Couple spent over a year gaining missing dog’s trust — now they’ve finally brought him home

It’s always inspiring to hear of people going out of their way to save dogs, but one couple truly went the extra mile, spending over a year trying to gain the trust of a skittish lost dog.

But their incredible patience finally paid off last month, after the dog was finally caught and is now getting a second chance.

The dog, named Barley, went missing in July 2023, after he went missing from a campsite in Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan. His owners searched everywhere and spread the word on social media.

According to Detroit Free Press, the owners had only had him for about six months when he disappeared. Barley had been rescued from a hoarding situation and was still dealing with trauma, and was very skittish.

Weeks passed with no sign of the dog, and the search took a toll on the owners, who lived far away and had to make a 10-hour round-trip drive every weekend to look for him. The ultimately ended up relinquishing ownership of the dog, according to FOX 17.

But locals in Chippewa County continued to keep an eye out for Barley. He would occasionally appear on someone’s security camera, but because of his skittishness he was hard to nab.

Deanna Suggitt, of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and her husband Denny were among those looking for Barley. They got a Facebook message from someone who had seen the lost dog in her neighbor’s yard.

This led to a mission to win the dog’s trust and capture him, which ended up going on for over a year. Every day, the couple would travel 10-15 miles to the site twice a day to feed the dog.

“My wife was boiling liver and hot dogs every morning, then we put it on a bed of Pedigree hard dog food every morning,” Denny told Detroit Free Press. “Then every afternoon, she would take him out Pedigree hard food and put a half a can of Pedigree canned stew or meat on top of it.”

The mission served a double purpose: to ensure that Barley remained safe, warm and fed while he was out on his own, and the longterm goal of trapping him and taking him in. Other neighbors joined in the rescue effort, lending security cameras, feeding stations and a makeshift bedding area and shelter.

While Barley was scared at first, taking his food and retreating back into the woods, he soon warmed up to the couple as he became accustomed to their feeding schedule. “If we were running late for some reason, like a winter storm or something, he would come out on the cameras and look down the road like ‘Where are you?’” Deanna told FOX 17.

After more than a year — and exactly 14 months after he disappeared — their work finally paid off. Last month, they teamed up with a professional dog trapper and finally caught Barley.

The dog was finally in safe hands — but the couple’s mission was just beginning. Soon after trapping Barley, the Suggitts returned to adopt him.

It won’t be a walk in the park — in addition to his past trauma and skittishness, the four-year-old dog has now spent half of his life alone in the woods. While they know it will be a “long process,” they are “up for it,” they told FOX 17.

“We’re going to get him home and try to make him realize that he’s a dog and he can have fun and he can play and it’s okay,” Denny said.