You found a dog. Start here.
First, check the collar. If there is a Kingston’s tag on it, enter the code below — or just point your phone camera at the QR code — and you will be talking to the owner in under a minute.
No app, no account, no sign-up. If there is no tag, keep reading — everything below works either way.
Get them safe, then read the collar properly
- 1
Approach side-on, and let them come to you
A frightened dog that feels cornered is the one that bites. Crouch, turn slightly away, avoid eye contact, and put food on the ground rather than reaching out. If they will not come, or they are injured, call animal control rather than pushing it.
- 2
Contain them somewhere quiet
A leash, a closed room, a fenced garden — away from your own pets, who have not agreed to any of this. Offer water and a small amount of food. A dog that has been loose for hours is usually more tired and more stressed than it looks.
- 3
Turn the collar all the way round
Look at every tag, both sides. A QR tag you can scan immediately. A plain ID tag has the number on it. And a rabies or licence tag, which people dismiss as useless, carries a number the issuing clinic or county can trace straight back to the owner — read it out when you call.
- 4
Take a clear photo
You will need it for the found report, for Petco Love Lost, and for the neighbourhood groups. One well-lit photo of the whole dog, standing, plus one of any markings.
Get them scanned for a microchip
Vet clinics, animal shelters, animal control offices and most Petco stores keep universal scanners that read every chip type, and they will scan a found animal at no charge. Phone ahead rather than turning up unannounced, but you should not be asked to pay.
Be aware of what a chip can and cannot do. It identifies the animal, but it only reaches the owner if the registry still holds a working phone number — and in a large shelter study, only 58% of microchipped animals had been registered at all. The numbers are here. A no-result scan does not mean the dog has no owner.
You cannot simply keep a dog you found
This surprises almost everyone, and it is worth knowing before you get attached. A found pet is legally someone else’s property, and finding it does not transfer that.
In North Carolina, a found animal must be reported and placed on a minimum 72-hour stray hold under G.S. 19A-32.1. For that whole period the original owner retains every right to the animal, regardless of who is holding it. Keeping or rehoming a dog before the hold expires is taking someone’s property — North Carolina has charged it as felony larceny.
If you want to keep the dog, say so when you report it. Many counties will let the finder foster the animal through the stray hold rather than use up kennel space, and then adopt it afterwards. Same outcome, and you are on the right side of it. Ask — this is a normal request and shelters would usually rather say yes.
Hold periods and the exact rules vary by state and sometimes by county. The 72 hours above is the North Carolina minimum, from NC General Statute 19A-32.1 — check your own county’s animal services page if you are elsewhere. Reporting also protects you: a filed found report is the record that you made a reasonable effort, which matters if an owner surfaces weeks later.
Four things that find owners, in order of how often they work
Knock on doors — five in each direction
Most pets are picked up within a mile of home, and a surprising number within a few hundred yards. This beats every online method and almost nobody does it first. Take the dog with you if it is safe to.
File a found report with the county shelter
This is where an owner looking properly will go first, and in most places it is required. It also puts the dog in the system so a matching lost report gets flagged.
Upload a photo to Petco Love Lost
Free, and it matches your photo against lost-pet photos using facial recognition across 3,000+ shelters, plus posts from Nextdoor and Ring Neighbors. Two minutes, very wide net.
Post in local lost-pet groups and Nextdoor
Include the cross streets where you found them, not just the neighbourhood name. Hold back one identifying detail so you can check that whoever claims the dog actually knows it.
- ✓Do post a clear photo — people scroll past text
- ✓Do say where and roughly when you found them
- ✓Don't post the dog's full description and every marking — keep one detail back to verify a claim
- ✓Don't rehome the dog yourself, however confident you are that nobody is looking
Who to call in Wake County
Everywhere else, search your own county plus 'animal services' — the equivalents exist.
820 Beacon Lake Drive. The only facility that will always take an animal found in Wake County — so it is the first place to check, and the first place a finder is likely to hand your dog in.
Call this number if your pet is loose in the city, or if you have found one.
200 Petfinder Lane. A separate organisation from the county centre, with a different intake process — strays normally go to Wake County Animal Center, not here.
Found pet FAQ
Can I keep a dog I found?+
Not straight away, and in most states not without going through the shelter first. In North Carolina a found animal has to be reported and placed on a minimum 72-hour stray hold under G.S. 19A-32.1, and for that whole period the original owner keeps every legal right to the animal regardless of who is holding it. Keeping or rehoming a found dog before that is taking someone's property — North Carolina has charged it as felony larceny. If you want to keep the dog, say so when you report it: shelters will often let the finder foster through the hold and adopt afterwards, which gets you the same outcome legally.
Do I have to hand the dog in to a shelter?+
You have to report it. Whether the dog physically stays with you varies by county, and many will let you foster through the stray hold rather than take up kennel space — but the report itself is not optional, and it is also what protects you. A filed found report is the record that you made a reasonable effort to find the owner, which matters if the owner turns up three weeks later.
Is microchip scanning free?+
Almost always, yes. Vet clinics, animal shelters, animal control offices and most Petco stores keep universal scanners that read every chip type, and they will scan a found animal at no charge. Call ahead rather than just turning up, but you should not be asked to pay for this.
The dog has a rabies tag but no name tag. Is that useless?+
No — it is one of the best leads you have. A rabies tag carries no contact details, but the number on it is logged by the clinic or county that issued it, and they can match it back to the owner. Read out the number when you call your local vet or animal services. People throw this away as a dead end constantly, and it is often the fastest route home.
Where should I look for the owner?+
Within a mile of where you found them, first. Most pets are picked up close to home, so knocking on about five houses in each direction finds the owner more often than anything online does. After that: file a found report with your county shelter, upload a photo to Petco Love Lost, and post in the local lost-pet Facebook groups and on Nextdoor. Include the cross streets, not just the neighbourhood.
What is Petco Love Lost?+
A free national database that matches photos of found pets against photos of lost ones using facial recognition. It pulls in listings from over 3,000 shelters as well as posts from Nextdoor and Ring Neighbors, so uploading one clear photo checks a very large pool at once. It costs nothing and takes a couple of minutes.
What if the dog seems scared or might bite?+
Do not corner it. A frightened dog that feels trapped is the one most likely to bite, and a dog that has been loose for a while is usually both. Crouch side-on rather than facing it, avoid staring, and let it come to you — food on the ground helps more than reaching out does. If it will not approach, or it is injured, or you are not confident, call animal control and let them handle it. Nobody is served by you being bitten.
How do I stop this happening to my own dog?+
A collar tag someone can actually read, and a microchip as the backup that cannot fall off. The common failure is not missing hardware — it is a microchip registered to a phone number the owner changed four years ago. Check your own registry today. If you want the version a finder can use in seconds without a scanner, that is what a QR tag does, and ours start at $2.99.
It is your own dog that is missing? Start here instead — the first 24 hours, step by step
Thank you for picking them up
Most lost pets get home because of someone like you rather than because of a shelter. If this made you think about your own dog’s collar — a tag a stranger can actually use starts at $2.99, with nothing to pay after that.
See the tags