Help bring Scott home

Have to say that the professional SF Bay dog community and  dog owners  have been phenomenal and their Nancy Drew skills have put mine to shame. They already ran a background check on the fraud, and tracked down a few leads and managed to save the Thumbtack link, contacting former 'clients' and friends they found on FB. 
 

justice is coming for the bitch who stole Scott, please spread the word and help bring him home to his family.

and Never send a dog to a 'board and train' facility - most are awful
 

Maybe put a shock collar on her for a while first ( her method of 'training')

Scott's owner has yet to post a reward for his return, but might soon, which should draw the thrives out. They're either holding Scott hostage or worse. 

She disconnected her cell phone and is on the run.

full name Josephine M Ragland

27 years old. 
 

Possible aliases: IceNinjaCat, Emily Sanders

possible accomplice: Shan Zhang

she has family is Irvine, Laguna Hills, Lakewood and Fullerton Ca. Also in Delaware County, Ohio.

Sounds like Thumbtack wants to avoid a lawsuit and might actually do something to remedy the situation and try and get Scott back from the person who used their platform to steal the pup.

I was talking to a few  lawyers  today and was pointed in the direction of a couple of non profits that help in these types of situations. One lawyer said that she would look into it a bit as she recalled someone in Ohio doing something like this and thinks it could  be the same person. This is why POLICE need to do their jobs and not tell dog owners that it's a civil matter. 

The Non Profit Joey's Legacy provided some resources  and hopefully the Animal Legal Defense Fund will come though.

Really need some more media attention STAT.. please help spread the word on FB, Twitter or any Dog groups please. 

Any tips, contact Palo Alto Police Officer Mendoza 650-329-2413, [email protected] and reference Palo Alto Police Case number: 22-00055.

Hey techie people, anyone have a minute to help track Josie's IP address? Send me an email, please. Thank you. 

nevermind, I found it. she’s in Mountain View!

please share if you do the Tiktok

https://www.tiktok.com/@theycallmeamfb/video/7188288390909988138?_r=1&_t...

Unfortunately many folks who get dogs don't understand the importance of positive reinforcement and science based training and are easily fooled by 'trainers' who give horrid advice and maybe watched 'the dog whisperer' and think that BS about being the 'pack leader' is impressive. Carolina realizes her mistake now and understands that trusting the reviews on a platform like Thumbtack was a huge mistake.

Josie had a good thing going charging thousands of dollars for hundreds of clients and probably took in way too many dogs over the holidays and either lost/misplaced Scott. Or since he wasn't neutered maybe got attacked by another dog. Josie was based in Alameda  and probably had way too many dogs crammed in a wearhouse under the guise of a 'board and train' facility. 
 

Either way, she needs to be held accountable and whatever happened to Scott needs to be disclosed. She misrepresented herself as a qualified trainer. She had a good thing going fleecing unsuspecting Bay Area clients for about a year and it was inevitable that something like this would happen with an unethical and illegal operation.

the lawyer representing Carolina will probably go after Thumbtack. The platform claims to check qualifications and background check, but Josie made numerous false claims. Had no permits, CA business license, education in the field,  or insurance, contrary to her claims on the platform 
 

Scout > Scott 

https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2023/01/15/missing-dog-mystery-sparks-po...

Not many people are buying Josie's story, which she came up with only days after she tried to pass off a different dog and when police report was filed

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter, Dise. Carolina went to the police who originally told her it's a civil matter so if one wants to interpret the owner of a family pet as looking for a payday I suppose that's one way to interpret the situation. 
 

most of us who understand what it mean to have a family pet go missing or worse want to ensure that Josie is exposed for being a fraud and obviously want get to the truth and hopefully Scott back to his family. 
 

if it mean suing Josie to prevent her from ever setting up shop again, so be it. More news agencies are investigating now and maybe will get the police to investigate. 
 

Josie isn't the only criminal doing this

https://abc7news.com/dog-scam-training-theft-puppy/11488717/

Update:

SF Police are also now investigating Josie Fenn Ragland - multiple victims have come forward. Talked to two former clients  today who used her services a couple of weeks ago - same approx time that Carolina hired her to board her dog. More clients in Oakland filing reports too. This scam artist endangered so many pets. 

 Josie never told them anything about a "family emergency" - only that their dogs came home from Josie's "care" injured and clearly neglected. Some dogs were  returned without their collars, leashes, meds, etc that were sent to the "board and train" with them. One of the clients called Josie TODAY and asked if she could pick up the dog's possessions. Josie said "they're in the mail". Her BIL is a SF Detective. 

I've just  connecting everyone and passing along police, media and lawyer contacts. 

Thumbtack  is sending Josie's  former clients  legal documents sign,  trying to limit the platform's  liability

Reward for Scott's return is now growing too. 

NBC investigative reporter on it. 

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/missing-dog-palo-alto/3133268/?amp=1

 MORE clients are coming forward and sharing horrible experiences about this scam artist  and her "board and train"

Josie charges $2700 per dog for 2 weeks of "board and train".

 I am really hoping that Scott was just sold as a stud and might be reunited with his owner after all of the media attention and law enforcement involved. One woman who filed a police report just happens to have family in the SF PD - a detective. Her dog was returned  with an injured hip, and covered in excrement. Josie didn't return her pup's  belongings and claimed they she put them in the mail. 

And, I'm feeling more confident that Scott will be found alive after reading this message from a GS owner:

>OMG, I have three stories similar to this off the top of my head. My trainer friend boarded his dog with the person who taught him how to train dogs (Call them JM for clarity). My friend's dog was an extremely well-trained police K9 and a beautiful dog. He got the call three days into his vacation that his dog had died suddenly (trainer friend was in another country visiting relatives), so he asked to have his dog necropsied and got the next flight out. When he got back, JM told him he still owed for three days, and a necropsy was impossible, which was crazy, and no explanation for how the dog died; my friend was furious. Two years later, he was at a K9 conference and saw his dog with another police agency. He got with the agency and K9 sergeant and found out JM sold this dog to the police agency for $60K, fully trained. JM was given a fine and banned from AKC events for a year. This same person boarded my first dog's breeder's stud (my dog's sire), who was a fully trained German K9 from Germany and was retired because his handler died suddenly (handler was my breeder's brother). My breeder has a couple of litters from this stud; the dog always has a specific quirk after he has been bred. My breeder picked up his dog, and he was displaying that particular quirk. He asked JM if she had bred his dog or if his dog had gotten out and accidentally bred another dog. JM said no. Shortly after that, she began to advertise she had a litter of puppies; the period between his stud's stay and the litter was too coincidental. He involved law enforcement, AKC, UKC, and the Schutzhund oversight committee (USCA). They demanded genetic testing, and poof; it was his dog, not JM's stud, who sired the litter (her stud produced pretty ordinary litters but was a "champion," while my breeder's stud had some gorgeous intelligent working line litters). AKC and UKC banned JM from registering litters or participating in any AKC or UKC-sanctioned shows for life, and USCA did the same.

Of course Police dogs are worth way more than your average pure bred GS, however since Scott is from Brazil any backyard Breeder would pay to diversify the gene pool, at least that's what I was told by the GS breeders.

again, that would be the best case scenario 

it's also possible Josie's greedy business practices led to neglect and abuse and the dog died in her care. And she refuses to accept responsibility and made up some ridiculous take to explain his disappearance 

Her name is Carolina.

But since you're here and want to help bring Scott home, that's cool. Thanks for the bump. 

The update  is that Carolina is still  grieving the loss of her dog and still hoping she can find him or at least the truth about what happened and prevent others from experiencing the same mistake of hiring a bad "trainer". 

She's hired a P.I. to help locate her dog Scott and also locate the "dog trainer" who took her money and never returned her dog. And even more victims have come forward who have filed police reports of animal abuse and neglect against the same person who took Scott. 

NBC Investigative Reporter with follow up piece airing tonight 

@HildaGNews

>This 7 year old German Shepherd went missing while being in the care of a dog trainer. Now, six more clients of the same dog trainer are sharing their own experience with her--tonight at 6p and 7p on NBC Bay Area #scott #missingdog #missinggsd

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/trainer-in-missing-palo-alto-d...

Scott's owner will be donating $$ to GS Rescue* 

>Scott, a 7-year-old German Shepherd has been missing for a month and we are still not locating him. For this we are hiring a lawyer who will start a process to help us find him and start a process against the trainer responsible for Scott's disappearance and to try to prevent this from ever happening to another dog in the bay area.

Maybe to start a process to better understand exactly what happened to Scot and hold someone accountable for their actions as he was loved.

*Napa Valley Shepherd Rescue: Our mission is to rehabilitate/ rehome German Shepherd Dogs who are homeless, or at risk of euthanasia in area shelters.