The Lost Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective

by Kat Albrecht, Jana Murphy

** NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book was revised and republished under the new name "Pet Tracker: The Amazing Story of Rachel the K-9 Pet Detective" (2015, available exclusively on Amazon in softcover and eBook)**

Kat Albrecht is the only law-enforcement based pet detective in the United States. Since 1997, Albrecht and her search dogs have located lost cats, dogs, ferrets, turtles, horses, and other species using techniques that are normally used to solve missing person investigations. Full of heartwarming and inspiring tales of rescue, The Lost Pet Chronicles tells the story of Kat's unlikely career path and of how discovering the work she loved transformed her from a dissatisfied cop into a woman with a true personal and professional calling.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Dogs

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

I am a former police officer, field training officer, police detective, and K9 (police bloodhounds and cadaver dogs) trainer turned pet detective. During my seventeen-year career as a search dog handler, my search dogs and I located physical evidence, missing people, and criminals. In 1996, my bloodhound A.J. escaped from his yard and was missing. I brought in another search dog that I used to successfully track down A.J. This is what sparked the idea, "Why not train dogs to track lost pets?" In our first four searches, my search dog Rachel physically located two lost cats and one lost dog!

I'm the author of "PET TRACKER: The Amazing Story of Rachel the K-9 Pet Detective" (available exclusively on Amazon.com as eBook and softcover) and "DOG DETECTIVES: Train Your Dog to Find Lost Pets". The "Pet Tracker" book is a revision of my first book, "The Lost Pet Chronicles," which went out of print in 2012.

I operate the first-ever Pet Detective Academy where I train professional pet detectives. I also offer "Life Purpose" presentations for teens and adults looking to find their God-given life purpose.

Reviews

[Neil Pierson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining book. Initially, the author wanted to become a police K-9 handler. Over time, she realized that her main interest was in training and working with dogs. A back injury forced her out of police work, and she became intrigued by the idea of training dogs to find lost pets.

This book is partly memoir, but the interesting part to me was the dog training and performance. Two members of my family got interested in training retrievers for hunting, and I've learned that it doesn't take much to set them (family members, not retrievers) crashing into the weeds of dog training. Let's just say: The term "dogged earnestness" does not refer to the canines.

The author enthusiastically explains the different types of working dogs: There are trackers, who follow a scent trail to find a fugitive or missing person, and there are area searchers who sniff for bodies, belongings, or drugs in a defined space. The dogs have been bred to heighten these instincts, and you can't use a tracker (say, a bloodhound) to do an area search or vice versa. It would be like using a pointer to pull a sled. As the old saying goes, it wastes your time and annoys the dog.

The author learned that searching for pets is quite different from searching for people or objects. Usually, a missing pet has wandered around randomly. Trackers can follow many scent trails without progressing to the missing animal. Area searchers are usually more helpful, especially for cats, which tend to stay in their territories. Dogs often roam, making it hard to define the search area.

Albrecht applied her background in police work to the search for a lost pet. She collected information about the pets--their backgrounds, personalities, tendencies, and how they react to stress. An indoor-only cat that escapes will often behave differently from an indoor/outdoor cat that disappears.

To enjoy this book, you need to find animal behavior interesting and endearing. But if you've seen a working dog succeed in its task, as the author and I have, you know and share the dog's pure joy.

[Allison Subat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lost pet chronicles by Kat Albrecht was a very inspiring book. I learned a lot about how to avoid losing a pet and the best tips to get them back. I also learned that if you work hard you will eventually reach your goal. It was very inspiring to never give up and to keep on trying. It was the first nonfiction book that I couldn’t put down.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book several years ago and enjoyed it. It's wasn't great literature, but the premise was interesting: a law enforcement dog trainer with a trained "corpse sniffing" dog (a dog trained to find dead bodies as part of a murder investigation) decided to retrain her dog to find lost pets. This book is about her experience and her attempts to start a business to help people find their lost pets.

Ultimately, what I remember most is her observations of lost-pet behavior: what dogs and cats *do* when they are in strange surroundings, how they behave, and how that knowledge can help the owner find their pet again.

For example, dogs tend to run when they are lost, and may travel several miles from home. On the other hand, a cat that gets lost (say, an indoor cat that gets outside) tends to hide, and it may do so very close to home, within a few dozen yards. It won't come when you call, however, and it may not even meow, even if its owner is just a few feet away, so it is imperative for the owner to search thoroughly close to home, peering into any dark hiding places that a cat might fit in to.

I enjoyed the application of animal behavior to solve real world problems, and I think of this book whenever I see "Lost Dog" and "Lost Cat" notices pinned up in the neighborhood. If pet owners knew more about how their animals behaved when lost, they would have a higher chance of recovering their pets.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories about how the author became a finder of lost pets and some terrific tips on how to find lost dogs and cats. A must resource for anyone who wants to know how to increase the chances of finding lost animals.

[Dana Craig]

Older book, but excellent if you're interested in finding lost animals. Most informative I've read. Kat Albrecht was the pioneer in tracking animals.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this unusual book. All those who have pets can learn from this book.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

2004 - Forbes Lib - Non-Fiction - 363.289 - HB - RKTD.AL15L 2004

[Urban Fairy Godmother aka... Jolene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book! I'm not into stories about police officers much, but this isn't about the officer it's about Kat Albrecht's love for her search dog's (that she trained) & her dream to make a niche in our world for pet owners to get the same type of help a lost person gets, but for pets. This book is also about her fight against a bunch of Nay Sayers who refused to believe that a dog could be trained to search for pets. Kat takes you from the first search dog she trained to her epiphany of wanting to start a lost pet service using search dog's & techniques she learned from a career as a police officer (which she became primarily to be able to use her dog's). Her first love is her dog's she trained to be search & cadaver dog's, her becoming a police officer was just another way for her to be able to use them to their full capacity. She gives great details about the best way to train these types of animals & equally great details about how to find a lost pet, so this book is wonderful for both those interested in dog training & or someone wanting tips on how to find a lost pet. Even better is just hearing her passion for her pets, other peoples pets & all the great stories of animals & owners Kat & her dog's have helped. As a person who dreams of becoming a dog trainer, I feel this is a must read ;-)

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Outreach Librarian picked this book for me to read and I'm SO glad she did. I learned a lot about dogs and cat behavior when they go missing. Kat Albrecht, an ex-police Dispatcher, trains her pet Weimaraner, Rachel and her two bloodhounds, A.J. and Chase, to find lost dogs and cats. When Kat and her dogs get called to find a lost boa constrictor from a California Zoo, it causes chaos. In this book, we learn how these rescue dogs find lost pets, with some ending out with happy endings and some not too happy. When Kat supposedly finds the man of her dreams, she finds they don't agree on the care of her pets. It was nice to hear about the different ways a lost pet can be found. What I found very interesting was when one of Kat's dogs was able to find a certain cat out of several cats in one household. I was able to learn from this is that all cats have their own distinctive scent. At the end of this remarkable book, Kat gives a lot of good pointers on what to do when we lose a pet. There are a lot of resources to choose from. I highly recommend this book for all animal lovers and keep some Kleenex handy.

[Merrikay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was ready for a quick light read and this was it.  Albrecht was a K9 officer who turned her love of animals into a career.  As a police officer she trained in scientific methods of detection regarding looking for missing persons, tracking suspects, and other police work.  She began thinking about how she could use some of those methods to track lost pets and developed her own theories and yes, profiles.  She decided she wasn't so taken with police work but was more interested in working with animals.  It was not an easy task being taken seriously as a pet detective, thanks to Jim Carrey. It was a pretty fun read for me and I found it pretty interesting.  If I ever lose a pet, I'll know how to go about finding it now, and where to look. 

[Regina Tabor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book. Kat takes her dogs that she has trained to trail people catch bad guys find decomposing bodies and find missing persons and turns them into Dogs that find lost pets.
Wonderful book.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK. Not great.

[Judy Wollenweber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir of a former police officer and search dog handler who turns her skills to using dogs to find lost pets. It did raise some questions for me about the value we put on animals.

[Nancy Brisebois · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who have a pet at home. You will learn exactly what to do if your pet runs away. I found this book helpful. It is also a little bit sad but worth it!

[Cynthisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

From my old book log: "Dull narrative of a fascinating topic. Too bad."

[Angela Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! This book has sad parts but it has lots of good parts of the struggle to become the first person with a search and rescue dog trained to track pets.

[Jiaparker1997gmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting docu on cop who started search/rescue for pets.