calling on lost dogs

We have only the words REWARD IF FOUND and our two phone numbers on all of our dog collars and cut collars. My cousin called me last week because he lost his best strike dog in the woods under some "questionable" circumstances. He raised that dog and within reason knows how he hunts. That's not to say that the dog could have done something different this time and you never really know what's going on in the woods. At any rate, he tracked two of his dogs in the same general area on short to medium range. All of a sudden, his strike dog flips to long range and then is off the tracking unit completely (despite his calling the dogs in). One dog comes back and the other dog did not. He tracked for hours and hours walking in the direction he was tracking the dog to, and the dog never showed up, never got back on the tracker. He finally decided to leave and return in the morning but to no avail. He works for himself and was able to return every day for a week and never saw buzzards, never saw hide nor hair of the dog or the tracking collar. His thought was that given the speed at which the dog seemed to go from short/medium range, maybe the dog was picked up by someone. He mentioned that in the area, dog and equipment theft is a little common. It's so sad to say that there are some not so honest folks out there.

We have had folks call us for lost dogs when we have let folks take collars when they didn't have an extra to transport the dogs. We kept getting phone calls from Louisiana and all over the place when folks would find a dog wearing our collar. Ugly dog is the one who really gets the "lost dog" calls. Her name and phone number are on all those cut collars and vests. The number is a lot more visible than the little brass tags on the collars, and your average joe who doesn't know dogs but knows that a pit bull has taken up residence on his porch isn't likely to reach down and spin that collar around to read it. The number on the vest can be read at a distance though. I'm needing to get with my embroidering neighbor to have our info put on our vests and collars in huge PINK numbers. I think someone would be more likely to see that and less likely to steal a highly marked pice of gear. Just an idea though. I suppose if they want your dog bad enough, they aren't going to be worried about your phone number being all over the vest.
M