Pet owners are often desperate for sensible measures they can take to help them recover a lost pet. Unfortunately, some pretty quirky techniques have evolved in the past several years – one of them being the suggestion that the pet owner should spray their urine in the area as a “scent lure” or means to attract a lost dog or cat back home.
This technique is not only a potential health hazard and source of disease transmission, it’s unnecessary and ineffective. We (Missing Animal Response Network) discourage the practice of spraying human urine as a means to attract a lost pet for several reasons.
#1 The spraying of human urine technique has been suggested for both lost dogs and cats.
Neither species would react to this scent in the same way. Dogs and cats are like apples and oranges—they behave differently when lost. Some dogs, depending on their temperament will respond to people (and scent luring) when lost, but most cats will not – they will hide when afraid. Dogs travel and are picked up by people who determine their fate whereas the nature of displaced cats is to hide in silence as a protective measure from predators. For the exception of using giant, neon posters, suggesting one technique that should be used to recover both dogs and cats has not proven to be very effective. Dogs react to “scent luring” differently than cats because their olfactory abilities, their reactions towards humans, and the physiology of their brains are dramatically different than cats. Dogs react to what they see and smell, whereas cats react to what they see and hear.
#2 There is no scientific basis or research (nor any anecdotal evidence) into the validity of this technique.
The pee-in-a-bottle technique just does not make sense in terms of scent dispersal. It is unnecessary to spray your urine scent in the area because, if you are walking around in search of your lost dog (or cat), your scent is already there!
When you walk anywhere, you end up depositing your scent through the shedding of skin cells coming off your body and the shedding of cells from your lungs. That is why bloodhounds and other SAR dogs can find people…because the human scent is deposited when you walk. Lost people don’t need to pee in the woods for a SAR dog to find them! A lost dog certainly can use his nose, should he desire to do so, to follow his owner’s scent trail and return home. He can even use his nose to follow his OWN scent and backtrack back to the home. We see this primarily in cases where a dog has been “displaced” into an unfamiliar area—like he escapes from the vet’s office, is involved in a car accident, or becomes separated from his guardian when off-leash hiking in the woods.
#3 The third reason we do not advocate spraying your urine in an area is that many dogs and cats that escape are not going to even CARE whether their owner’s scent is present.
This, of course, depends on a dog’s temperament and the reason for the escape. A dog that escapes to chase a deer or a rabbit is going to be focused on critter scent when the prey drive kicks in. A dog with a xenophobic (fearful, skittish) temperament or a dog that escapes due to fireworks is not going to use its nose to sniff and explore. When fear is present, the area of the brain that processes olfactory cues just does not function. When a cat is panicked, it simply will not break cover. In some cases, super skittish cats will remain concealed even to the point of extreme thirst and near starvation. Scent luring with wet cat food scent is going to be more effective once the cat has calmed down enough, often days (or weeks later).
#4 The fourth flaw in the suggestion to spray your urine in your neighborhood is it does not even take into account the logistical difficulty of dispersing a scent in the correct direction.
If you were to attempt this technique, which direction would you spray in if your dog is missing? And how far away would you expand your spray trails? How much time would it take to produce enough urine to spray an entire neighborhood? And with multiple streets and roads in your area leading in different directions, just how would you know where to spray a trail that your dog could actually find it and follow it?
#5 The fifth flaw with the pee-in-a-bottle method is that it gives false hope that your dog (or cat) is just wandering around loose, sniffing around for your scent.
In reality, it is more probable that your dog has been picked up by someone who will dictate what will happen to your dog. And if you’ve lost a cat, it is more probable that your cat is either trapped within his territory, hiding nearby in fear (if displaced or beat up in a cat fight by another cat), or in was transported out of the area. You’re better off investing time in creating and posting giant, neon LOST DOG or LOST CAT posters than walking a limited distance with a spray bottle of urine.
#6 The sixth and final reason that peeing into a bottle and spraying it everywhere is that it is SUPER GROSS and it is A HEALTH HAZARD!
Several diseases can be spread through contact with urine such as SARS, Ebola, Coronavirus, norovirus, and poliovirus. Recently, we heard of a case where a dog owner who’d lost their dog read about the “pee-in-the-bottle” technique to spray scent trails for her dog. She had a spray bottle on her kitchen counter filled with her urine when a friend came by to “help” with household duties while the owner was out searching for her lost dog. The friend thought the yellow liquid in the bottle was a cleaning solution and sprayed it and rubbed it into the counter tops. EW!
On a final note, many lost pet websites, Facebook groups, and memes recommend that if your cat is lost to put a dirty cat litter box on your porch to help attract your cat to come back home. Several of the flaws listed in the “Pee-in-a-Bottle” technique listed above also apply to the dirty cat litter tip. Putting out a dirty cat litter box is ineffective and actually what is called a “Questionable Cause Fallacy” as I explain in this other blog post here.
Putting a dirty litterbox on your porch is a passive approach to recovering a lost cat! Cat owners would have a higher chance of recovering their missing cat by conducting an aggressive, physical search of their yard and their neighbor’s yards or by setting up game cameras with food in their neighborhood. It is less intrusive to your neighbors to put a litterbox on your porch than it is to ask your neighbors’ permission to enter their yards and crawl around under their decks and houses to search for your cat. THAT LOCATION (your neighbor’s yards) is where studies have shown that your missing cat is most likely to be, and yet this method is avoided because it is not as easy as putting out a litterbox on the porch, especially if you don’t know or don’t like your neighbor!
For sensible, behavior-based tips on how to recover a missing dog or cat and/or to find resources (volunteers and professionals) who can coach you, visit the Missing Animal Response Network’s LOST PET HELP page.
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