This morning a fisherman from one of local fishing lakes came to see me; he was hoping that my neighbours were the owners of a dog they'd found.

He told me it had been tied to a gate so, as soon as I realised it wasn't my neighbours dog, I thought I'd better go and check it was ok.  It had been left with no water but is in pretty good condition.  He may have missed a meal or two but I'd say nothing more serious and he's obviously a much loved dog.  He has nice short nails and has been clipped.  It's not my breed so I don't know how quickly the coat grows but I'd say it's been done in the last 8 weeks or so.  He has some grass seeds on his ears and a small matted area underneath his ears but generally seems quite well cared for.  He is either very well mannered or a bit subdued and has now superglued himself to my left leg despite some enthusiastic play invitations from my 2 dogs!  I suspect he hasn't been sleeping (the owner at the lakes said he was there all day yesterday and again this morning) as he keeps nodding off.

My issue is what to do for the best?  After feeding him and giving him some water I took him to my vets to look for a microchip. They checked with the chip co but the number has not been registered.  I left them ringing round for the vet that may have chipped him.  I did some more calling when I came home and by chance stumbled upon the original vet.  They were going to see if they could find a date for the chip to see if that gets us closer to finding an owner.  In the meantime I've also notified the local dog warden in case someone rings them looking for him.

I have also called the most recent missing ESS on the CD list but sadly it's not him - wrong microchip number.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

He is welcome to a bed for the night but I can't keep him.  The dog warden will hold him for 7 days then try and rehome him.  I can call the breed society but there are so many of them around I'm not sure if that's the right thing particularly as he looks more like the working type.  He is not neutered so I want to make sure he doesn't fall into the wrong hands but I'd really like to get him back to his home if possible.  Suggestions?

I don't think you can do any more than you have. The dog being found tied to a gate would concern me as I can't think of any good reason for that, other than having dumped the dog - unless they had tied the dog there for 5 mins and then come back and found him gone. I think with the dog warden you can say you would like the dog once the 7 days is up if they haven't been claimed - in which case you might then be able to get him and place him with breed rescue - not sure how that would work, but may be worth having a chat with breed rescue, at least top let them know he will be with the dog warden if nothing else. :-)

Register him on DogLost
http://www.doglost.co.uk/page.aspx?pg=72

It is a brilliant  site for reuniting lost/stolen dogs with their owners and covers the whole of the uk. They have been responsible for reunions several years after a dog has gone missing and are brilliant :)

> The dog being found tied to a gate would concern me as I can't think of any good reason for that

Apparently it was the owner of the fishing lakes that tied him to the gate this morning - he didn't want the dog near the fishermen!  He told me that the dog had been there all day yesterday and was there again this morning but he doesn't know where it spent the night.  

The dog does have a collar on, and obviously used to have a tag as the ring is still there.  Actually the ring is still in one piece so it doesn't appear to have been pulled off, although could have been deliberately removed I suppose?

He's made himself at home for the time being so I'll hit the phones again in the morning if no one calls tonight.

Poor thing, thats awful. Sounds to me like someones turned him loose (maybe couldnt afford to keep him with all this credit crunch business, couldnt sell him so turfed him out?). Obviously thats the worse case senario, but it just seem odd that hes apparently well cared for, chipped (not registered though as mentioned) and had a tag at some point.

I hope someone either comes for him or you can find him a nice home with a loving family.

Fingers crossed for the poor lad xx

> I have also called the most recent missing ESS on the CD list but sadly it's not him - wrong microchip number

Why hasn't the Chip company traced the microchipper they sold the chip to ????? They will have a record of the person who they chipped the dog for

I found the vets that have that id no but they have no record of him.  They say there is no reason why they wouldn't have kept the owners address?!   They also say they tried the chip co to find an approximate date but the chipping company can't help them.  I must say it's made me doubly aware of the need to make sure all addresses and contact numbers are up to date...

Anyway the 'good' news is that he's been collected.  He's a farm dog, he lives outside at one of the outlying farms and the son who owns him has moved to another village to live with his girlfriend so it seems the dog is a bit confused.  I told him about the chip and he said 'oh yes, it's blank isn't it'.  I did advise him to get it registered and to try and manage the dog a bit better as an unneutered dog could be a problem if allowed to roam free - but I suspect it fell on deaf ears.   The dog wasn't neglected but was very keen for a bit of tlc.  He still a bit of a baby at 18 months old and spent much of the afternoon sleeping on my feet.   I'm not surprised he fell for the kind of comfort on offer here, I wonder if he'll now find his way back - it's only a couple of miles as the crow flies.

I'll call the vet tomorrow and make sure they have as much detail as I know, just in case the bloke doesn't register the dog, so at least if it happens again he can get home safely.

Oh well, good news that he wasn't dumped and is home safe. :-)

> I told him about the chip and he said 'oh yes, it's blank isn't it'.

I wonder who chipped him as all chips must be registered after being implanted, a micro chipper who doesn't do thing properly obviously

I was just thinking that.  As the vet took down the boys chip numbers and put them on their file.  Bizarre.  Bugs me when people don't keep proper records!

> I wonder who chipped him as all chips must be registered after being implanted, a micro chipper who doesn't do thing properly obviously

When I found the vet who has that chip id, they'd already had a call from my own vet and from Identichip it seems.  She said they always have names and addresses so was a bit frustrated.  Having drawn a blank she said she was finally just searching by breed and had called a few potential owners.  I told her that the dew claws had obviously been removed so she was going to add that to her search as well.

I didn't feel it was my place to interrogate the owner but I'm wondering if the dog was chipped as a puppy and perhaps it was left unregistered for the new owner.  Although the vet said that they would have had the breeders details if that were the case.  When I ring that vets tomorrow I'm going to suggest they call the owner to get their records updated

I've got to go to my own vet again tomorrow too so I'm going to get them to double check my boys microchips are still ok, then I'll ask them to key in the details to make sure that it is cross referenced on their system.  Apparently all vets can see if any microchipped dog is registered as a patient with them regardless of where they were chipped.  It would be bad enough to lose a dog without having to worry whether I'd done all I can to make sure they identifiable. :)  Although it didn't work so well for this dog today it's comforting to know that the vets care enough to make calls to each other in an effort to find an owner.

If I chip a litter & the puppies haven't all got new owners I register the puppies to the breeder, I never implant & not register the chip & my chip supplier knows what chips have been sold to which microchipper