One of those weird little mysteries

[Peopleplease]

This is nothing in the grand scheme of things but it has me scratching my head so throwing it out to mumsnet!

We have a gate into a field from our back patio. The dog is gated off from the garden but is able to access the field through this gate. I know he was in there this morning because he was muddy.

I went out just now and the gate was closed with the bolt across (so it couldn’t be the wind).

I didn’t do it & DH didn’t do it. We did have a man servicing the boiler but why on earth would he do it???

We live rurally and you’d have to walk up our (gated) driveway to get to the gate.

Really, the only one who could have done it was me (and I really don’t remember) or the boiler man (why on earth would he?)

Any other ideas?

It was the dog obvs

So you cant access the gate from the field? Someone may have seen PleaseDog in his muddy glory, and fastened the bolt with the dog in the garden?

Is the field yours? Does anyone else have access to it via another route?

How high can your dog jump?

The field is mine - I don’t just let DDog into random fields! You can access the gate from the field but it’s kinda the same scenario as coming up the driveway - we’re rural with no passing traffic, I’d be really freaked out if someone was just wandering round.

tinselfest no way dog could have jumped it.

Hole in the fence/hedge. Or dog has burrowed under?

So either look around for a different source of mud, or think again about the dog getting over the gate. My parents' quite small Staffie used to scramble up and over an 8 foot wall without much difficulty when motivated.

It’s a wall between the field and patio - def no holes.

Due to the set up, it’s physically impossible to get into the field unless the gate is open.

Not wanting to freak you out, op, but I disturbed a couple using my parents terrace in the summer - they are rural, no footpaths, and you'd either have to cross two of our fields and climb a fence, or drive up a driveway, cross a yard, climb a fence and wander through the garden.

I was so busy wondering how they even knew it was there - not visible from anywhere except a particular angle in one field (aged p's are nude sunbathers ) - that I'd offered them a cold drink or cup of tea before realising they were trespassers

DM just said that I should have been glad they were clothed (

Did you bolt the gate yesterday? If it's normally bolted then your dog has another way to get in the field perhaps . Check your fences?

Dcat with poseable thumbs?

Dog has found an alternative route to the field?

If the lock is loose then could it be wind blowing the gate sharply shut and the slam then rattled the lock into place ?

Snow

The ghost of DCat maybe. I do suspect his body might be in the field (he had cancer and disappeared the day before he was due to be put down).

I went out to get the bin off the street after it had been emptied one day and found that the dog had managed to slide the bolt across the gate and had locked me out. The bolt is across the middle of the 6 ft gate and I think it must have slid across as he jumped up at the gate in his annoyance at me leaving him for 30 seconds.
No neighbours were in and I had to wait for the show house on the estate to open so that I could use their phone to call my husband at work and ask him to come home with his keys to open the front door.