On July 4, the Baltesz family dog, a black Lab named Simon, ran away from home. Thus far the family -- mom Louise, 43, dad Jonathan, 44, and their children Henry, 15 and Clara, 13 -- have had no luck locating him, despite all the posted signs and calls to pet rescue centers. So they did what any dog lover would do. They decided to spray their own urine around the neighborhood in the hopes that the beloved pet will sniff out the trail.

As they say in England -- are you mad, woman?

Mom Louise Baltesz told the UK's Bristol Evening Post, "I know it sounds bizarre and I'm embarrassed to mention it but it makes sense if you think about it."

Not to be crude, but how does it make sense? Is the dog is used to sniffing the family tinkle?

Well, dogs do drink out of the toilet. And with that extra-strength canine sense of smell, perhaps the pup retained the memory of the Baltesz's...unique scent.

In many cities, there are laws regarding where dogs can and cannot do their business; the same goes for their owners. PoopReport.com has a story about a man named David McDonald who was arrested for peeing in a Berkeley parking lot, for example. Despite the fact that public urination was not explicitly against the law in the California town, a judge found that "public peeing is not only a nuisance, it is also littering," according to the site.

So how would an officer of the law handle the Baltesz situation? Isn't pouring your own watery waste product onto the base of a lamppost considered littering? It's certainly gross. Perhaps the laws in England are less strict about such things. It is, after all, the land of the rebel rock stars.

How far would you go to find your child's lost dog?

Brett Singer is the editor-in-chief of DaddyTips.com. You can follow his tweets at Twitter.com/brettsinger.