My dog is escaping the yard

Hello, I'm after suggestions for stopping my dog escaping the yard. She never escaped our old yard but we've recently moved and she has left twice. Tonight I looked out the window to check when the sensor light out front went off, only to see doggo heading towards the street. Now I'm trying to determine how best to keep her in the yard.

I don't know how she's leaving but wonder if she's jumping as she's a surprisingly good jumper.

I know trying to tire her out with walks and making sure she's not lonely and has entertainment is part of it but aside from these sorts of things what are the best physical changes to the yard I can make to improve chances she is contained?

Thank you for any suggestions!

We had a dog who continually escaped. We had other dogs the same size and energy level who didn't escape, and our fences are all high and secure. We found out he was running around in a circle to get momentum then he would run up the fence and perch on top, then run down the other side. We added height, he just had a longer drop.

We thought about ping strings, fence toppers etc but we came to the conclusion that they would not stop him from trying and he might injure himself.

So we kept him inside from then on, unless one of us was outside with him.

He was not bored and he had plenty of company, he simply figured out he could do it and once he did there was no stopping him. Even at the age of ten, if the front door was left open, he'd take himself for a walk.

If she's jumping over she might respect a hot wire run along the top of the fence. Otherwise keep her inside, or build her a run with a roof.

We have a determined escape artist too. Our dog was both jumping and digging under our fence. In the end we turned to an electric perimeter fence with dog collar with training.

The only problem was our dog would test for power outages (common in our area) and then escape.

We have since moved and have taller fences with less ability to dig. He had not escaped this yard. It is very frustrating as he is 12 years old and is walked daily. Cattle dog...

some dogs are jumpers for the sake of it - if you can, you would need to extend the fence to 2m and ensure there is nothing it can use near the fence to help it jump?

Maybe some wire fencing as a double fence, she might be able to get over it but it will give less run up for the external fencing. Is she escaping because she can see people/dogs/birds? Screening might help but dogs have amazing movement sensors in my experience.

Make sure you introduce her to your neighbours so they know which house she is from if she is found on the street and encourage them to let you know if there are any issues. You want to increase the chances they contact you before the rangers.

There’s angled extensions to fencing that might help they make it more difficult to climb or jump over

I have one who if she can’t jump, she’ll climb. She doesn’t wander, but sees barriers as a bit of a personal challenge. I once got a fine from the council because she decided to climb onto my roof.

I remember that! Why did you get fined?? Wasn't she still on your property?

I have one who if she can’t jump, she’ll climb. She doesn’t wander, but sees barriers as a bit of a personal challenge. I once got a fine from the council because she decided to climb onto my roof.

 

I remember that! Why did you get fined?? Wasn't she still on your property?

 

She was still on my property, but not contained, apparently. They decided to rescind the fine after I told them they were being a bit silly.

That's a lot silly. Shes not bothering neighbours or chasing cats or running in traffic on your roof. If there were neighbours or traffic on your roof, you have more problems than a dog on your roof.

She was very well contained, she was on your roof, for goodness sake.

We ended up having to tie our jumpy escape artist up. With a fancy claw type fastener you needed to pinch as he worked out how to undo the typical dog clip.

However for 23 hours a day, that dog would respect a half hearted line in the dirt from a week ago as a barrier. The half hour either side of sunrise, well, he would jump the 1.8 m fences (he was part great dane) to go wondering.

Current dog is small, and we ended up having to run gutter guard along the edge of the fence to help keep him in. Although he still has the occasional habit of falling through a picket after knocking it off when forgetting to stop..

What about installing those rolling things on the top of your fence?

https://oscillot.com.au/

I have the rollers for my cat, they work great and as long as you can use a drill very easy to install.

A friend has grown vines along their fences - passionfruit I think. And a hole in their gate so the dog can see out.

Their dog will jump, the theory they've come up with is their dog is a nosy neighbour, a plain fence must be hiding something exciting. The vines attracts birds etc so he doesn't seem to have any interest in anything else going on outside the fence. He never tried to jump the gate or get out of the old gate that he could see through, when they replaced it with a solid gate he jumped it several times in the first week.

I have the rollers for my cat, they work great and as long as you can use a drill very easy to install.

i've always wondered if these work - were they expensive?

They worked at my last house. One cat is escaping in this house. Not too expensive, about $600 for a medium size yard.

We have an escapee who now lives inside. Too dangerous for her to leave her outside as she is so determined that she will (and has) injure herself. She climbs fences - or trees if necessary, to access the top fence rail, which she walks along til she is on the other side.

If you want to see how she is doing it you may see scratch marks on the fence where she goes over. Certainly a climber will leave a mark. Or go out the front and call her and see what she does. Even if she doesn't jump over when you are watching, she will probably give you a clue.

Our neighbours' dogs kept jumping the standard height paling fence we used to have. We replaced it with 2m high colourbond. Or it might be 1.9m- whatever the tallest option is in colourbond. No more jumping.

Our neighbour had shepherds that kept getting out even though they increased the height of the fence and gate. It wasn't until one day I was taking it home when it went under the gate.... it was not much more than 10cm, it went flat when it went under - quite grotesque to watch.

The owner was amazed and thanked me, he put flexible wire under the gate and the dog never escaped again.

That happened to me. At my previous place twice I found my cat on the side fence, figured he'd climbed out, so added more and more height and stuff to keep him in. Finally saw him escape and realised he was going UNDER the tiny gap under the gate. Fixed that and no more issues.

Our dog was squeezing himself under the gate - amazing to see the small gap he was able to get through. We now have a line of bricks along the gate to stop him, and it seems to be working.

Thank you for the replies and suggestions all! It seems there are a few escape artists about! Funny how motivated some dogs and cats can be about getting out! We've worked out how our dog has been escaping, she is definitely jumping! She can leap pretty high even from a standing start though I believe she's 10 or 11 years old this year! She's pretty spry. She leaps up and then scrambles over. My husband and I have now seen her do it a couple of times. At the moment we think it's only one side front fence bit she can manage so we are working on a permanent solution to stop her getting into that side yard to get to that bit of fence. The rollers are also a great idea, that would stop her climbing the last bit. A lot of other good suggestions too, and the idea of talking to the neighbours so they might bring her back before council does is great too. The last time she managed an escape (we hadn't quite sorted the blocking side yard) she had just got out and the local admin of the lost pets Facebook page for our area happened to be driving past and immediately rang us (she has collar with our numbers) so she didn't get far that time!

Thanks again for the suggestions, and some laughs about how determined some pets are to leave the yard!

Our cat easily opens doors. Cant lock him in the laundry or out of the kids rooms. they have lever handles and he just jumps at the handle and pulls it down. Helps that he is a big boof. Opens the door and walks in with 'that' flick at the tail at you.

One other thing to add - I got a collar with my phone number embroidered in large font. I couldn't read the engraved tag without my glasses and often these get worn. I thought it may make it easier for someone to read if they are out with their phone but not their glasses.