My stupid fucking dog

[murielm99]

escaped today. I had to trick her into getting in the car and take her for a ride. That was the only way I could catch her.

The trouble with her escaping is that we live along a very busy road. She has no fear of traffic, and could easily be killed. She goes out into the yard on a leash.

She does get plenty of opportunity to run. Every day, she goes for a long run, a mile or more, on the nature trail. The only time she misses an outing is if it is pouring rain or twenty below zero.

Kinsey behaves very well on the trail. She knows what is expected of her. She races ahead, comes back and sits. She was easy to housebreak and follows other commands nicely. She gets along with the cat and does not chew anything but her own toys.

How do I get this dog to quit escaping? It does not happen often, but it scares the crap out of me when it does happen. Do I have to take her back to the obedience trainer? She is a three-and-a-half year old Lab and Doberman mix. She is a wonderful, beautiful dog, and I do not want to lose her.

[Shell Beau]

1. My worst nightmare came true!

That was my Hutch. If there was any way to escape, he did. I became a first class sprinter with him. I would have to corner him to get him or jump in the car quickly and go after him. It worked well for 6 years.

It was that one time he didn't actually escape. My husband was letting him ride with him to the store. While putting him in the truck he decided now was as good as any of a time to make a break for it. Bad timing. He took off across the street (also a busy street). Bam! A dooley truck came along and smacked him. Right in front of my husband. I could hear the other dogs outside howling. I thought it was because they were jealous that Hutch got to go for a ride.

He didn't know what hit him. He ran back to my husband and died right there. My husband tried to give him mouth to mouth. I lost it. I was 4 or 5 months pregnant so emotions were high anyway. I was worried for my baby because I was that emotional. That was March of this year. I really hope you find the answer. It can happen right before your very eyes.

And the asshole driving the truck didn't stop. I know he couldn't help hitting Hutch, but he could have had some human decency and could have stopped.

[murielm99]

2. OMG, I am so sorry.

I know it would break our hearts if anything like that happened to Kinsey. All she would have to do is see a deer or a rabbit across the road and it would be all over.

We do try to be careful. I am sure there must be a way to break her of this dangerous behavior.

[Shell Beau]

3. Hutch got better with age with his escaping but he never

could quit completely. I came home once to him lying in the driveway which puzzled me to no end since he was fenced in when I left early that morning. The neighbor told me he had roamed the neighborhood all day. Apparently he was like a cat and could squeeze under the fence even though there was NO room. We spent lots of money fixing the fence too. He is in doggy heaven now! I miss him lots though. Good luck!

[JenaLaw]

5. hugs

I am so sorry...you just described my worst nightmare!

I have a little one...she does not weigh 10lbs...and she is a runner! If she manages to escape without a leash, her attitude is 'Eff you, I am out of here...'. We live on a quiet street, but people drive like maniacs on it.

And the only way to get her to come back is to go after her in the car. My car. She knows that no one else in our family takes her for rides to fun places, so she will refuse to get into their cars. Smart little beastie, right?

Oh...another 'smart' Molly trick? Whenever she does get lost, she finds a hot male to 'rescue' her. Seriously, last summer she went through the screen window at home 3 times...each time she was picked up by a different good looking, single man. Think my dog is trying to help me out?

[driver8]

8. I'm so sorry... a similar thing happened to our dog when I was away at college.

We had a shepherd/golden mix named Muffin (the name fit when he was a pup, but he was a huge dog).

Anyhow, he was riding in the back of my father's pick-up truck. My father slowed down to pull into our driveway and Muffin jumped out and ran across the road after another dog. He got hit by a van and was killed instantly.

I got the call at college and could not believe it -- a very sad day.

On a side note: I was in a bar with some friends many, many years later and I was introduced to a guy and we were chatting. When I told him my last name he knew where I lived and said, "I am the guy who hit your dog. I am so, so, sorry...there was nothing I could do and no way to stop. I felt absolutely horrible about it." That was nice to hear.

[undeterred]

4. My puppy is an escape artist too

He went out of the car window in a grocery store parking lot. Fortunately he still had his leash on and there was a dog-friendly woman next to my car at the time. He has wriggled out of his collar a couple of times and I had to chase him down. And he can push my back door open, so I have to leash him up before I get near the door and hold on tight. He's just very excited.

He comes when called in many situations but not all. So I think the best thing is to instill the idea that going into the street is bad, maybe by making the dog sit every time he gets to a curb.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. Jon Katz, is that you?

[Incitatus]

6. Have you considered an invisible fence?

[Silent3]

7. The very first night we moved into our new house...

...the first week of November, one of our two cats escaped. We were really scared for him since it was a new neighborhood and he'd have no idea where he was. I felt really sick over it. Our first night in our brand new house was looking like it was going to be a very bad memory for us. It was dark and raining. Our lawn, which is steeply sloped going into the back yard, was just hydro-seeded a couple of weeks earlier, and since the roots of the grass hadn't set up well yet we were essentially slogging around in the mud tearing up the lawn looking for the cat. Then we were walking up and down the streets with flashlights, then driving around very slowly, calling out the cat's name, and not having much luck.

We even drove back to our old house (which is less than a mile away) wondering if he somehow might have gotten the notion to head back there. It was very hard to get the image of our cat being dead along side the road somewhere our of our minds. We let our cats outside for supervised time out in the lawn, but neither of them are street savvy enough to be out on their own, especially in a new, unfamiliar neighborhood.

Finally about three hours later he showed up in the back yard, acting very scared. We have no idea where he'd been all that time. It was hard for my wife to grab him when she found him, but soon he was back inside and we were both enormously relieved.

[driver8]

9. Our dog does this, too.

It is not so bad in our neighborhood -- it is very hilly and he is pretty easy to catch.

However, he has escaped over at my in-laws' house and he takes off running -- like it's a game! He is almost impossible to catch, and they live on a very busy street.

[efrx214]

10. Your Escaping Dog

You didn't say if she had been spayed, but it sounds like she
hasn't.  Whenever an unfixed female dog comes into heat, all
she's ever been taught won't matter to her until she draws a 
bunch of unneutered doggy boyfriends.  They don't always bleed
when they go into heat, either.  If she's not fixed, a
low-cost spay and neuter clinic could permanently resolve that
problem for you.

[murielm99]

12. She is spayed.

We had her spayed when she was a puppy. They have laser surgery now that is much easier on the dog, if not the wallet.

I need to find another way to stop the escaping.

[old mark]

11. Get her a chip - an implant that enables you to trace her should she

wander away.
My dog is a Doberman/Dane mix, and I believe he is the most stubborn dog on earth. doberman's are very smart dogs in many respects, but the have no respect foror knowledge of traffic danger, and I never let Peanut out of the yard without a harness and leash. When he is alone in the car, the windows are never down far enough where he could get out.We always keep watch on him when he is in the yard in case someone would let him out or hurt him out of mean ness, or even take him for some local dog fighters. There are many dogs stolen here all the time.

They are great dogs, but I find you really have to control and protect them as much as possible - they are very curious about everything and want to go and find out about it all.FWIW, I thought he would outgrow some of this, but he is over 8 now, and still a pup in a lot of ways.

Good luck.

mark

[murielm99]

13. She has been microchipped, too.

That won't do much good if she gets hit and killed on the road.

She really is a great dog. She is very smart and friendly. We do our best to keep her safe.

[malta blue]

14. the invisible fence has been my savior....

My rat terrier Egypt is the worst door darter I have ever encountered. I cannot get her to stop.

My solution - invisible fence. She has only been zapped once.

[flvegan]

15. How exactly did she escape?

[murielm99]

17. I was bringing poinsettias into the house,

and a friend came over. Of course the dog was there to greet us. I opened the door too far, and she ran. I should have known better. She should have been confined to the bedroom until we were inside. Usually this happens when there is a lot of coming and going out of the door. It happens too when friends are over who do not know that the dog is a runner.

[Critters2]

18. I wish I had some good advice for you.

The beagle used to be a runner. But in the last year or so I've realized that she's no longer interested in running out the door when I open it. She gets close to the door, but it's to see and greet me. She's lost interest in running out the door. Yesterday proved it. The door blew open. She could easily have walked out, as one of the cats did. I have no idea how long the door was wide open, but she was in the bedroom (with the door open) with me the whole time. And I'm sure that nose knew there was fresh air coming into the house.

My point, and I do have one, is that she seems to have decided that she'd rather be with me than running around. I don't take this for granted. She's a beagle, and the right scent could easily catch her interest and take her to parts unknown. But, she's mostly a homebody.

Sadly, this all just came with age, I think. She'll be 8 next month. I don't think I trained this into her, though she's had lots of training. I think it just came with time.

All that said, I think I'd talk to a trainer again. While your dog, like mine, may stop this behavior as she ages, you may not have time to wait for that. I'd get a trainer involved--call Barkbusters or some other trainer who will come to your home and work with you onsite. I think that's important, so they can see the situation firsthand, and work for solutions tailored to your situations.

Best of luck to you!

[northernlights]

19. I feel very fortunate...

First, I trained the heck out of my dog regarding staying in the yard, *behind* the horseshoe drive. If he stepped onto the drive, he was immediately called back in, and if he crossed it I put him on a tie-out, which he hates.

A couple times when my back was turned (while I was weeding the garden or doing some other chore) he's crossed the road. I found him, dragged him home and locked him in his crate. His crate is his toybox and den when the door is open. He considers it prison, though, when the door is locked.

This past summer was the final cure. He had a neck injury last summer that got his back vertebrae out of alignment, ending up with injured/inflamed discs plus he hurt his hips squeezing under the pasture gate. Suddenly, he didn't walk when he could sit, didn't sit when he could lay. So I let him lie outside unattended while I did chores. He just got in the habit of basking in the sun in front of the garage. The neighbor's dogs across the street yap like crazy. He just watches them. The only time he'd forget his pain and jump up was if anybody approached our property.

One time he felt well enough to cross the street and he disappeared into the brush there. He came slinking out when I was frantically screaming for him. I dragged him back and,not realizing at that point about his sore hip, I gave him a single smack on the butt before putting him in his crate and locking him in for several hours. That smack really made an impression, probably because his butt was already muscle-sore, but also because it was extremely rare -- only the 2nd time in 4 years he'd been given a smack. He also doesn't like to scare me or make me cry. I was so upset that I left my dressage whip by the front door. I'd rather raise a welt than lose him to a car or truck. He checked the whip out the next time he was outside, and I think that made an impression too.

Now his back is better and his hip almost better. But he is so trained that he doesn't even think of crossing the street, and he really seems to appreciate that I trust him enough to allow him freedom. He also seems to take his job of "protector dog" seriously, jumping up and barking at anybody that comes near our property, but always waiting for me to arrive before he gets starts to close in. It means I have to call him off the "intruders," which I think makes an impression on them. Especially when I call out "good boy, well done!" to him and love all over him for barking at them, lol. On the other hand, the oil and gas delivery men have no fear of him -- they drop to their knees and let him love all over them.

Anyway, now he often stays out by himself when I'm home, and naps in the sun or wanders to the backyard and watches the birds and the horses. He knows I'm keeping an eye out and will track him down and give him hell if he leaves the property. So he doesn't. He missed so much play time after the brutal winter last year followed by his injury, that I don't want to confine him this year before the weather requires it.