, who would like to talk to you about training her dog to do the same thing. She owns Pescadero Country Store and she was the one who gave me the idea to call you.

Our web site and newsletter writer, Kate will also be contacting you to do a full story about You and Dino for our next Newsletter if that is OK with you. It goes out to 12,000 people each month and like me, it may give someone the idea.

Please know that I appreciate what you do and that I am so grateful for making the call and that you were the one who made us all happy again.

With kind regards,

Dee Harley

Harley Farms

Pescadero, California"

______________________________________________________

This was posted on August 16, 2012, in the newsletter for Harley Farms in Pescadero. Their website is:www.harleyfarms.com.

"A Case for the Pet Detectives

My beagle George has no bark. He was a medical testing dog and lost his voice box to science. I hope it was worth it. He is still a young dog, but fearful, and not yet settled on the farm. He ran away several times when he first arrived, but came back eventually each time, knowing where dinner was. Two weeks ago he was startled by other dogs while on a walk, and ran away wearing his leash. We searched thoroughly for hours, and asked throughout town if anybody had seen George, a beagle on a leash. No luck. He never came home. Cindy of the Pescadero Country Store told me about a lost pet service, and I called Jackie Phillips of The Social Pet. Jackie, a former animal control officer and shelter volunteer, has trained her three dogs to assist her in tracking lost pets. Jackie's own Staffordshire terrier/pit bull mix, whom she'd had since the dog was eight weeks old, was stolen from her yard twenty years ago, leaving Jackie knowing all too well about the sadness of losing a pet.

Dino, Jackie's herding mixed breed, was her pet detective on duty for George. Jackie adopted Dino from a rescue shelter as a dog labeled "out of control", and redirected his energy and friendliness into pet tracking and many "Best Mixed Breed" dog shows. She says he has a bomb-proof personality under all sorts of pressure, with strange people, dogs, cats and other animals. He is also big and fit, a deterrent in scary neighborhoods. Well, Dino picked up George's scent, and the trail led gradually into a thicket of plants so tall I couldn't see over them. George's leash had tangled him into the weeds, and he couldn't escape. He couldn't bark for attention. I carried him out of there safely, and I want to thank Jackie and Dino for outstanding service and for saving George."

__________________________________________________________

Pescadero is a coastal rural farming community, at the far southern end of San Mateo County, off of Highway 1, about 20 minutes south of Half Moon Bay. 

__________________________________________________________

George is a nine year old Beagle. He is wearing a collar with ID tags and he is microchipped. He had been adopted from Muttville Senior Dog Rescue about two months before. George is also debarked, but he is able to make a type of coughing/hourse sound when he attempts to bark. According to his family, George is afraid of men, dogs, loud noises and strangers. 

George was walking with his person six days ago at around 6 PM, when George got spooked by some dogs barking in a nearby yard. He was seen running behind a rural house, dragging his Flexi leash and then went behind that house, which was a very large farm/nursery. George was seen running all the way to the far southern end of the property, all the way to the distant far corner where two chain link fences came together. From there, George went under the chain link fence and disappeared. 

There were no sightings of George after he disappeared. 

Behind the property is a very deep creek (at least 25 feet deep) with super thick vegetation on both sides. At this time of the year, the water depth ranges from a few inches to a couple of feet, and the sides are practically vertical in height. 

His people thought he was stuck somewhere inside the creek, so they had focused their efforts in that area. They had checked the creek for at least a mile in every direction, but no signs of George.

On the other side of the chain link fence was the creek, but it was also another very large and commercial nursery with rows and rows of green houses and a large watering pond. We went to that nursery and checked for the scent there. If the scent was not there, then George did go into the creek, but if we find the scent there, that means that George initially went into the nursery, and we could follow the track from there.

We made the walk all the way back out from where we were, down the road, into the next nursery and to the back of the nursery to the creek. I had Dino check for scent on the two back roads. 

We found George's scent leading down the road along the creek. The scent went into one of the greenhouses and came back out. Then the scent went behind one of the greenhouses and came back out. Then the scent went up a slight hill to an open pond that was surrounded by chain link fence. We followed the scent around the first turn of the pond. At this point, we were several feet above ground and looking down. As we made the first turn, I looked into the thick bushes surrounding the pond on the other side of the chain link and saw a small white and brown dog hiding in the tall weeds. The weeds were at least six feet tall, so he would not be visible by people walking in front of him. George's person was walking several feet behind me, and I called to her to come up to where I was and look at the dog to see if the dog was George. She said that it was George, and she called out his name as she walked slowly up to the chain link fence to get his attention. He turned his head a little and wagged his tail, struggling to move  At this point, it was obvious that George was tangled up in something and couldn't move, so she ran back to the gate and out around the pond and found him inside the weeds. I kneeled down to be out of his view, so as not to frighten him with Dino. 

She slowly moved toward him to make sure he wouldn't run and got a hold of his collar. She looked at what he was tangled up in and said it was his leash and all the weeds. I asked her if she needed a knife to cut the leash, but she unsnapped the leash from his collar, pushed away the leash and weeds, and picked him up. I handed her Dino's leash to put on him to make sure she had something to hold onto him with. 

She said he felt very relaxed and was not fighting being carried. 

The above photo was taken after being pulled from the weeds and on the walk back up to the road where she called a friend to come pick her up with George. Dino and I walked back to the farm. 

She said that George drank a lot of water, but wouldn't take food yet, which, she said, was normal. He wasn't a big eater and would probably eat when he was relaxed back at home. 

View George Pescadero in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Name: George Pescadero
Activity type: -
Description: -
Total distance: 2.39 km (1.5 mi)
Total time: 1:00:25
Moving time: 22:24
Average speed: 2.37 km/h (1.5 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 6.39 km/h (4.0 mi/h)
Max speed: 9.56 km/h (5.9 mi/h)
Average pace: 25.30 min/km (40.7 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 9.38 min/km (15.1 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 6.27 min/km (10.1 min/mi)
Max elevation: 72 m (236 ft)
Min elevation: -7 m (-24 ft)
Elevation gain: 98 m (321 ft)
Max grade: 0 %
Min grade: 0 %

Recorded: 8/1/2012 2:05pm