Found a Dog? What to Do, Who to Call and How to Report It
What the law expects of you as a finder, who can scan a chip and take the dog in, and what happens if you want to keep it or the owner turns up.
If you've found a dog with no owner in sight, the first job is to get it off the road and somewhere it can't bolt. From there, it's a scan at a vet, warden or rescue, and a report to the council.
Keep the dog safe first
Before anything else, get the dog somewhere it can't bolt into traffic. Speak softly and approach slowly. If it will come to you, loop a lead, belt or length of rope through its collar, or slip a makeshift lead over its head.
If the dog seems nervous, turn side on and lower your gaze so you seem less of a threat. Don't chase a dog that won't come near you: it could run further away.
Note exactly where you saw it, what it looks like and which way it went. Then call the council's dog warden. In England, Wales and Scotland, if the warden has reason to believe a dog in a public place is a stray, they must seize and detain it if practicable.
If the dog is injured, take it to a vet. Keep your own pets away from it until you know it's healthy and calm.
Check the collar and tag
In England, Wales and Scotland, every dog in a public place must wear a collar with the owner's name and address on it or on a tag, even if it's microchipped.
If there's a tag with a phone number, call it. If you reach the owner, you can return the dog directly.
Don't rely on the tag alone, though. In practice, very few strays wear one with correct details: the dog and cat charity Battersea's 2026 research found only 2.6% of stray dogs had a collar and tag with accurate information. If the tag is missing, blank or out of date, move on to the chip.
Get the dog scanned for a microchip
Across England, Wales and Scotland, every dog older than 8 weeks must be microchipped and registered on a database that meets the standards set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The rule has been in place since April 2016.
The chip itself is a permanent implant that holds only a 15-digit number: it doesn't carry the owner's details or track the pet. Those details sit on a separate database linked to that number. If you're new to how chips work, Pet Database's guide to dog microchipping explains it.
You can't scan a chip yourself with a phone. You'll need a scanner, so the dog needs to go to the council's dog warden, a vet or a rescue centre.
You won't be charged for the scan: any vet will scan a found dog for free, and it's often the quickest way to trace the owner. If the dog is hurt, you won't be billed for first aid either: vets will provide emergency first aid to a pet in need at no charge to the person who found it. Beyond that, the vet regulator, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), advise caution about bigger procedures when no owner has been identified, and their guidance doesn't settle who pays for ongoing treatment.
Battersea's 2026 survey found 87% of stray dogs handled by councils couldn't be reunited with their owner from the chip or collar alone. The same research found 84% of strays with a fully compliant chip were reunited with their owner, against 19% of strays with no chip at all. Pet Database's page on why microchipping matters for lost pet recovery goes into more detail.
Once you have the 15-digit number, Pet Database's chip checker searches multiple UK databases at once and tells you whether the chip is registered and which database holds the record. Pet Database is on the DEFRA list of compliant microchip databases, and the checker is the part of the site built for exactly this moment.
In England, compliant databases must redirect phone and online enquiries about chips held elsewhere, so starting the search in one place is enough. The checker won't show you the owner's name, address or phone number. Those details stay private: databases only share owner information with authorised people such as vets, wardens and rescues, not with members of the public.
What the law asks and how to report
In England, Wales and Scotland, if you take possession of a stray dog, you must straight away return it to its owner. If you can't, you must take it to the local authority officer for the area where you found it, and tell the officer where. In Scotland, you can also take the dog to the nearest police station. Failing to return the dog or hand it in is an offence, with a fine of up to £500.
If you can't contact the owner, you must report it to the council. GOV.UK has a postcode lookup for the right one in England and Wales at gov.uk/report-stray-dog. In Northern Ireland, councils also deal with stray dogs, but the rules differ: an unclaimed dog may be sold or destroyed after five days, and an owner reclaiming it pays the detention and vet costs plus any fixed penalty.
When you report, have this ready:
- Where you found the dog, as precisely as you can: street, park, landmark.
- When you found it.
- A description: size, colour, breed if you can guess it, collar, tag.
- The chip number, if it's been scanned.
- Your own contact details, and whether you're keeping the dog with you or handing it over.
If it's evening or a weekend, what happens next depends on the council, because out-of-hours arrangements differ from one area to another. Some have an out-of-hours number and a named 24-hour vet hospital that will take the dog in. Others ask you to keep the dog safely until the next working day and report it online, or drop it at a named rescue in opening hours. In England and Wales, the police no longer have responsibility for stray dogs.
What to do if you want to keep the dog
If you want to keep the dog, you must tell the council officer and give your name and address.
The officer then records the dog, your details and where it was found, tries to contact any owner they can identify, and considers whether you're suitable to keep it. If they can't find the owner, they'll probably check you're suitable as a dog owner before you can adopt it.
If the officer agrees, you'll be told, verbally and in writing, that you must keep the dog for at least one month if it stays unclaimed. That month is a legal minimum. In Scotland, a finder who keeps a dog for two months without it being claimed becomes its owner; England and Wales have no equivalent rule.
Why keeping the microchip record right matters
Across England, Wales and Scotland, the council must hold the dog for seven clear days. If the owner hasn't claimed it and paid the amounts due by then, they can rehome it or pass it to a stray dog establishment. This is why it's so important to keep chip details up to date.
In practice, the dog welfare charity Dogs Trust's Stray Dog Survey for 2024 to 2025 found that 38% of dogs handled by UK councils were reunited with their owners. A further 41% were passed to welfare organisations, 9% were rehomed by the council and 9% were put to sleep.
Reading this as an owner rather than a finder? Pet Database's page on what to do in the first hour when your dog goes missing is the one you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who contacts the owner once the chip number is found?
The vet, warden or rescue holding the dog looks up the owner's details and makes contact, so the call goes through them rather than through you. On Pet Database, the owner also gets a notification when a pet professional logs on to view their contact details, so they know someone has their dog.
What if a scan finds no chip?
Report the dog to the council anyway. Post a clear photo on local Facebook lost pet groups and community apps, and check whether anyone nearby is searching.
What if I've found a cat?
Councils have no responsibility for cats. Get the cat scanned for a microchip, post on local Facebook pages and put up flyers. Fitting a paper collar with your contact details, loose enough for two fingers underneath, can help. If no owner comes forward, your local Cats Protection or another welfare organisation can take it from there.
What if someone turns up saying it's their dog?
If you're not sure the person really is the owner, don't hand the dog over on the doorstep. Ask them to describe it before you do, and if anything feels off, take the dog to the warden and let the council verify the claim.
If the scan gave you a chip number, running it through Pet Database's chip checker is the quickest next step. For owners reading this instead, keeping the record pointed at a working phone number and current address is what turns a chip into a route home.
