To ask for your help solving my weird dog lead mystery?

[Doglead]

Name changed just because I’ll probably mention this in RL to someone or other because it’s really bugging me.
I train my dog in my front garden most days. I use two leads depending on what we’re doing. So I’ll clip one lead onto another to make it longer for sit/stay, un clip for heel work.
two days ago I must have left the 2nd lead out there by mistake.
takIng DDog out this morning and it was laid in the front lawn, I saw it immediately and it was very neatly chopped in two.

What could have done this? It’s bugging me because it’s too neat to be an animal (surely?). If it’s malicious, it’s pretty weird. Any ideas?

You can’t tell from the picture but it’s very thick too. I don’t own any scissors that would cut through something like that so neatly.
My NDN has cctv (not ring doorbell). But feel weird asking them to check for me.

Any barking issues with your dog that a neighbour might be resentful of?

Wow. That’s weird. Definitely ask to see the doorbell footage!

It’s very neat so rules out wild animal chewing it. Anyone used a strimmer, that could potentially have done it. But, yeah, realistically, someone has cut it on purpose.

No excuse but I imagine a neighbour is irritated by the training regime in the front garden every day. Would your doggie be barking during this?

Someone is objecting to you using your front garden for dog training. Petty and cowardly.

No DDog doesn’t bark much. NDN I am joined to has 2 barkers (doesn’t bother me). Other NDN is cctv couple but she hardly ever barks tbh and we’re not joined to them.

if it’s on purpose and someone is wielding scissors (or a knife 😱) my fairly nice car with nice tyres is sat there. It’s just so weird.

I just can’t see it bothering anyone. We all have fairly big sweeping front gardens and driveways, we’re not cramped in at all. Im not loud and she doesn’t bark at all during training.
it’s not every day too. I didn’t do it yesterday but was in and out all day and didn’t notice the lead. I noticed it immediately this morning.

As someone already said, someone doesn't like you training your dog out the front so has come out and chopped it. Stanley knife maybe? It looks quite heavy duty though, so maybe a saw. Has to be a neighbour who can see you out the front from their house

I didn’t do it yesterday but was in and out all day and didn’t notice the lead. I noticed it immediately this morning.

That sounds like it's been moved from somewhere else.

I can't think of anything which could accidentally cut that sort of thick lead so neatly.

Any chance it could have somehow been draped on a hedge or shrub and someone didn't see it while pruning with shears? Though why someone would then return the bits anonymously I don't know.

@ErrolTheDragon yes, that’s why I mentioned it. Neither DH nor I noticed it yesterday. NDN but1 did have landscapers in yesterday but then the lead would have had to have gone on some bloody journey to reach the landscapers in her very enclosed back garden, two doors down, then back onto my front lawn.

I just really can’t see that we’re bothering anyone. I know people can be weird but we do maybe 15 mins of mostly silent training, on my big drive. We don’t have any houses opposite

I would think that maybe a fox had carried it off and the landscape gardeners had accidentally chopped through it but that doesn't make sense because why would it then be laid out back on your front garden?!
The other obvious conclusion would be an aggrieved neighbour I suppose.
Definitely ask for the CCTV and speak to the neighbours. Bizarre!

I daren’t ask cctv now in case it’s them 😬
onky recent gardening was nd but one, I’m sure she’d have assumed it was next door’s dog lead and we’re also pretty friendly so I think she’d have just said and laughed about it

Could it have been that the lead was joined together with stitching at this point and the dog has chewed through the stitches

Lawnmower?
Fox?

No it can’t have been DDog is a big GSD. It would t have lasted.

I was rather hoping someone would say oh yeah that’ll be such and such beetle/ant, they knaw very neatly 😆

NDN and I haven’t done any gardening yet this year. We share hedges so we notice.

ND but one had a far side hedge cut yesterday but it really would be a long shot. See diagram.

it probably must have something to do with that but I’ll probably never know 🙁

My dog chews through things exactly like this! He chews his toys into bits and it’s like he’s taken a pair of scissors to them it’s that neat.

So my money is on a fox.

Also, who has voted that IABU 😆? And why?

We do have A LOT of foxes…

Mine could neatly unpick zips on cushions and remove the buttons off my walking trousers (wtf those IDK!)

But I don't think that sort of webbing would lend itself to dogtooth surgery.

Best guess is fox or suchlike moved the lead, passer-by hung it on the hedge which then had sharp shears taken to it. Neighbour sees bits, is mystified how they got there, shrugs and returns them.

I do agree it’s just too thick to be cut that beat by an animal.

It will never make sense to me and I don’t want to labour the point (especially as some think IABU😆)

because

1. the only cutting done was far down the back of our houses, the green bit, just beyond the brown hedge that I’ve marked in red.
2. why was the lead plonked on my front lawn and not NDN as she has two dogs.

scuse the silly dog 😊

The hedge at top right could definitely conceal a trickster

My dog has chewed through a very similar lead in a very similar neat fashion...