Incredible Lost Dog Reunion Video!

Bloodhound Tracks Dog Who Bolted from a Car Accident

Here’s one of the most heartfelt lost dog reunion videos that I’ve seen in a long time. Check out the reaction of the family members of Oreo, a dog who ran off in a panic after being involved in a car crash on I-95 outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia (USA).

This story is told by Melissa Felts, co-founder of Return 2 Home Lost Pet Resources. Oreo’s guardian Carmella began crying (a bit too loudly) when she realized that Oreo had been tracked down by Truman the bloodhound and that he was safe. You can hear Melissa try to calm Carmella down and the change in Oreo’s behavior when he got close enough to recognize family members. I suggest you have a tissue in hand when watching this video!

Return 2 Home is a nonprofit organization that does amazing work recovering lost pets in their area! If you’re interested in helping them, they have a page on Things to Get Us that lists lost pet recovery supplies that they need.

Woohoo! Oreo is home safe after 3 1/2 days in the woods after being in a rollover car accident on an exit off of I-95 on Saturday! The owner was fortunate to have "only" a sore back and serious injuries to her left wrist and fingers, but she’s otherwise ok. After the accident family and friends scoured the woods as they searched for Oreo, but to no avail.

We became involved and printed signs for them (thank you Minuteman Press!) and they were put up yesterday. But there were zero sightings. We contacted Stafford Animal Control and they hadn't received any calls. Usually, lost dogs require some patience and eventually are seen. But because this was a car accident, we were concerned that Oreo could be injured, or worse. It was also possible that he was traumatized and still in the “fight or flight” mode. Although he was wearing a harness and vest, we weren't concerned about him being hung up because, most of the time, a dog will chew through a harness if it snags on something (and Oreo did!).

Oreo posing for photo immediately after he was tracked down by bloodhound Truman. (photo credit: Laura Green)

So, Laura and I decided that we needed to use our search dog Truman who is trained to track the scent of lost dogs. Laura loaded Truman in the car and we all met at the accident site. The owner's entire family came and brought toys as scent articles. We explained that it's not likely that we will actually find Oreo. Tracking with a search dog is often a tool to help determine the direction of travel of the lost dog and to decide where to concentrate search efforts with neon posters. And if the dog was nearby, tracking through the woods could actually push a skittish dog further away.

I stayed at Laura's car because it was 1/2 mile of rough terrain. The plan was that once she finished working Truman, I would drive to the other side of the area she worked to pick her and Truman up. They headed out and I watched their progress on the APP that connected to Truman's GPS collar. Truman was doing a lot of circling...under a fence, then back again. They were gone about 20 minutes or so when suddenly, I saw on the APP that Laura and Truman coming back down the hill towards us.

When they came out of the woods, we could see why! Laura was walking with BOTH Truman and Oreo! Truman had found Oreo on top of the hill. He was only 150-200 feet from our surveillance camera and feeding station, but we never saw him on camera.

Truman the bloodhound is super friendly with humans and other dogs, so Laura crouched down and let Truman approach Oreo. They sniffed each other and wagged tails. Laura carefully approached and was able to get hold of Oreo’s torn harness. Then Oreo was all wags and wiggles! Laura put a slip lead around Oreo’s neck and brought him to the waiting arms of his owner!

Here’s video of the reunion between Oreo and his family:

Welcome home Oreo!!

COME TRAIN WITH ME (Kat)!

If you’re interested in becoming involved in lost pet recovery work like Laura and Melissa, sign up for our self-paced ONLINE 8-week MAR (missing animal response) Field Course. You can sign up at any time and work through the training at your own pace. The cost is $400.00, and you can make 3 “split” PayPal payments of $133.33 over a 3-month period. We also offer online MAR K-9 classes where we coach you in how to train your dog to find lost pets, training that takes about a year to complete.

The 8-week MAR Field course is the exact same training that both Melissa and Laura took that launched THEIR adventure into helping people like Carmella find their lost companion animal, like Oreo! To register, go to our REGISTRATION page.