A friend alerted me to a current spate of dog thefts, one dog was stolen from his yard and later found deceased. Another attempt was made but the dog fought, a nd ran to his owner. A white van was seen speeding away. These dogs were reportedly in fenced yards. Please be extra vigilant.

Great.. Another thing for me to have nightmares about.

Was this in New England?

One was New Jersey, I haven't heard if the second dog was same town or state. Will try to get more info.

Always be vigilant on this, I do think in some areas it's a lot more common then one may think.

A few years ago we had such a rash of REPORTED dog thefts that they actually had a task force for it. The scum was actually quite brazen in some of the attempts.

I was always careful before that, now I'm paranoid. The worse thing is that those of us that are in active in dogs have a good idea of how most of the stolen dogs end up.

Along the same lines, recently I have heard of multiple instances of animal rights activists taking dogs from yards and turning them into shelters. Although I have doubts about my dog allowing a stranger to remove her from my yard, I still padlock my gates and keep my yard as secure as possible.

We had GSDs going missing in my community just a summer ago. Amber would probably do a token look back for me and then happily go along with whoever.

I did get more information the dog who was found dead ( they think poisoned) was in california, this is the one with a white van with no windows and neon writing on the back.
There have also been aussies taken in nj.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of creepy, up to no good people out there & we owe it to our dogs to keep them safe at all times & out of harms way in the same way that we do our children. You would no sooner leave your child out in the yard unattended...so why would you leave your dog out there unprotected either.

My dogs are never outside in my yard unless I am home & out with them or very attentive. Mostly if I am not out there they sit on the deck watching the door waiting for me to come out.

I have a 6 ft stockade fence that the gates are padlocked on the inside & not easily accessible from over the top of the fence from the outside.

My intact male would most likely make someone think twice before attempting to snatch him. He is pretty territorially hostile & vocal about it. My female is more social, but not when someone she doesn't know is hanging around the woods behind my home or near the fence. She doesn't even like to see the wildlife, large or small, out in the woods & acts as if they are invading aliens.

There are easier 'targets' on my street that are left loose in yards with very low fencing or tied out with little to no supervision. My dogs will alert if they see someone that they don't know in a neighbors yard. They know what the neighbors look & sound like & don't react to them, but often will to their visitors.

While there have never been any dogs snatched in my neighborhood in the 10 years that I have lived here....there is always a first time & worth being vigilant.

Anne, I agree with your sentiments, but there are some of us whose circumstances dictate that their dogs be left outside at times. I would never have adopted Sadie had I not been in need of a guard dog for my yard.

When I started searching for a watchdog, I halfway expected to end up with some psychotic beast that I would have to throw meat over the fence to. I had no clue that I would find a purebred GSD that I would bond so deeply with.

Now that I have her, I don't want anything to happen to her, so I take very seriously the responsibility and the need to keep her secure, for her sake and for that of my community. I have taken every possible step to prevent her being taken, but I am still paranoid and vigilant about what can happen to her. However, not leaving her in the yard while I work is not an option.

I have a 6 foot wooden fence and the only way out of it (short of taking it down) is a door that goes into the house.

I will leave Sasha outside for 20 minutes or so but I feel safe doing so and it is only when I am home. She is *never* left outside when I am not home. I'm going to rethink this (the 20 minutes part) as a dog left outside near my parents was given poisoned meat and almost died.