Have you put up signs? Even if you have READ please. I've helped folks get a couple of dogs back after I learned to do this when I lost a foster I had. (boy did I learn a TON that time *sheesh*)
1. Posters -- make them BLACK AND WHITE -- **NOT** color. Color is too 'busy'. Don't try for a picture of the whole dog -- everyone knows what a yorkie looks like.
instead, take a good picture you have of her FACE and crop it to JUST her head. then ENLARGE it way huge (like 8 X 10" if you can). Now enlarging it THAT much is going to make it look SO weird. But be patient -- print it out. THEN ***STAND BACK TEN FEET*** and look again!!! Suddenly you will see HER.
Remember, folks in cars have to view this **fast** and from quite a distance. A complicated little color picture with tons of words? It blows right by them.
2. Do it on 8 1/2 X 14 Paper (legal sized) -- so you can make her picture HUGE, and then at the bottom a minimum of words. PLAIN FONT IN BOLD. don't use a fancy font -- it kills you when people try to read it fast.
YOu need your phone and her name.
3. Does she need medicine? People will be prone to want to "keep" a cute little yorkie. BUT if they find out she's less than healthy, that can work in your favor. So if she needs meds (like thyroid supplement or *anything*) say "NEEDS MEDS" on the poster.
4. COVER THE POSTER. Either with purchased glassine/plastic covers from Office Depot, etc. (and TAPE IT TOTALLY SHUT -- you don't want moisture in there to ruin the poster!!) or you can also use plain contact paper and cover them **BOTH SIDES**
Posters often stay up for a LONG time. Keep it looking fresh as long as possible.
5. Don't just do your neighborhood. Go further. Go to major intersections and put them on all 4 corners (Duct tape works well but SMOOTHLY wrap tape all the way around the telephone pole OR use a plain staplegun (like from Home Depot) and staple all 4 corners so it doesn't just blow off.
6. Don't just call animal control once -- GO THERE EVERY DAY. These folks are paid **nothing** -- they have dogs coming and going ALL the time -- take them a poster. Talk to them. ASK TO SEE THE DOGS EVERY DAY.
7. Call Petsmart and Petco to find out who does adoption days. Call those folks. Ask who ELSE does adoptions in your area -- call them.
8. Call breed rescue for Yorkies (they are a passionate bunch, trust me) -- ask THEM to help you -- send them copies of the poster.
TRUE STORY --
I had a foster once -- a sick little cocker spaniel . He had something called demodectic mange -- a nasty, smelly skin problem and I'd spent MONTHS getting him halfway healed. On Christmas my "alpha male" decided everyone needed to go for a run, and he butted open my fence and all the dogs took off. I knew Mike was a tad jealous of the "newbie" -- and I think he led him far away from here and then ditched him.
This dog had been SO sick and I was just beside myself with worry. We'd been all over the neighborhood -- a friend told me how to do that "long lasting posters" -- and my husband hit on the idea of enlarging the picture so it could be SEEN from far away ... and the result looked SO BAD. But then when I held it up and said "ugh this looks BAD" my husband -- standing in the kitchen --- said NO THAT IS GREAT!!!. From a distance what looked blobby and unrecognizeable up close was suddenly IN FOCUS.
I HEARD NOTHING.
He'd been so sick. I was literally looking for a dead dog by the road or under a bush because I thot he'd crawled off to die.
TWO WEEKS LATER -- I got a call. "I think I have your little doggie". Huh??
The guy worked at the maintenance yard for the phone company a few blocks away. On Christmas Day this forlorn little cocker came up to him and begged part of his lunch (yep, that would have been Muffin!) and since he had no collar on he figured he was no one's. (I only put collars on when we go somewhere so they don't get caught in a crate).
But this guy's company shut down for 2 weeks after Christmas. So he'd been on vacation!!! His first day back and he sees the signs.
The truth of it was that because Muffin's skin problem was 'stinky' the guy's wife put him in the garage (and of course he'd gotten worse)
The fact that those posters were STILL readable 2 weeks later was what found him.
It really DOES work