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We give Lost My Doggie a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.
About Lost My Doggie
Gone are the days when we had to exhaust our printer ink, painstakingly crafting DIY lost pet posters to plaster on every stop sign within a 100-mile radius. Lost My Doggie has harnessed the power of virtual connectivity to get the word out on lost and found pets faster, helping thousands return home safely.
Lost My Doggie is an online lost pet recovery service. The collaborative platform is for both pet parents and individuals who have found lost dogs, cats, reptiles, and more, fostering an active virtual community.
Founded in Irvine, CA, Lost My Doggie emerged from the difficulty of finding lost pets using traditional methods. Precious moments can be lost spreading the word neighbor by neighbor, and posted signs can easily be torn, damaged, or overlooked. The founders decided they could use technology to their advantage and create a service to quickly deliver information directly to the biggest resources available: nearby communities.
Pet owners can create a free or paid listing to alert nearby animal shelters and neighbors of their lost pets. The puppy version of “Amber alerts” quicken the pace of finding and rescuing the lost animal. If you’ve found a lost animal, you can also create a listing to alert people in the area.
Signing up for a free account is simple. Simply start your free alert by adding your information, including whether you need help finding your lost pet or if you’ve found someone’s pet who has wandered away from home. You’ll have the choice of sending out notifications to rescues and shelters for free, or upgrading to one of the two paid services which provide even more alerts to notify a wider range of people in your area.
With a network of over 35,000 shelters and rescues and 350,000 members, this site is essentially the “Twilight bark” of our time, reuniting pets to their families faster than ever.
Lost My Doggie Overview
Plans & Pricing
There are three main packages Lost My Doggie offers, meeting every possible budget. While the free version is the most basic, it still provides a fantastic outreach to businesses in the area. There are also several add on options that have a variety of costs attached to them. These add-ons include social media ads, adding an extra photo, including a reward, and more.
WOOF – FREE
- 25 Faxes/Emails to Shelters and Vets
- Listing in Love & Found Pet Section
- Print Lost & Found Pet Flyers
BARK – starting at $54.95
- Everything in WOOF package
- Amber Phone Alert to Neighbors
HOWL – starting at $94.95
- Everything in BARK package
- Mail Lost Pet Flyer to Shelters
Optional Add Ons
- Frontpage Ad
- Facebook Post
- Extended Listing
- List a Reward
- Second Image
What to Expect
Though my two Standard Poodles, Blanche and Zeta, are tucked safely at home on either side of the couch, I often see postings on social media and neighborhood apps about lost and found dogs. While most of these postings do reach a good number of neighbors, you have to have the app or your own social media profile in order to potentially see information about the lost pet.
Lost My Doggie makes it clear as to why there are so many success stories on the site versus the more traditional way of getting the word out. The process is simple, and the outreach is large. It literally feels like you’re doing everything possible to get your pet home under just a few screens of fill-in-the-blank information.
When you first sign in, you’re asked for simple information. If your doggie is lost, you’ll need to provide their name, breed, and the area they were last seen. If you found a lost doggie, you’ll need to provide the same information, as much as possible.
From there, you can choose from a list of add ons. You can create a facebook ad, get your ad on the front page of the Lost My Doggie site, or extend your listing to be visible for an extended 90 days. You’ll also be able to choose which package you’d like to purchase.
Depending on which package you choose, your alerts will go live in about an hour, broadcasting messages to reach your neighbors when they’re most likely at home. From there, anyone who has seen your beloved pet will either contact you directly or notify Lost My Doggie so you can be reunited!
User Experience
I can only imagine how I would feel if one of my dogs went on a self-imposed adventure on her own. I just know my family would be in worried fits, wondering if she was happily chasing squirrels in a neighboring subdivision or scared near the highway.
These are the moments where an easy to use search and rescue system would ease those fears by providing the necessary help in a streamlined fashion.
Lost My Doggie provides a simple walk through in providing the necessary information and choosing your package. There’s very little confusion as to what each step needs, and the wording on every page has a comforting tone, which manages to assure users that the information provided is in professional and caring hands.
Customer Service
According to their website, Lost My Doggie has reunited almost 200,000 lost pets since 2009. Their effective methods are quick and efficient, and they provide ample compassion during the entire process.
Since Lost My Doggie is a bit of its own community, everyone involved has a heart for pets. They show a large amount of compassion, taking every possible step to bring a lost one back home in a timely manner.
Once a listing is out, customer service will reach out with updates on your lost doggie (or cat, pig, ferret…etc) on a regular basis. Questions are answered timely, and there are multiple ways of contacting their customer service team.
Quality
There doesn’t seem to be many holes in Lost My Doggie. According to their website, the creators have a growth mindset, always wanting to improve on their process to make it the best quality service for bringing lost pets back home. The ample success stories are proof that their compassion and ingenuity shine through with quick communication with an empathetic tone.
35,000 Rescues and Shelters
There have been a few recorded complaints about Lost My Doggie, saying the only reason their pet was found was through their own traditional search. These claims state that “nothing” Lost My Doggie did actually helped; the shelter the pets were found at were never notified.
I’m willing to bet they weren’t notified because they’re not on the list of 35,000 shelters in the Lost My Doggie system. While the number of rescues in the Lost My Doggie system roughly matches the same amount of rescues registered in the United States, I’m sure there are a few who have missed their spot on the list.
That being said, I don’t believe this is the fault of Lost My Doggie. It’s just a natural hole that’s simply going to be there as the numbers and connections of rescues and shelters fluctuate.
In Summary
- Helps to locate a variety of pets: dogs, cats, ferrets, pigs, reptiles, birds, etc
- Detailed information on each pet
- 35,000 registered shelters and rescues
- over 350,000 registered members
- up to 85% success rate
- Not all shelters and rescues are registered in the database
Is Lost My Doggie a Good Value?
I thought long and hard about the value of Lost My Doggie. If one of my pups ever got lost, what would I be willing to spend to get her back? The answer is: a lot. I’m sure most pet owners would say the same, which is why Lost My Doggie feels like a fantastic value, regardless of which package you choose.
WOOF, the FREE option, is fantastic for a basic outreach. I imagine if someone found a pet, is keeping it safe, and needs to send alert to find its home, this may be the best option.
BARK and HOWL, the two paid options, are still both under $100 and communicate directly to neighbors’ phones with a recorded message. The outreach is vast, and the more people who see it, the quicker Fido comes home, making any of these options a great value.
Lost My Doggie also offers a money-back guarantee to the add on services if your pet isn’t found within 30 days. Note: this does not include the paid packages.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I hear a sample of the “Amber alert” calls?
Yes, Lost My Doggie does have sample calls you can listen to on the website. It includes a basic description of the animal, their name, and a number where they can reach out with sighting information.
What are alert broadcasting times?
Alert broadcasting times are Mon-Fri 10AM-7PM and 10AM-6PM on weekends. Most alert calls go out within an hour, if they are within the alert broadcasting times. If a listing is placed outside of these hours, the call goes out ASAP when the times start up again.
Will people on the Do Not Call list (DNC) still receive an alert?
Yes! Lost My Doggie is classified and registered as an exempt organization. So even if Linda down the street is adamantly on the DNC list, she will still get a notification to be eyes in the search for your pup.
Who gets an alert call? Is it only for the people registered on Lost My Doggie?
In short: Everyone in your area will get a call. Lost My Doggie has a database of over 210 million U.S. phone numbers. Every month, this database gets an update to keep it as accurate as possible.
What types of businesses get the mailed flyers?
Lost My Doggie mails out flyers to different types of pet related businesses. These include: animal hospitals & shelters, vets, rescue groups, pet groomers, pet stores, dog walkers & trainers, as well as other pet related businesses that are in the area.
What if I accidentally submit wrong information?
If you realized you accidentally submitted the wrong information, you can go back into your account and check to see if Lost My Doggie has sent out an alert yet. If they haven’t, you can edit the information before it goes out. Unfortunately, if it has already gone out, there is no changing the information that’s already been broadcasted.
Our Experience With Lost My Doggie
As I mentioned already, my Poodles are safe at home, curdled up in their respective spots in the living. Luckily, I haven’t found any missing pups (or pigs) in the neighborhood lately, so I didn’t need to utilize the service.
I did, however, research the experiences of others using Lost My Doggie, and I highly suggest you take a look at what others are saying for yourself, too.
Most everyone who has reported using Lost My Doggie has said that while losing their pet was devastating and scary, the compassionate customer service put their minds to ease. Their innovative communications get the message out quickly, and most pet owners report seeing their pet safely back in their arms within less than a week.
The few bad experiences I saw mentioned having to do more work on their own end, finding their dog at a shelter that never got the alert in the first place. As stated above, I think this might be a matter of a few shelters just not being on the list, but with the number of organizations changing all the time, I imagine there are bound to be a couple missing.
Final Thoughts
Lost My Doggie is a fantastic, innovative solution to bringing your dogs, cats, ferrets, and even reptiles back home. If it’s lost, they’ll help reunite them with you. This compassionate company has a mission to offer the most effective information and services to provide real results to pet owners everywhere.
Our pets are our family members. When they go missing, it’s terrifying not knowing how far away they are and if they’ll come back home safely. Lost My Doggie clearly shares the sentiment and wants to make finding every lost pet a smooth process. Not only is this a valuable service, but it’s run with the kind of heart that makes reuniting a lost pet easier.
