http://www.FreestateTracking.com/

Freestate Pet Tracking, Baltimore, MD (2026)

10/14/2026

Sprinkles is home!

On October 3, John and K9 Goose traveled to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to help locate Sprinkles, a 10-year-old indoor-only cat who had been missing since September 18.

She had remained near her original point of loss for several days, appearing regularly on trail cameras, but by the time of our track she had not been seen for about 10 days. We first checked a newer reported sighting nearly a mile away, but Goose did not support that location.

We then returned to the area where Sprinkles had last been seen.

From there, Goose quickly narrowed his attention to one specific property. He showed particular interest in the latticework beneath the front porch and repeatedly returned to the same small area as he worked. Based on his behavior, it was clear that Sprinkles was sheltering at or immediately around that house.

The residents kindly allowed a feeding station, camera and trap to be set up on the property. For safety and quiet, the setup was placed behind the house rather than near the porch, and after roughly 12 hours after the track, Sprinkles appeared on camera right there and continued appearing every night until she was recovered.

At that point, locating her was no longer the challenge. Getting her safely home was.

Her owner deserves enormous credit for what followed. Over the next several days, he monitored Sprinkles closely, adjusted his approach based on what she showed him, dealt with repeated visits from neighborhood cats and possums and patiently worked through her suspicion of the trap.

Sprinkles also deserves plenty of credit herself. At one point, she stretched across the trip plate, lifted the bait, and dropped it back onto the safe side before eating it. Whether she remembered being trapped years earlier, learned by watching other animals, or simply figured the mechanism out as she went, she was clearly solving the problem in real time.

What followed became a genuine cross-species battle of wits between an exceptionally clever cat and an equally determined owner, each adapting to the other’s next move.

Just as importantly, Sprinkles kept returning. That consistency gave her owner the chance to observe, learn and refine the plan rather than start the search all over again.
By Thursday evening, October 8, that persistence paid off.

The message I received was only one word:

“Gotcha.”

After three weeks outside she had been trapped approximately 20 feet from the area Goose identified during the track five days earlier.

This situation was a great example of what successful recovery often looks like. Tracking can narrow the search area dramatically, but locating a missing animal is sometimes only the first half of the job. Bringing a cautious lost pet home can require patience, observation, consistency and a willingness to change tactics when the animal tells you something isn’t working.

Goose gave us an exceptionally precise place to start, Sprinkles confirmed it within hours and kept returning, and her owner did the patient, difficult work that brought her the rest of the way home.

Welcome home, Sprinkles.

"Every 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴"

✨ The Magic is Real. The Science is Proven.

🔍 Found by Professional Pet Trackers |

10/13/2026

When the Rescuer Needs Rescuing: Maryland Trains for K9 Emergencies

Most search and rescue stories focus on the person being found. A hiker hurt on a back trail, someone who wandered off in the woods, a family stuck when the water came up too fast. Sometimes a trained dog is part of the team that finds them. We don't often stop to think about what happens if the dog is the one who gets hurt.

Maryland responders have been working on exactly that. On September 9, 2026, teams met at Aberdeen Proving Ground for a joint exercise on rescuing animals during disasters, and part of the day involved lifting dogs into a helicopter.

The training brought together the Maryland State Police Aviation Command, the Maryland Army National Guard, Maryland Task Force 1, and Harford County Animal Control, all working as the Maryland Helicopter Aquatic Response Team. The goal was to practice getting animals out of places ground crews can't reach, including hoisting K9s up into the aircraft.

Picture it from the dog's side. Rotor wash, a deafening engine, strangers with straps and harnesses, and then the ground drops away. Even a well-trained working dog has no idea why any of this is happening. Running through it before a real emergency gives both the dogs and the crews a chance to get used to it.

Search dogs already work in rough conditions: thick woods, debris, water, terrain that's hard on people too. Their noses are incredible, but they still get tired, overheat, cut their pads, and get hurt like any other animal. A flood can cut off the way out. A collapse can strand a handler and dog somewhere no truck can get to. When that happens, getting them both home may take a whole different kind of team.

And a dog isn't a human patient. The equipment, the handling, and how they react under stress are all different, and the crew doing the lift needs to know that going in.

According to Maryland State Police, the Aviation Command has been building up its K9 capabilities for several years, running deployments and hoist drills with local and regional partners. Crews also recently received specialized gear for transporting injured K9s.

Anyone who works with dogs knows how much the handler carries. They're watching for fatigue, checking paws and breathing, reading the terrain, and making judgment calls all day to keep their partner safe. When John and Goose are out on a search, John watches him just as closely as he watches the trail. That job doesn't end when something goes wrong. Sometimes it means calling in help from the air.

We ask a lot of working dogs. It's good to know Maryland is getting ready for the day one of them needs someone to come find it.

Source: Maryland State Police Aviation Command, September 17, 2026.

10/04/2026

You Found a Stray Dog. Before You Introduce Him to Yours, Read This.

Picture it. A dog is running loose down your street, you manage to coax him into your car, and you bring him home. He goes in the backyard while you post his picture on every lost and found page you can think of. He seems sweet, so you let your own dog out to keep him company.

Totally understandable. You're trying to help. The problem is that you have no idea where that dog has been.

He might have slipped out of his yard an hour ago. He also might have been wandering for three days, sleeping under porches, cutting through the woods, drinking out of ditches and running into whatever wildlife was out there with him. Most of the time, we never find out which.

That's worth keeping in mind in Maryland right now. Harford County has reported 28 confirmed rabies cases so far this year, which already matches its total for all of 2025. Eighteen were raccoons, and the rest included foxes, groundhogs and bats. The health department has even started putting out thousands of oral vaccine baits to vaccinate wild raccoons in parts of the county.

Nobody needs to panic over a friendly dog trotting down the sidewalk. But it's a good reason to keep him away from your own pets until you know a little more about him.

So help him! Give him water and a safe, quiet place to rest. Get his photo out there, have him scanned for a microchip and start looking for his people. Just hold off on the backyard playdate. You don't know if he's vaccinated or how long he's been out, and you can't tell whether that little puncture under his fur came from a fence, another dog or a raccoon he tangled with two nights ago. Rabies isn't the only concern here, either. Injuries, parasites and contagious illnesses don't always show up right away, and a few days apart gives you time to notice.

The same goes for your own pet coming home after being lost. Get them safely inside first, and then go ahead and hug them, cry and celebrate. Once things calm down, give them a careful once-over for wounds, scratches, sore spots or anything that wasn't there before. If something looks off, or you think they may have run into wildlife, call your vet and make sure to mention that they were recently missing.

While your pets are home safe today, do one quick thing: find out when their rabies vaccine expires and whether you can actually put your hands on the paperwork. Maryland requires rabies vaccination for dogs, cats and ferrets, and having proof of a past vaccine can make a huge difference in what happens if your pet is ever exposed to a rabid or possibly rabid animal.

With any luck you'll never need it. But lost pets have whole adventures we never hear about, and until they learn to tell us where they've been, a little caution when they come home (or when someone else's pet ends up at yours) goes a long way.

09/21/2026

Your Cat Leaves Behind More Information Than You Think!

To us, an empty backyard is just an empty backyard.

To a cat, it's basically a bulletin board.

A recent study on domestic cats found something that low key changes how we should think about missing pet behavior. Researchers identified a group of branched-chain fatty acids in cat urine that vary from cat to cat, but stay pretty consistent for the same cat over time. So when one cat sniffs where another cat has peed, it's not just clocking "another cat was here." It may actually be reading who was there.

Which, if you think about it, is wild. Cats have been walking around with name tags this whole time and we had no idea.

🔍 There's a whole world out there we can't see

Humans are visual creatures, full stop. We walk into a yard and see the fence, the shed, the driveway, maybe a gap under the gate. That's about where our senses stop.

Our animals are picking up on a lot more.

A utility pole isn't just a utility pole. A bush isn't just a bush. That boring corner of a building you'd never look twice at? Something's probably been there. Marked it, rubbed against it, walked through it, left hair or skin cells or urine behind. To us, none of that registers. To another animal, it might be a full paragraph of information.

That's what makes this new research so interesting. It's another crack in the door showing just how much is going on that we're completely blind to.

So what did the researchers actually find

Scientists studying cat urine identified 13 unusual branched-chain fatty acids that create a pretty stable, individual chemical pattern for each cat. Basically a signature.

The researchers think this could help cats tell each other apart through scent marking.

Notice I said could. That word is doing a lot of work here. This study doesn't prove cats are consciously reading a chemical ID card off each other, and it definitely doesn't mean we can sniff a puddle and figure out where somebody's missing cat went. What it does show is that scent marks probably carry way more individualized info than we ever gave them credit for, and cats are built to pick up on it.

🐱 Why this actually matters when you're searching for a missing pet

When a pet goes missing, people default to human logic. Why would she go over there? Why would he keep circling back to that one yard? There's nothing over there.

Except "nothing" is a human opinion, not a fact.

Maybe another cat regularly marks that property. Maybe a neighborhood animal cuts through it every night. Maybe there's wildlife using the same path, or food smells drifting over, or some animal passed through hours ago and left a whole trail we can't detect. None of that means scent explains every move a missing animal makes, it doesn't. But it does mean we shouldn't be so quick to write off a spot just because we can't figure out why an animal would care about it.

The animal knows something we don't. That's kind of the whole point.

Scent is information, not just a smell

This is something we get reminded of constantly doing this work.

A dog's nose doesn't experience a parking lot or a field the way our eyes do. Neither does a cat's. We tend to think of smell as a side detail, the trash smells bad, dinner smells good, the dog needs a bath. For an animal that runs on scent, it's not a side detail. It's the main event.

Something was here. Something passed through. Something familiar. Something unfamiliar. Something changed.

And now, apparently, information about exactly who left it behind.

🏡 The empty yard was never really empty

None of this hands us a magic trick for finding a missing cat tomorrow. But it does hand us some perspective.

When you're trying to figure out where a missing pet might be, remember you're looking at that space through human eyes. Your pet isn't. That boring, quiet, nothing-going-on yard might be holding an entire history written in a language we simply can't read.

Sometimes finding lost pets starts with admitting how much of their world we can't see at all.

09/07/2026

Jenna here!

I just discovered a website that I had absolutely no idea existed and obviously I need to share this with the animal people.

It’s called Does the Dog Die?

You can look up a movie or TV show before you watch it and find out if something happens to the dog.

Where has this been all my life?

I can watch 47 people get murdered. A city can explode. Aliens can invade. Somebody can hear a suspicious noise in the basement and decide that yes, going down there alone in the dark seems like an excellent idea. Good, go on..

But let one golden retriever wander onto the screen and I’m done following the plot.

Why did they show me the dog?

Why is the dog barking?

Why is nobody watching the dog?

Why did they leave the dog outside?

Forget the main character. Somebody account for the Labrador.

And apparently the site has gotten huge. It’s not just dogs anymore. You can check for cats and other animals, animal abuse, abandoned pets, whether animals were harmed during filming, and a whole bunch of other things people might want a heads-up about. It covers books and video games too. I love this!

So if you are also the kind of person who can watch absolute carnage without blinking but needs immediate confirmation that the beagle makes it to the credits:

doesthedogdie.com

There you go. I have now performed my public service for the day. 😂

Goose approves.

Although he would like to point out that an entire website could have been avoided if Hollywood would simply:

leave 👏 the 👏 dog 👏 alone. 😂

08/16/2026

The Most Dangerous Word in a Lost-Dog Search: “Definitely”

“He definitely wouldn’t cross that road.”

“Someone definitely picked her up.”

“He’s definitely still in this neighborhood.”

“She would definitely come to me if she heard my voice.”

When a dog goes missing, it’s natural to start trying to figure out what happened. You know your dog. You know their habits, their personality and what they would never dream of doing.

But there’s a problem.

A missing dog is highly unlikely to behave like the dog you know at home.

While the specifics vary by breed and circumstance, many losses begin with fear or panic. In that moment, movement may be driven less by normal preferences than by whatever feels necessary to get away.

After that initial flight, many lost dogs begin making decisions heavily influenced by safety, security and secrecy. A dog that normally runs straight to their owner may keep moving. A dog that hates water may cross a creek. A dog that has never crossed a busy road may cross one.

That doesn’t mean what you know about your dog doesn’t matter. It absolutely does.

It means there’s an important difference between what we believe probably happened and what we actually know happened.

When a Theory Becomes the Search

Every lost-dog search develops theories.

Having a theory isn’t the problem. The problem begins when the theory becomes a fact without enough evidence to support it.

Once that happens, sightings outside the expected area may be dismissed, areas that don’t fit the theory may never be checked, and valuable time can be lost searching where everyone believes the dog should be.

Back in July, Goose and I assisted with the search for a dog who slipped his collar after becoming frightened during a walk and ran onto a nearby golf course.

Looking over the area beforehand, I thought the golf course was extremely promising. It offered quiet cover, water and easy access to nearby neighborhoods. There was a very reasonable chance he had stayed there.

But “most likely” isn’t “definitely.”

We recommended working the immediate golf-course area while also flyering farther out in case he had continued moving.

The owner didn’t have the luxury of knowing which possibility was right, so they worked both.

Two days later, Goose and I helped confirm a possible sighting about a mile away. Three days after that track, the dog was safely secured nearby.

What mattered wasn’t whether our first theory was reasonable. It was.

What mattered was that the search plan didn’t depend on that theory being right.

Had the owner decided the dog was “definitely” still on the golf course, the flyering that produced the sighting may never have happened.

Sometimes good search planning means pursuing the most likely explanation without closing the door on the others.

What Tracking Can Add

Tracking is one more piece of information.

Sometimes Goose’s work supports the leading theory. Sometimes it points somewhere nobody expected. And sometimes there simply isn’t enough information to make a definitive conclusion.

The goal isn’t to prove what we already believe. It’s to help the people doing the search decide where their effort is best placed next.

Leave Room to Be Wrong

When your dog is missing, you’re going to have theories. You may have very strong ones.

That’s normal. We want to hear them.

Just leave a little room between:

“I think this is what happened.”

and

“I know this is what happened.”

Because sometimes the information that changes a search is waiting in that space.

07/29/2026

Since 2021, I've had the privilege of sharing this work with two extraordinary dogs.

Duck laid the foundation for everything Freestate Tracking would become. He taught me what was possible, challenged me to become a better handler, and helped reunite countless families with the pets they loved. Duck may no longer be at my side, but he'll always be part of this story. I wouldn't be here without him, and Freestate Tracking wouldn't exist without the work we accomplished together.

Today, Goose carries that work forward.

Over the past five years, this journey has taken us farther than I ever imagined. Together, Goose and I have assisted families across much of the eastern United States, met incredible people, worked alongside some truly exceptional professionals, and learned something new with every case. I am deeply grateful to those who generously shared their knowledge, welcomed me into this community, and helped shape both my skills and my perspective.

As Freestate Tracking has grown, so has my understanding of where I can make the greatest difference.

Beginning immediately, Free State Pet Tracking will transition to a new service model centered around Professional Tracking Assessments. Rather than traveling across multiple states and managing long-term cases, my focus will now be on providing thorough, evidence-based tracking assessments for families throughout eastern Baltimore County.

During our time together, Goose and I evaluate the available scent evidence, document what we find, explain our initial conclusions, and answer your questions. After the appointment, I review the track in detail, complete the mapping, and prepare a written report with my findings and recommendations. That report is delivered within 24 hours, and its delivery concludes the Professional Tracking Assessment.

This change allows me to continue providing thoughtful, consistent service while creating a model that is more sustainable for both my family and the families I serve. It also allows me to make this work more accessible through simple, flat-rate pricing and a clearly defined service area.

While the structure of the business is changing, the values behind it are not.

Every family who reaches out deserves honesty, empathy, compassion, professionalism, and respect. Losing a pet is one of the most emotionally overwhelming experiences many people will ever face, and I believe they deserve clear communication, realistic expectations, and thoughtful guidance rooted in the evidence Goose and I are able to gather.

To every family who placed their trust in Duck, Goose, and me during one of the most difficult moments imaginable, thank you. It has been an honor to stand beside you, and every one of those experiences has helped shape the service I'm announcing today.

None of this would have been possible without my family.

Jenna has been my biggest supporter from the very beginning. She has encouraged me through every challenge, contributed countless ideas, and has been the creative force behind Freestate Tracking's public presence. Through the social media series she developed featuring Goose, she helped introduce thousands of people to the hardworking tracking dog I'm fortunate enough to work beside every day. Those stories gave our small business a recognizable voice and allowed people to connect with Goose long before they ever needed his help. She has spent countless hours helping tell our story, and Freestate Tracking would not be what it is today without her.

Eve has grown up alongside this business. She helped train both Duck and Goose, has always been their favorite person, and has never hesitated to jump in whenever there's a way she can help. She is the first to ask how a track went when I walk through the door, the first to celebrate the successes, and the first to help me carry the emotional weight of the cases that don't end the way we'd hoped. More than she'll probably ever realize, she has helped me remain grounded in a profession that can be incredibly demanding. Watching her grow alongside this business has been one of the greatest joys of my life, and Freestate Tracking is better because she's been part of it every step of the way.

Freestate Tracking may carry my name, but it has always been a family effort.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past five years.

I'm excited for this next chapter.

John & Goose

Our updated service area and Professional Tracking Assessment details are summarized in the graphic below.

07/24/2026

There are moments when I catch myself watching Goose work and have to remind myself that this is real. Out of all the people in the world, I get to be his person. I get a front-row seat to his heart, his drive, and his incredible instincts. Every muddy trail, every training day, every challenge has been worth it. Being Goose’s handler isn’t just something I do, it’s one of the greatest privileges of my life. I’ll never stop being amazed by this dog.
❤️🐾

07/13/2026

Maryland Cat Fact!

Did you know Maryland’s official state cat is the calico?

It was named our state cat in 2001 because its orange, black, and white colors are the same colors found on the Maryland state flag.

Here’s the fun part: a calico isn’t actually a breed. It’s a coat pattern, and almost all calicos are female.

Did you already know that?

Drop a 🧡 if this surprised you, or a 🐱 if you already knew.

And if you’re lucky enough to have a Maryland calico of your own, we’d love to see her in the comments!

06/04/2026

🎆 A message from Goose. Professional tracker. Concerned citizen.

Every year. EVERY. YEAR.

The fireworks go off. And my phone starts ringing.

I don’t have a phone. John has the phone. But I’m the one who has to go to work at 5am because someone’s golden retriever made a break for it during the finale.

So here is my official pre-July 4th briefing:

Your dog does NOT think fireworks are cool. He is not enjoying the show. He is planning an escape route.

“He never runs” means nothing on July 4th. That’s what they all say. I’ve heard it 47 times.

Check your fence NOW. Not July 3rd. Not July 4th at 6pm. NOW.

Update that microchip info. It still says your old apartment.

If they do bolt, call us. That’s literally the job.

We love the cookouts. We love this country. We do not love the 5am search calls.

Be safe out there. Keep your dogs inside. And maybe give them an extra treat tonight for no reason.

They’d do the same for you probably.

🐾 Freestate Pet Tracking – FreestateTracking.com

Freestate Pet Tracking

10/14/2026

10/13/2026

10/04/2026

09/21/2026

09/07/2026

08/16/2026

07/29/2026

07/24/2026

07/13/2026

06/04/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request