Dog escaping from garden

[sunnyliveshere]

We have a year old dog who’ve we’ve had since she was around 5 months old.
She has recently started to escape from the garden despite us getting it
dog proofed. this evening she escaped into the road and the police had to catch her - even though we spent time today putting in new fencing to block off the latest gap. My husband was even in the garden with her when he suddenly realised she had disappeared.
She appears to be more anxious than usual - she sleeps under the sofa or the bed whereas previously she’d sleep in her basket or on the rug next to us.
I don’t know what to do. She has two walks a day and I mostly work from home. I am worried no matter how much dog proofing we will do she’ll keep finding ways to escape. If anyone has any advice I’d be very grateful. Thanks

Could she be going into heat? How is she escaping?

You’re just going to have to watch her in the garden, see where she’s getting out. Don’t leave her on her own. And try to find out why she’s anxious.

im Visited regularly by a neighbours dog who scales my 6 foot fence. The only option is to put him on a long chain or lead.

She is spayed so not going into heat. We have been through the garden and keep blocking off where she is getting out but she seems to find new places to dig through. So even though we have paid to dog proof the garden; it hasn’t worked .
I was thinking of putting her on a long lead but was hoping not to. Might be the only option. She is a rescue so she’s always been a little anxious but it’s become worse since I went abroad for a week and she has to stay overnight at her day care.

How did your husband not notice the dog has disappeared!
just keep her on a lea d in the garden
job done

Keep her on a lead in the garden from now on. You can't just keep letting her out when you know she can escape - what if she runs into a road and causes an accident or gets hit by a car?

Well as I said, I didn’t think she could escape anymore, we’d spent time re dog proofing the garden but she must have found another place to get out. I didn’t just leave her there knowing she could escape. Husband just thought she was hiding in a bush, the garden is quite big. I’ll get a long lead today and also talk to the dog trainers about it

You can't really train her not to escape - you just need to make it escape-proof. Dogs are opportunistic and most will run out of an open gate or escape through a hole in the fence if they can - especially if they can see birds/cats/rabbits on the other side!

If you can't dog-proof the whole garden, can you at least dog-proof an area of it so she can go out and safely use the toilet and maybe sit in the sun etc?

Until then, though, you really do need to keep her on a lead out there. If something happens and she gets hurt or causes an accident, you'll be liable for having an out of control dog - so please be careful 😞

I recently bought a long line -

You leave your dog out out in the garden unsupervised? Aren’t you worried she’ll get stolen? I didn’t think anyone still took the risk nowadays.

An escape artist I knew had a longish leash attached to the washing line that ran from top to bottom of the garden. He could get to every area of the garden, to find the sunny spots and best places to sniff, but no further.

We're 12 years in to dog ownership and onto our second dog. Our dogs have never once even had 5 minutes of unsupervised access to the garden. Our family dog was poisoned in our back garden when I was a child, so I'd never take the risk.
We walk our current dog once a day and she spends the rest of the time chilling in the house. She spends time in the garden only when we're out there ourselves.
You might have to adopt this approach too OP.

Long long leash is what we need I think.
thanks for the advice.

Mine has a long leash at night because he won't come back in and just barks and barks (he's fine in the day).
I just hook it onto the door handle and then can reel him in when he starts barking. Attaching it to a washing line is also a good idea. At my parents it gets attached round a tree in the middle of the lawn so he can wander but not escape as he gets through their hedges.

He seems totally unbothered by it.

And my dog has hours of unsupervised access to the back garden, the back door is just left open for him when we are home in the day and he prefers outside.

You can get a spike in the ground to attach the long lead to

Get this netting staples to the fence and cross any gaps - dead easy to fit. get a staple gun as well

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KGDSZDU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A long line is a temporary fix. It will not curb the dog's desire to escape - only training will.

Teach your dog thresholds. There are lots of resources online. Southend Dog Training has some good videos. My dog will not leave our house or garden even with the doors/gates wide open without my permission.

It sounds like anxiety is an underlying issue and consulting a behaviourist may help all round. Good luck!

You wouldn't want to experience the heartache of having your dog stolen by taking your eyes off them whilst they're in the garden.

This family have suffered unimaginable distress -

https://m.facebook.com/groups/920086428798929?groupvieww_referrer=search

Not everyone's gardens are the same though are they? Our one is perfectly safe to leave our dog unsupervised, no one can get in except for our neighbours on either side who we know and are very sure wouldn't steal our dog ...