AIBU to think escaped dogs are becoming far too common?

[DriveVerySlowlyPastNumber23IWantThemToSeeMyHat]

Has anybody else seen a rise of 'escaping dogs'?

In my city, its daily. Always a dog roaming and always the big dogs too! It's usually met with 'they've escaped again haha!' or 'yeah, they like to jump the fence, lol!'

😬

I've never seen one. Although my own dog escaped once a few years ago. She saw a guy we talk to in the park and thrusted herself through the hedge to say hello to him. He immediately brought her home and we build a fence the very next day.

I’ve never seen this. Never heard of it either, other than in the news (and rarely).

No.

As a dog owner I wander around 3 times a day, every single day. I've only ever seen one lost dog in 20 years. Where do you live that has so many dogs wandering around?!

YABU. It's not an issue where I live.

I haven’t seen one for years. The last time the poor dog was obviously petrified. You’d think with their extraordinary sense of smell they’d be able to retrace their steps to get home.

Now I’m wondering if dogs can smell themselves 🤔

I haven't experienced this, not with big dogs. There is a local terrier who is always on Facebook with cries of "that's Jim's dog" i think it burrows out rather than jumps fences.

In the 70s/80s we had a little jack russel, and he used to escape daily, to run with a pack of dogs that roamed the estate.

These days I see a lot of worried pet owners posting about their lost dogs on sm, but can't say I've observed lost dogs everywhere. A lot more dogs in general though.

My local facebook page should be renamed "lost dogs" page.

I don't like cats.

Dogs used to roam free when I was growing up people just used to let dogs out 😀

Our local Facebook pages have almost daily posts of "anyone know who this dog belongs to" type posts. I get quite cross when someone replies "oh, that's just Fido, he lives down the road, he'll find his own way home!" The dog is roaming on a road where cars are travelling. It could cause someone to have an accident, potentially injuring or killing someone if a car driver has to swerve to avoid it. The dog should not be allowed to roam free just because they live in a rural area!

Another vote of not an issue where I live. Aside from one woman whos fluffy little dog "escapes" all the time, so much so, everyone knows the dog and the house and just takes it back. Never seen any others.

Which city? This is so vanishingly rare in England that I’ve only ever seen it twice in my whole life. Both dogs happily reunited with their owners.

We had a self walking dog in the 80s too. A Labrador he’d just vanish off and reappear for dinner. Nobody the least bit concerned. There was a rather famous dog who had gotten the bus to town (by himself) to join his owner in the pub.

It's funny you should say this. I've just been on Facebook and there was yet another post asking if anyone had lost this dog, found roaming. That must be the 10th this weekend. That and the 100s of missing cats. Wtf is going on lately?!

Happy days! no angst about anything just get on the bus to the pub 😀

My Aunts dog used to make his way to my Grans house daily, tbf she didn't live far but that is where my Aunt would find her dog.

We have a missing dogs Facebook group in our area and it is constantly on the go. I don’t understand how so many people lose their dogs tbh

I’ve come across more riderless horses than dogs roaming free on my walks.

I feel like there were a lot more actual stray, not just escaped, dogs around when I was a little kid in the 1980s. There is more dog theft now though.

When we have the Tesco delivery (and the dog comes for a nosey to check on her chewy chicken stick delivery) the driver sometimes asks if the dog will run off if you open the door. Ours doesn't (though she had wandering moments when we first got her and weren't used to having a dog) but I concluded from the question, that many do bolt out the door at the first opportunity.

We have a few usual suspects, my neighbours dog misses no opportunity to get out for a walk, including digging under the fence, which had just been strengthened after a previous attempt.

My dog managed to squeeze himself under the fence too as a puppy. I’d been telling my neighbour that we were lucky that he didn’t seem interested in wandering, 2 hours later off he went.

I’m not sure if there is an actual increase in lost dogs or if it’s just the fact that Facebook makes it much easier to hear about it.

We live very near a large area of open land popular with dog walkers, unattended dogs turn up in our street about 3 or 4 times a year.

I think that if your dog doesn’t have excellent recall then it should be walked on a lead.

I haven’t seen one in over 40 years.

Wonder if we're the same area!

It's the way they act like it's a joke too.

'Ohh he's escaped again LOL!' 🙄