Chris,
I wish there were more people willing to do what yall are trying to do in finding the owner of the dog. It wasn't too long ago, that my hunting partner lost a dog. Six months later some young guys show at my house, excited about catching their first pig, with the missing dog in the back of their truck. I asked them were they got it and they explained that they had bought it from a guy that lives a couple of towns over. I had them call the guy and ask him where he had gotten it(on speaker phone). He said he couldn't recall, but funny thing is, he told them when they bought it where he got it from. Needless to say, they were so excited that I didn't have the heart to take the dog back. Not to long ago another guy I know, purchased some dogs from the same guy a couple towns over based on reccomendations from another guy, who had already knew what this fella had done.
Didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but it worked out fine in the end. Yall are proof that there are still some good people out there.
