We hired Dog Gone Detectives after our indoor cat Pete slipped outside and went missing for about 4.5 hours. Kat arrived with her scent-tracking dog Blizzard and immediately got to work. She was incredibly thorough and patient, helping us carefully search our house and yard multiple times and checking every possible hiding spot. At no point did we feel like she was rushing the service or just trying to check places quickly. She methodically cleared each area and made sure nothing was overlooked. After we had spent over four hours looking on our own without success, Kat and her partner (an older gentleman who was also very kind and supportive) were able to find Pete in less than an hour and a half. During such a stressful moment, Kat and her partner were extremely friendly, calm, and understanding. You can truly tell they care about helping people find their pets and about the animals themselves. We are beyond grateful for their help and cannot recommend Dog Gone Detectives enough. If you ever lose a pet and need professional help, they are absolutely worth calling. read more

Dog Gone Detectives - Pet Services Near Me

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I can't sing Kat's praises enough! She arrived at our house first thing this morning. She let her amazing dog sniff one of our dog's stuffed toy and off they went. She let my husband go with them which I was grateful for. Within 20-30 minutes my husband called and said they had found our dog and that they were headed home!! Her dog went to the end of our street, crossed a street, went down to where a creek started, turned into the creek and led them straight to our dog! We had been searching for 48 hours on our own to no avail and Kat and her dog went right to Jasper. We are beyond grateful for her skill and expertise and for bringing our baby home! I very highly recommend Kat! She's the real deal and a dedicated rescuer. Thank you Kat for everything you truly are the best! read more

Kat was out to us within 2 hours and found our pup so quickly! She was responsive and so helpful.

Response time was excellent. Blizzard was on the scene within 12hrs of me reaching out and tracked our dog's direction which saved time in our search efforts and allowed us to focus and find our girl the following day!!! Thank you Kat, Courtney & Blizzard!! Bonus! Less than a week later, I referred them and they did it again! Responsible for the assist of getting two dogs home within a week!! read more

Scam!! The owner is highly unprofessional. She spent less than two hours tracking and made every excuse not to continue in other areas where the dog had been spotted. As I'm not a professional tracker, I contacted three other trackers with her 'reasons' and was told they were invalid and that people like her are an unfortunate part of their industry. She won't return calls with my service concerns but instead sends short texts. She charged us $1200 for this service. She should be ashamed of taking advantage of desperate pet owners read more

READ FIRST BEFORE HIRING My wife and I run a dog rescue in Magnolia Tx. We had one of our dogs go missing 5 days ago. He was spotted on a camera 2 days ago and since we've been worried sick so we decided spending 1200 dollars would be worth it. Kat was nice enough to come out the next day however she took a deposit through cash app ($600) to come and then asked about the rest once she showed up. Which means no refund possible as it's cash only. Her dog caught scent of ours but lost it pretty quick after. We walked a little while longer before she said that the dog was "most likely" in the woods nearby. Well in our area there are woods around EVERY CORNER. By this time she was ready to go however I asked her to check out one more field which she reluctantly agreed to. By the end of the walk she was holding her back in pain. Long story short, she was here for 2 hours and cost us (a dog rescue) 1200 dollars. Unless you have an easy case such as a more suburban neighborhood or call her almost immediately I wouldn't waste your money on her services. read more

PLEASE READ. SCAMMERS: DO NOT TRUST. My cat went missing on June 24, 2024 and I got in contact with someone named Kat to come out on June 26, so only two days after my cat went missing. I live in Houston, 3.5 hrs away from the DFW area and they are charging me $1400 saying it's to cover travel costs. $700 deposit, $700 upon arrival. Mind you, I will do anything for my pet and after seeing the good reviews on their personal website, I really thought they were legit. (honestly should've trusted the yelp reviews bc I'm pretty sure the good ones must be paid by them) In the time of scheduling with Kat, I am promised a minimum of 3hrs of search time and that we will search my street and a 3 house search radius. Courtney and her dog Blizzard come out around 7am but we don't really start the search until 7:20/7:30. In this time, Courtney says she has to get Blizzard ready but what really happened in that time is Blizzard takes a dump in my yard, Courtney doesn't pick it up before she leaves and it takes almost 30 minutes to put a harness on the dog. I give Blizzard my cat's scent and we finally start the search, we searched the backyard I saw my cat go into but this was only after leading them in that direction. I wanted to search the street behind me, but Blizzard and Courtney would not walk the corner with me, with Courtney's reasoning being that the scent trail didn't go that way. Which it probably didn't, since we as people and dog cannot jump the fences like a cat can. I try to explain this to her and instead we get into MY CAR to for me to drive us to the next street over. We get to it and she doesn't even let us walk up and down the street fully, Blizzard got excited over some random cat that isn't my cat. When I brought this up to Courtney over the phone afterward, she said it was because she changed the command from "find scent" to "find kitty". I did not just pay you $1400 to find A kitty, I can do that myself, I am paying you to find MY cat. Courtney was saying she had another job to get to across Houston and left by 8am. Barely an hour's worth of work for $1400. If my payment covers travel cost, I assume you've travelled to Houston FOR ME. If you've traveled here for two clients then you should charge us the same service fee + adjusted travel costs. I've done the DFW-HTX drive multiple times. There is no way it would cost this much for gas and lodging. I gave it the benefit of the doubt before trying to get in contact with them and thoroughly search the areas Courtney suggested my cat was in. I'm talking tearing apart and rebuilding a neighbors deck, and going into abandoned houses. After searching for a week I send Kat a text saying I was disappointed with the service for all the reasons stated above, then Courtney calls me directly. I ask for a refund for at least $700 because like I said, they were barely with me for an hour and it was a lot of money. Courtney tells me Kat handles the money and she doesn't really have a say in that, so I ask to speak to Kat only to be told that "Kat doesn't like talking on the phone." Excuse me? You're a business owner bold enough to charge people over a thousand dollars for your services, you can be bold enough to get on the phone too and make sure your clientele is happy. Courtney and I call back and forth a few times and we finally settle on giving me a refund of $700 as long as I don't leave a bad review. This was July 1st. It is August 1st today and I still have not received a refund and my cat still isn't home. So my cat search is still ongoing, my neighbors have been more helpful than this scam of a company is, and I'm out $1400. I tried calling their numbers recently but it went straight to voicemail so I'm pretty sure they blocked me. TLDR; Charged $1400 for an hour, didn't find my cat, promised me half a refund, month later still no refund and still no cat. PLEASE BE WARY. THEY ARE PREYING ON PEOPLE EXPERIENCING PET LOSS. read more

I cannot recommend Dog Gone Detectives enough! They helped us reunite with our baby. I reached out to Dog Gone Detectives after our Great Pyrenees, Bentley, went missing from my brother's back yard. He lives on 4 acres that is heavily wooded with copper heads, coyotes - you name it. He went missing on July 5th around 8pm. We searched all night and then again the next day, walking around 10 miles through the woods, connecting trails, swamp lands, and covered many areas in our cars searching as well. We were calling out to him and using a squeaker toy and food to lure him in. I contacted Kat in the afternoon on July 6th and she began the process for me. She set us up with Courtney and her scent dog, Blizzard. They arrived right at 6:30am on July 7th. We gave Blizzard a blanket of Bentley's, she took the scent, and then was told to hunt. Courtney told us that calling out to the lost pet can sometimes push them further away since they are scared so we walked through the woods, letting Blizzard lead the way. Blizzard took us into the woods through all the heavy brush and down a small hill towards a pond. While Blizzard was sniffing around the grass just before the pond, Bentley appeared behind the pond WITHIN 20 MINUTES of searching. We immediately started yelling for him, crying in happiness that he was alive, and starting going towards him. Courtney immediately stopped us, told us to sit down on the ground, be as calm as we can, and not to call out to him. At first this didn't make sense since he's so used to us, however, it was exactly what he needed. After being in the woods for over 36 hours, my super friendly and outgoing Bentley was confused, timid, and very scared. He started walking towards us but would stop repeatedly since he was unsure of what we were trying to do. He then got within about 50ft of where we were sitting when he recognized us and ran to us. It was a miracle. It was the best day of our lives and it was all thanks to the help of Dog Gone Detectives. Courtney and Blizzard are so professional and hard working. Do not let some bad reviews taint your thoughts on this. Everyone is so emotional in this time - rightfully so since it is one of the worst days of their lives. However, we would regret it for the rest of our lives if we didn't hire Dog Gone Detectives to find our baby. PLEASE - if you take any advice from this review at all, DO NOT CALL OUT TO THEM FRANTICALLY OR CHASE THEM. Even if you think you know your dog best, they are terrified and even the sight of you (their beloved owner) can look strange and seem scary when they've been away from their home for too long. They are scared too and who knows what they've been through while missing. Dog Gone Detectives knows what they are doing and they are the real deal. I hope you never lose a pet, however, if you do, call them immediately! read more

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Prompt service, came on short notice, succeeded in finding evidence (hair), and overall did a great job.

Avoid this business!!! I hired dog gone detectives for a significant amount of money ($1500). Before she arrived I told her 2 locations. One was where my dog escaped from and the second was where he was spotted a few hours after his escape. She arrived and went about tracking my dog. Her conclusion, my dog definitely went from his escape route to the sighting location but then he was picked up by someone. All of that money for her to confirm that my dog was in fact at the 2 locations I told her he was at. 2 days after she concluded that my dog was picked up/stolen he was seen lose a few blocks away. I have continuously requested a partial refund as her conclusion was clearly wrong and I gained 0 useful information from my purchase. She refused and has stopped answering my texts. Avoid this business at all costs, do not waste your money, there are several much more reputable and more pleasant to work with tracking companies around. read more

We contacted Dog Gone Detectives at 5pm yesterday, and Kat drove 2 hours to be here at 8:30am today, to search for our dog for another 2 hours, and then deive 2 hours back home. They trecked through the woods, walked through a shallow creek, hiked through slippery mud hills and poison ivy. There are coyotes in the area, and Kat found our dog's fur. She gave my family the closure we needed, after we've been searching day and night the past 3 days. Thank you Kat and Dog Gone Detectives for your help. We truly appreciate the hard work you put in. read more

On June 20th, 2023, my cat was outside during a hail storm and never came home. I searched all over the neighborhood for blocks in all directions, calling him and leaving treats for him, as well as placing the dirty litter boxes and food in the backyard to try to put familiar smells in the air so he could follow them home. He never showed. I contacted Dog Gone Detectives, and they were prompt with setting up an appointment with me. They were here the very next day in the early morning. We started the tracking at about 6:45 AM and were done in just a few minutes. Her dog smelled the pillow cover of the pillow my cat slept on every night and then traveled a somewhat winding path to him a street over, between two houses on some land that looked like it may have had a small creek in the distance. Unfortunately, Dusty had passed away. It was shocking and devastating. I had told myself to be prepared for his possible death, but finding him was more than I could have prepared myself for. I actually think it was unexpected for all three of us. With great care and empathy, Kat let me know that by the looks of everything, he likely was hit by a car and walked to the spot where we found him and passed away. This helped explain his location. He was far too out in the open to have been sleeping there. Again, with a lot of kindness, Kat asked if I would like them to take Dusty's body back to my house. I realized in the midst of my shock that yes, I did. She asked if I had anything to place his body in. We went back to my house, and I grabbed a box. I could not find my shovel, but she put some gloves on and took the spade I found in the garage, and she and her partner carefully placed his body in the box and brought it to me so I could either cremate him or give him a proper burial. After she gave me the box, she gave me a hug while I cried. She was very kind. She made a good point that, though this was not what we wanted, I could now know for certain where Dusty is and that Dusty was not suffering in the world somewhere. This is true. Her services brought me much needed closure. Her services allowed me to bring my baby home. I do recommend Dog Gone Detectives. They do the hard work (work that has an emotional toll greater than many may realize) that is really important for families. Side note that may be important for readers: Kat lived about two hours from me. Her rate was $600 total, $300 of which was to reserve my spot for the next day. So, it was two total payments of $300 and $300. Also, we started very early in the morning due to the Texas summer heat. read more

Owner is very condescending, rude, unprofessional. Criticized us for how we handled looking for our dog. Took out $250 deposit to start. She took almost 2 hours to get to us, I doubt she's anywhere near DFW. We luckily find our dog literally 10 minutes before the lady shows up and she wants the other half asap. Complete scam. DO NOT USE read more

Showed up same day and very responsive. Courtney drove 6 hours from Texas to Arkansas to help out. The search itself from the last place my dog was seen was very short, as Blizzard found the scent going down too dangerous of a ravine for Courtney to traverse in the woods, so the search was dropped. We did go back and went down the ravine ourselves very cautiously and found my dog's prints going back up the trail at one point - it was a very, very intense trek that you simply cannot expect for them to take on that kind of risk. However, when we followed the prints back up on the trail I realized that Blizzard had actually stopped precisely in that location on her way out and was very intent about that spot. Blizzard is definitely very skilled. She moved slowly, but very deliberately, so keep in mind that the search will likely not be an episode of CSI with scurried, off trail trekking. If that's what you're envisioning then it's best to reassess your expectations. Also, we did find our pup the next day in a different location on trail so it was a happy ending. read more

Kat, Courtney and Bliss came all the way down to Austin to help find our furry friend and did a wonderful job. Bliss is an extraordinary dog and highly trained!!! We trenched through all terrains and searched every inch of possible places he could be. They are super sweet but def mean business!! Would recommend for anyone in the same position!! read more

Dog Gone Detectives - This was Bliss leading us on the search!! Such an amazing dog!!! - Pet Services Near Me

I'm glad i didn't read the negative reviews before hiring Dog Gone Detectives (DGD). Here is my story, we were devastated after a long day and night spent trying to find our lost dog in thick forestry conditions. A friend suggested we looked for animal trackers (hunting) and ran across DGD. Us being hours away from Dallas, I understood the expense due to travel and time. But was reluctant to commit to DGD services (cost and amount of time that has already passed). Last minute change of heart, we reconnected with Kat to move forward with DGD services. Even though it was late in the day, Kat promptly made arrangements for a next-day early appointment with Courtney and Blizzard. Courtney showed up as promised at 7:00 am (leaving Dallas at 2:30 am to be on time), knowing an expedited start was necessary for a successful rescue due to the extreme summer heat. Blizzard was quickly on the trail and found our missing dog within an hour, albeit too late (because of our lost dog's age and health condition, she succumbed to the Texas heat). Although the outcome was not what we hoped for, it was money well spent. We are grateful to get closure and to do a proper burial. I can't give enough praise to Courtney, Kat (and Blizzard); they both are genuinely concerned about our pet and situation. For example, Kat sent tips for finding lost dogs after (initially) I told her we would not be using DGD. And Courtney's friendly speed of service and the hug she gave me when we found our deceased dog. I wish I knew to contact them sooner :(... I believe people have to understand there is no guarantee that DGD will find their missing animal. Still, you should do all that is available to you immediately to increase the chances of finding your lost animal and finding them healthy. Regarding the business side of services, I understand the policy of getting half upfront and the other half upon arrival. I'm a business owner, and a huge part of my company's time is spent trying to collect on services rendered (and this is with dealing with other businesses, not with individuals). I can imagine dealing with private parties who would say anything to get DGD to start a search but would backtrack on paying after DGD lost all payment leverage by performing services before getting paid. I hope my story helps with your decisions. And if you are reading this review, I'm sure it's due to a pet emergency, and I'm sorry for you having to go through it. Good luck and best wishes for a happy outcome. read more

Feel like I got duped out of money. Kat told me that "the rain wouldn't affect the scent tracking ability of her dog" and either it did or the dog isn't actually trained properly. She at least refunded MOST of my money after her dog acted lost on the exact street that my dog went missing from. She basically got $140 to drive out and walk the dog around for 20 minutes on the same half a block while the dog just acted like a goofball rolling in the grass and seemingly not knowing what it was doing. She seemed barely in control of her own dog and just said to call her again if there's another sighting of my dog. No thanks...it's very apparent that this is a scam or they're bringing inexperienced dogs out to suck peoples cash from them really quickly while acting like they're going to do a 3 hour search. read more

I hired Kat Manning to help us find our lost Golden Retriever, the contract we had to sign said she would search for our dog for 3 hours or until he lost the scent by being picked up on a highway, none of that happened and she was barely here an hour, she complained about the brush and the thorns and barely went into the wooded area where he was last seen, we had to send her a $550 deposit and pay the rest when she arrived which we did, a total of $1100 wasted money, her dog acted lost and never could find the scent, she had to keep prodding him which direction to go and after this short fiasco she told us to just grill some burgers or put out a trap to catch our dog, hiring her was a total waste of money, her whole business is a scam to prey on broken hearted people looking for their pets and I plan on suing to get a refund read more

This company is a sham. We were in desperate search of a dog that had escaped a veterinary clinic in Coldspring, Tx. After recent sightings but unsuccessful recovery of our precious pet, we called Dog Gone Detectives. Our dog was missing in the edges of the National Forest where it was heavy with brush. I personally spoke to Kat Manning and explained the area which would need to be searched. I told her that after reading online comments I was concerned that they would come and tell us that they would not be able to enter and search woods - and would only tell us to set live traps. Her exact words to me were "I would never do that." Dog Gone Detectives required $600 electronically transferred to them before they would even head our way. Done. Upon arrival they required another $600 electronically transferred and would not even get the tracking dog out of the truck until they verified it was done. The person who came was not Kat Manning, but another woman who brought 1 dog. She walked her dog around a small parameter where our dog was seen the day before, but would not move into the wooded areas which our dog ran toward, and after about 45 min she was ready to load up and leave, saying that her dog caught a scent, but she could not confirm it and her recommendation was to set live traps and bring a grill and cook burgers. We managed to persuade her to continue looking - practically begging her to extend her search area. She did so very reluctantly and subsequently left. This company obviously preys on desperate pet owners and does not do as they promise. While we knew it was not a guarantee that they would find our dog, the lack of effort to do so was very obvious. I would never recommend using this company unless you have money to just throw away. read more