Hi it's me Callum your favourite blog writing border collie. Ahem (clears doggy throat) may I please have your attention! I have something very serious and concerning to bark about.
My human was telling me how dognapping has become a real problem lately. Just recently me and my human heard about someone having one of their dogs stolen while out walking them.
Luckily there was a happy ending and the dog was returned. In another incident we heard about the dognapper wasn't successful. The person who was walking two dogs scared the dognapper off with the threat that her bigger dog would kill him.
It breaks my doggy heart that there are mean people out there who would steal nice doggies like me. I asked my human why on earth would some humans do something so mean.
My human said there's many reasons such as they want to keep the pup for themselves, maybe they couldn't afford to buy or adopt a pup so they decided to steal someone else's, another reason is they may want to sell your pup to make money off of them.
The two reasons that are the most disturbing are, doggies especially smaller doggies can be stolen to be used as bait in dog fighting rings and nice pit bull doggy types can be stolen so they can be used in dog fighting. I'm telling you there are some very mean humans out there.
Now on to things you can do to help prevent your doggy from getting stolen.
Never leave your doggy unattended. It only takes a minute for someone to drive up and drive off
with your four legged family member. Young kids or elderly people should have someone walk with them when they take their doggies for a walk. If possible walk with other dog walkers, there is safety in numbers.
A good thing to do is to not always walk your doggy/doggies on the same route. It's a good idea to vary your route and the time you go for your walkies, just in case a mean dognapper is watching you with the intent of stealing your four legged family member.
A personal alarm might be a good thing to have just in case a mean person comes up to you and tries to steal your doggy while you're out walking.
The alarm would bring attention to you and make the dognapper think twice about stealing your doggy.
Also, it would be a good idea not to tell strangers your doggy's real name when they ask especially if they themselves aren't walking a dog. It's better to make up a name for your doggy that way if the stranger sees your doggy playing off leash in a park they won't be able to call them by their real name and walk off with them.
When they call your doggy by the made up name you gave them your doggy won't realize they're being called and will hopefully ignore the stranger.
If a stranger does happen to call your doggy by their made up name it might be a good idea to put your doggy back on their leash to keep them safe. My human says you can never be too careful and it's better to be safer than sorry.
My barks about dognapping aren't meant to put fear in you, they're meant to make you aware of a very serious problem so you can do everything you can to prevent your doggy from being a victim of a dognapper.
Well that's all my barks for now. Time for me to go stretch out and relax my doggy body. I will be back to bark with you soon.
Your handsome blog writing friend,
Callum the border collie