Volunteers have been staking out an Oakville neighbourhood for weeks hoping to corral frightened family dog

Community of dog lovers pulls out all the stops to reunite Bailey, the lost dog, with his family

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Bailey, the 30-lb ginger-furred double doodle, has been on the lam for three weeks, but the team tracking him down is confident the dog is alive and well. 

"We are getting sightings each day, and we know for sure he's travelling between Great Lakes and Burloak all the way to his home area just past Third Line," says the leader of the search committee, Ken Price. While he is confident the dog is close to home, Price implores anyone wanting to help to get in touch with the search committee first, and most importantly, avoid driving around the area on their own hoping to find him.

The experienced dog catcher says the worst thing a potential Good Samaritan could do right now is unintentionally scare Bailey, which may send him running out into traffic. 

Price is the CEO of the volunteer-run non-profit, Dream Team Search and Rescue, who has been looking for Bailey since Dec. 23, 2021, the day the 15-month-old dog went missing from the Den Doggy Daycare on Harvester Road near the Appleby GO train station in Burlington. 

Based in Burlington and Hamilton, the Dream Team recovers around 300 dogs a year. Though they usually do not take on cases in Oakville, they became involved in Bailey's case because the dog went missing from Burlington.

Price says about 97 per cent of his cases end happily, usually within the first day or two. While each case is different and Bailey is one of the more elusive dogs, Price says the odds are still very good that Bailey will be reunited with his family soon.

Price is organizing a coordinated, systematic search helped by more than 200 dog lovers who have volunteered for the weekend ground searches and nightly "stakeouts" running until 2 a.m. each night. A Facebook group set up by the Dream Team to harness the public's desire to help has attracted more than 2,000 followers at last count.

Typically, it doesn't take this much effort, Price concedes.

"The problem was the first day, Bailey was chased by no less than 100 people," Price says. "He came straight down roads, and he ended up at the intersection of Rebecca and Great Lakes. All those people were trying to do the best thing. That dog was running through huge traffic because it was just before rush hour. But with every car stopping and every person getting out of their cars, he got chased so much, and his travel path became so large."

Interacting with so many strangers caused Bailey to go into fear/flight response, Price says. In that state, "we're not looking for a domestic pet anymore; we're looking for a wild animal. You can't just whistle and have the dog come to you."

Because Bailey no longer behaves like a domesticated dog, Price urges anyone who comes across the dog to let Bailey know with "dog language" that you are not a threat. This is accomplished by silently dropping to the ground if possible, avoiding direct eye contact and observing the dog only through your peripheral vision. Then, use your cell phone to call 905-399-6984 immediately. 

Price says his response team has the right equipment to apprehend a frightened dog. Ideally, they will attempt to put a family member in front of Bailey to help him remember his previous domesticated life.

Bailey's adventure began Dec. 23, when his family, Kelvin and Elizabeth Fung and their four kids were scheduled to visit elderly relatives who live in Niagara Falls the Thursday before Christmas. The family has an older, smaller dog they took with them, but they decided to leave him at the boarding facility since Bailey is larger and more rambunctious.

"He previously had an orientation at the doggy daycare, but this was, unfortunately, his first-time stay," Kelvin Fung says. "What was supposed to be a six-hour stay became a three-week search."

Shortly after arriving in Niagara Falls, they received a call from the Den staff letting them know that Bailey had jumped the six-foot enclosure around 12:30 p.m. and disappeared into the wooded ravine across the street.

Fortunately for Bailey, Caitlyn Nicholls was on staff that day. Nicholls had a dog go missing in July 2021 that was safely recovered by Price and his Dream Team after 11 days. So when Bailey bolted, she knew to call Price immediately. Meantime, the Fung family cut their visit short and piled back into the car. When they arrived at the Den, they found Price already scanning the ravine with a thermal camera.

When Bailey failed to show up that afternoon, Price asked the family to put up posters letting people know what number to call with sightings. Meantime, a family friend posted appeals to neighbourhood Facebook groups. 

"During that first day, there were a lot of calls," Fung says. "After that, the calls got quiet. I never lost a dog before, so I thought within a day or two of him being out in winter, it would be hopeless. We were particularly down because he was lost in a neighbourhood that was not familiar to him – the doggy daycare is a good eight kilometres from our home." 

The family has since learned that Bailey is not just adorable – his ancestral canine sense of direction is intact and leading him home, and even in the dead of winter, the suburban environment has many warm places that wildlife and lost dogs would shelter.

As for the fear that the area's abundant coyote population would kill Bailey, Fung says he learned that "coyotes won't kill Bailey because they regard him as a fellow canine. So they may chase him out of their territory, but they won't hunt to kill."

As for the other concern that Bailey would starve before being found, Fung learned that Bailey could subsist for some time hunting for field mice and rummaging through garbage.

Seeing Nicholls and Price in action buoyed the family's hopes that Bailey could be found safe and sound. "They were putting in a lot of time from the beginning, so it gave us the hope to see what else we could do to marshal support," Fung says. "It's not time to give up. We're hanging tight."

Fung says the family has been overwhelmed at the level of community support that has come out to help find their dog.

"No matter what happens, the effort and coordination and concern has been gratifying and overwhelming. I really do want to mention how grateful we are for those key folks for getting the ball rolling. I thank so much all the people who helped and put things into place. They work on donations, and they never asked for anything."

Anyone wanting to donate to the Dream Team's operations can contribute to their GoFundMe or email their fundraising committee.