A vague call says a dog that might be yours was seen somewhere, sometime. A useful call gives a place, a moment and a direction, and the poster is what decides which kind you get. Every choice below serves that single test: could a stranger who glimpsed your dog for seconds turn that glimpse into a call you can act on?
What belongs on the poster
Lead with one clear recent photo that shows the whole dog standing, in colour, large enough to recognise at arm's length. A second smaller face photo earns its space only if room remains after the essentials; two competing pictures shrink both and help nobody. Under the photo, print the dog's name, then the matching details a stranger can check from a distance: how big it is, what breed or type, its colour, and the markings that set it apart, such as a white chest blaze, one upright ear, a docked tail or a grey muzzle. Markings matter more than breed labels, because callers rarely know breeds but everyone can report a black dog with one white paw.
State where and when the dog was lost as an area — a park name, a road junction, a neighbourhood — never your home address, which the poster does not need and strangers should not be handed. A reward line is optional; if you add one, keep it as a single plain line with no amount, since invented figures you later regret help nobody and can attract hoax calls.
The instruction that changes caller behaviour
The phone number for sightings should dominate the page after the words lost dog, repeated at the bottom in tear-off tabs if the poster allows them, and answered by someone who can leave immediately. Beneath it, one instruction does more work than any other line on the page: do not chase, call with the location and direction of travel. Well-meaning people who pursue, shout or try to grab a frightened dog push it further and faster, often out of the very area your posters cover. A caller who instead notes which way the dog was heading, and what it was doing, gives you a search point and a likely route, which is worth far more than a description of a dog they nearly caught.
Ask callers to ring even if they are unsure it is your dog. A doubtful sighting logged early can confirm a route; the same sighting reported a day later is history. Keep a notebook by the phone and write down the time, place and direction of every call while the caller is still speaking, then mark each one on a map so patterns show themselves.
Printing, placing and taking them down
Posters fail outdoors before they fail on paper. Print on sturdy stock, seal each one in a clear weatherproof sleeve or laminate it, and fix it at driver and pedestrian eye height where people naturally pause: junctions, park entrances, bus stops and shop noticeboards. Ask permission for private property, shop windows and community boards rather than assuming it, both because unauthorised posters get removed and because the people who grant permission become extra eyes who have now seen the photo.
Work outward from the point of loss, covering the routes a dog following fences, paths and water would plausibly take, and refresh weather-worn or faded copies rather than leaving ghosts of posters behind. When sightings shift the search area, move posters with it, and when your dog is home, take every poster down and tell the board owners and regular callers the good news. That courtesy keeps goodwill banked for the next owner, and stops stale sighting calls about a dog who is asleep at home.
A poster works on strangers; a parallel alert works on owners already nearby who know what a sighting call should contain. Through Lost Pet Alert System alerts inside KinsLe, nearby owners receive word promptly, while whoever finds your dog gets a direct messaging route back to you instead of relying on a number copied in the rain.