How long do you continue to look for the owners?
 

I have Miss Girl posted in pictures but long story short....she was found at my husband's place of work and was first seen a few miles down the road that morning...so she was traveling. He brought her home and we've done everything except go door to door over a rural area. No collar, no microchip, ads in the paper, fliers up on the area, called all the shelters.

She was well groomed, her nails were long and needed trimmed. she will only potty on a leash so that is what she's used to. This is not a dog that lived outside. And there are so many possibilities of where she came from...pipeliners, gas workers, weekenders from NY, NJ, southern PA, Canada, older local people....I'm out out ideas on how to get her information out there and it seems they aren't looking to hard for her if they haven't called the shelter or looked in the newspaper.

It's now been a week and 2 days. How long do you continue to look for the owners?

Some people go on 2 week vacations, so after that, I'd begin to think no one is looking?

The requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. You need to contact animal control for your county or town and ask what the care and control laws are for a private citizen who found a dog. Namely, how long that dog must be in your care and control before you can legally rehome her or surrender her to a private rescue.

The laws/mandates that shelters and animal control facilities operate under can be different than those private citizens have to follow. Animal control might have to hold an animal for 48 hours before they can offer it for adoption or euthanize it. But a private citizen who finds a dog might have to wait 30 days before doing the same, even though they both are in the same jurisdiction. And make sure you record your attempts to find the owner, in case someone shows up two months from now. Keep the found report number from your animal control contact, keep a record of vet offices you checked with, etc.
Sheilah

A few years back when I found a Rotti out by the mountains, I put ads in the paper and posters in the area he was found, and posts on the internet, I kept the ads going for a month. After a month I kept the dog, also to protect myself I kept copies of all newspaper ads etc in case someone showed up one day and tried to accuse me of stealing the dog I would have proof I had been looking for the owner.

I already know what the law in PA is. Two weeks after the ad is in the newspaper she's legally ours.

I guess I'm asking more of an ethical, moral, obligation. How much more effort do you put in putting up more fliers, checking shelters, etc. I will contact the newspaper to have them extend the ad.

Have you posted on CL? I would do that(surrounding areas)and see if your state has a lost/found fb page and ask people to crosspost. Newspapers just aren't read as much anymore.
We have https://www.facebook.com/pages/For-t...570926?fref=ts and I cross-post often from that.

In my case I felt that one month was more than enough time, I did not feel guilty at all when I kept the dog after that. If the owner had come forward after that period of time and there was a very good reason as to why they had taken so long to contact me and they appeared to be responsible dog owners I would have given the dog back to them.

No, I have not posted on CL. I have monitored it often but it's not terribly active ofor lost and found in our area, and surrounding areas. She is on facebook on lost and found pages already in many different counties.

I do expect her to be here at least that long. We can't do anything, legally, for at least another 1.5-2 weeks. After that she'll have to be vetted and we'll rehome her with appropriate contracts, references and home visits. We really aren't in a hurry for her to leave. She's the most low maintenance dog I've ever seen.

When she was scanned for chip, did they go all over her? These things are known to travel through the body.