Licensing and tagging a dog can help ensure a quicker return for an animal that wandered too far away from home.

In light of recent dogs coming into the Muskingum County Dog Warden and Adoption Center, the head warden, along with a deputy warden and volunteers, met with the county commissioners to review policies and procedures Monday afternoon.

Bryan Catlin, the head dog warden, said typically, when a stray dog is picked up, if it has tags with identification, the owner is contacted immediately. If there is no identification on the dog, the dog is taken back to the adoption center and placed on a 72-hour stray hold so that it cannot be adopted out during that time.

During those 72 hours, volunteers will post photos or videos of the dog on social media in an effort to alert the dog’s owners that the dog has been picked up. The initial three days does not factor in the day the dog was taken into the center, holidays or weekends.

If a dog is currently licensed, with tags, the dog is placed on a 14-day stray hold to allow time to contact the owner and send a certified letter to the address associated with the licensing of the pet.

Unfortunately, owners do not always retrieve their pets from the dog warden, which allows for the pet to go up for adoption after those initial 14 days.

“It’s very important to have your dog licensed because, if a dog is currently tagged, you know, dog tags on the collar then it helps not only us, but even an individual that might find a dog on the road to look the tag up, and it’s really a dog’s way home,” Catlin said.

Licensing a dog currently costs $20 as it’s past the year’s Jan. 31 tag deadline. Tags and licensing goes on sale between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31 for $10.