Escapee

[Evie]

Not sure which section I should be putting this under.....

Anyway. Evie's latest trick is escaping from our back yard. My partner has discovered she's actually jumping over the fence...

Short of making the fence higher (it's not exactly what i'd call low), is there anything else we cant do? She doesn't go anywhere once she gets out, just sits at the front door and waits to go back inside. It usually happens when we're not home, but tonight she did it while matt and I were both home (inside).

Raising the height of the fence can only really be a temporary fix as it wont be long until she'll be able to jump the side gate too which we can't make any taller, and our back yard, if she wanted to escape, is just chicken wire at the back which she could easily crawl under, but for the moment she has no desire and only wants to get out the front lol.

Also, we're renting the house so paying for a lovely dog proof fence for the entire property isn't really an option.

I'm just glad she doesn't go exploring when she gets out... but as her confidence increases she may well start..

Any ideas?

 

[Evie]

<-- she is getting a little too good at it. I was home, she was out the back, the back door had slammed closed in the wind, so her solution was the jump the fence and sit at the front door until i let her in.

 

[Amateur]

heh heh smart little dog !

 

[MissyBC]

This is what I would do:

Go outside with her and play a game of fetch with her. Make the backyard as motivating as possible. She's probably bored out there all by herself.

I never leave Missy out in our backyard alone (we don't have a fence but I wouldn't even if we did.)

Teach her to come when called as well. That way if she does escape again, you can call her back when needed.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[tigerlily46514]

I'd make sure my dog is microchipped, and has his phone number on his collar, and until i train him to never leave his yard, i like the advice above, never ever leave outside alone.


This video might help you. I am currently working on this same cue, myself, teaching my dog he can not put his paw onto our street, without my say-so.

for YOUR situation, mayyyyybe you might have to tweak the video below just a bit, and make some painted line in the grass, or some line of bricks layed end to end, or some other boundary, before he gets to fence?????
not sure, really.

THERE IS A "PART TWO" AS WELL, you can easily find it by typing "kikopup boundary part two" into your browser.

 

[tigerlily46514]

or, maybe,
maybe,
you'll have to teach Evie she can not not not not ever ever ever leave your front yard?? same as i am doing???

i think, if i were you, i def teach the front yard,
and i'd do that one FIRST.

Yeah, the more i think about it,
i'd train a default "i can not leave my FRONT yard" just like the video above shows.


that way, even if Evie jumps your fence, she'll still be in front yard (hopefully!)


and then, after Evie HAS mastered the front yard edge,
THEN, i'd begin trying to teach Evie the backyard fence can not be crossed.

 

[Dogster]

OMG SUCH an escape artist!!!! WOW...

 

[Anneke]

Ow my... She is good at it!

Yes I think teaching boundries is the way to go. Or else you would have to adjust your fencing. Maybe you could use a strip of chicken wire and attach it to the top of your fence. Placing it at an angle facing up and inwards. That way she can't climb out.
Something like this, see how the top is folded over? I got this pic from a site, where they made this to keep their cat in the garden, so it should work for your dog. And I don't think it would be too hard to attach to your existing fence. And it would be removable.

I used to have a neighbour whose dogs would escape. All three of them. We had no clue as to how they did it. There were no holes in the fence and it was pretty high. So My neighbour asked us to keep an eye out.
Here is what they did! The oldest, a german shepherd mix named Bonny, would jump up against the fence. At one point the chicken wire had not been pulled so tight and it would bend from her weight. Then her son, Lucky, would jump over. And on the other side he would jump up again, so the wire would bend even more. That way the smaller and youngest dog(6 months old) Rebel, was able to jump the fence, followed by Bonny.
My mum and I watched in awe!! We have seen dogs help each other out, but this was truly amazing!!! My neighbour didn't believe us when we told him, so we put the dogs back in the yard and he came over to see his dogs go through the same routine
He put the angled chicken wire on and fixed the bending part of the fence and no more escapes.

Had to think about this when I saw Evie jump the fence

 

[Evie]

Thanks everyone for their ideas

Evie currently wont leave our front yard regardless of the rules. She's happy at our house and the only reason she jumps the fence in the first place is to look for us (through the front door...)

The reason I haven't already put chicken wire up to stop her jumping over that point is because i'm worried that if i do that she will start trying to escape from the other boundry fences which are much MUCH easier to get out from. Also these other fences wouldnt take her to our front yard and then she may well get lost/go wandering.

As for never leaving her outside when we're not home; not an option due to our rental agreement for the house. Sigh. However, when we leave, we don't kick her out of the house completely, we leave the laundry and bathroom open for her (which has always had her bed in it) and up until a week ago she was content to sleep and stalk the rabbit while we were out..

Actually, come to think of it, this whole fence jumping thing only happened when we moved the rabbit cage over near that fence.. Maybe i should try moving it back over to the other side of the yard lol, then she might get that distracted by the rabbit that she'll forget about escaping.

 

[Evie]

Hmmm, I'm so going to try the front of house barrier... so then if she gets out it really doesn't matter so much. The only reason i even care that she gets out at the moment is that if she DOES decide to go wandering (which she doesnt at the moment) the road out the front of our house has cars which travel far too fast along it....

At least she's not like my brother's husky. The moment the husky is out of the back yard it takes a good hour to catch her again, and that's if you know which direction she ran.....