Pet Search FAQ

Each search is different and costs vary with location, difficulty, and complexity of the search. Here are the base costs for our search services:

Retainer $250

The retainer is used to secure our services on your case. We develop a search plan, secure the Part 107 pilot, get FAA approval for flights in your area, generate an interactive map that aids communication at all phases of the search and is yours to keep as the search progresses, generate a webpage with critical details about your pet, start an ongoing social media presence and posting to broaden your reach, develop a PDF flyer that can be scanned and referenced back to your webpage to broadcast updates. This work is the base of our search effort and is critical to the operation.

Part 107 FAA Licensed Thermal Drone Pilot $150/hour (4 hour minimum required)]

We only use experienced Part 107 thermal drone pilots. These pilots understand the constraints and methods used for thermal drone pet searches. For example, thermal signatures cannot be detected by the drone through solid objects. We require a four hour minimum flight time to recursively search an area. Your pet may not be out the first time we fly by. We need multiple passes in an area at different altitudes and angles to ensure that if your pet is out in the open that they are detected. If predators are in that area we will determine their position and direction of travel, if possible, and haze them out of the search area if needed.

Ground Search $100/hour

Depending on the complexity of the terrain, ground searches can be more expensive. Our team is rope rescue certified and can search almost any terrain. In the most extreme terrain the cost of search may be significantly more expensive but there is no other team, to our knowledge, that offers this type of capability. Captain Enzo, our search dog, is still in training. We can use him to find scent clues from a scent article that you provide but do not place full weight on these results due to the fact that he is still learning his role.

Travel $40/hour and $0.73/mile

Our base of operations is in Cherry Valley California. We are willing and able to travel and set up our mobile office in your area. The fees cover our team expenses on the road. 

No. Pet searches are complicated. Your pet might be in a neighbors backyard or in another state because a family on a trip found him and thought they obtained a new pet. Our specialty, and focus, is eliminating the possibilities that your pet is in an area which allows us to continually narrow the search. We use professional search and rescue tactics and strategies that are time tested and standard in professional searches.

Example: The client reports that their pet often wanders into the open field behind their house. We would check for track and sign of the animal in that area by ground search and fly hours of thermal drone missions in that area. We might set up game cameras and set a humane trap with treats that the animal likes in it. When all of these methods fail we can be reasonably sure that the animal is not in the area and focus our efforts on other possibilities that maybe seem less probable at first. We narrow the search by starting with high probability areas and moving toward the less probable ones. You may not have thought your little Yorkie would cross the freeway, climb a mountain, and end up foraging on a golf course over the hill. It is a low probability, but still a probability that needs to be considered after all high probability areas have been ruled out. An animal under the stress of being lost often acts very differently than they did in your home or familiar environment. Animals can hide for days to weeks in a fear state and are VERY difficult to detect.

Our services provide a wraparound investigation of your pet's disappearance that forms the basis for further search and provides tools to you and those you recruit to help you. We are available to advise you and support you along the way but, unfortunately, we can't guarantee that we will find your pet. We can guarantee that we have the most resources available of any service and that we will do our best to get your loved one home.

We have the highest resolution thermal sensor available. Regardless, it cannot see through solid objects. This is a constraint of physics. There is no thermal sensor that can see through a thick bush or inside a shed or under the ground. Depending on the conditions it may be very difficult to differentiate your pet from other objects in the thermal. If, for example, the ground is the same temperature as the heat signature coming from their body, the thermal display would show no difference and therefore the animal could not be detected; it just sees heat. The best situation is when we have a large differential between the temperature of the animal and the temperature of the ground and surrounding objects. This makes your pet "pop" as the only warm thing in the area and makes detection very easy. Thermal loading during the day can make objects retain and disperse heat similar to an animal. Rocks, bushes, trees, bare ground, trash, etc. can look exactly the same as an animal sleeping or hiding in a still position. Each of these has to be checked and individually verified with a spotlight in the visible spectrum. This can take a lot of time and make the search less effective. The pilot will discuss the constraints of the weather, thermal loading, and topography so that you can make an informed decision on whether a thermal drone flight will be an effective search method.

It is so important that we have a plan in place if we find your pet. You need to understand the information in this video. Please watch before we arrive.

 No matter how close you were with your pet when they disappeared, they may be in a fear state now and may run from you and hide. You need to use the information in the video and be ready with the items suggested.