Work from one written list of every shelter, rescue, pound and vet practice within a widening radius, logging the date and time you last checked each one so no place is assumed covered. Efficient here does not mean fast once; it means a rhythm you can sustain for days without gaps, because dogs arrive at shelters at unpredictable hours and a dog missed on Tuesday may be listed under a guessed breed on Thursday. Build the list on the first evening, however tired you are, and let the list — not memory or hope — decide where your effort goes next.
Build the list and the script first
Write down every shelter, rescue, council pound and vet practice within your home area, with phone numbers, opening hours and the name of whoever you spoke to. Beside each entry leave space for date and time of every check, so a glance shows which places are overdue. Prepare one short script and use it word for word on every call and visit: your dog's name, sex, size, colour and markings, microchip number, collar description, where and when she went missing, and your phone number. Carry printed copies of one clear full-body photo plus a face photo, because a spoken description of a brown crossbreed matches dozens of dogs while a photo settles identity in seconds.
In person where it counts, online in rhythm
Visit local shelters in person daily during the opening days, and ask to walk the kennels or view new arrivals yourself rather than relying on a desk description, since staff describe the dog they see and may record a different breed mix, colour word or sex than you would. Phone the wider circle on a rotating schedule — half the list in the morning, half in the afternoon — so every place hears from you at least every other day. Online, check rescue and lost-and-found pages several times a day, and search them the way a finder would: by found location, by colour, by sex, and by broad breed terms as well as by name, because your dog's listing, if a member of the public posted it, uses their words, not yours. Save searches, set alerts where the page allows them, and screenshot any possible match with its posting time before you call.
Widen the radius on a schedule
Dogs travel further than owners expect, and found dogs get transported to whichever facility has space, so a search fixed on the home postcode quietly expires. Extend the list outward every couple of days: neighbouring districts and the next towns along main roads and rail lines, breed-specific rescues that take dogs from a wide area, and vet practices near where walkers or drivers may have handed a found dog in. Note the widening on the list itself, with the date each new place was added and first checked. Revisit the shelters you listed first too rather than dropping them; a dog picked up late in the search often lands back at a local facility, which is why the daily in-person rhythm continues even as the map grows.
Keep every thread in one place
Log sightings, calls and possible matches in the same notebook as the shelter list, with times, so a promising lead at midnight is still actionable at opening time. Ask each shelter what their holding period and reclaim process involve, and what proof of ownership they accept, so a match never stalls over paperwork you could have prepared. If friends help, divide the list by name rather than sharing it loosely, and have every helper report back into the one log. Running the alert through KinsLe, where Lost Pet Alert System notifies members near the missing point who can message you in the app, adds local eyes between your own checks, and each sighting they send lands in one thread beside your shelter log instead of scattering across your evening.