New NOSEiD App Can Reunite Missing Dogs With Their Owners Using Nose Scans

Austin Cannon
·2 min read

Booping the snoot could soon help reunite lost dogs with their owners thanks to a new smartphone app from IAMS.

The pet-food brand announced Monday that it's launching the beta version of its NOSEiD app. It allows pet parents to create a profile for their dogs that includes their canines' physical description and scans of their noses—the equivalent of a human fingerprint.

If your pup ever goes missing—like millions of pets do each year—NOSEiD users can report the missing dog on the app, alerting the other users in the area, according to the IAMS news release. Then, anyone who finds a stray dog can look through the lost dog profiles or scan the dog's nose to see if the app provides a match.

Then it's reunion time.

"Pets are irreplaceable family members, and with the NOSEiD app, we're hoping to help keep more pets in their loving homes and out of shelters—taking another step toward our goal of ending pet homelessness," Craig Neely, vice president of marketing at Mars Petcare, said in a statement.

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So far, the app is only operational in Nashville, Tenn., and its surrounding area. However, you can download it from the App Store or the Google Play Store if you want to check it out. (Pro tip: Use ZIP code 37027 to see what it looks like to the people using it in the Nashville area.) You can visit the NOSEiD website to see when it might be available in your city.

NOSEiD also offers an interactive map of missing dogs as well as a lost-dog poster generator, IAMS says. Plus, you don't need to own a dog to join—perfect for the dog-loving good Samaritans in your neighborhood. This new app, launched during National Pet ID Week no less, sounds like an excellent resource, but it shouldn't be your only safeguard if your dog goes missing. We can't repeat it enough: Make sure your pooch is microchipped and wears a collar that has up-to-date ID tags. That way, you'll have all your bases covered if you two are ever separated.