I never ever leave Mabel in the garden on her own. She was sitting by the door to go out but I was on the phone to the bank, still in a queue after 10 minutes. I opened the door to let her out and she trotted out I presumed towards the back of the shed (I had gone to get a poo bag). Suddenly I felt a kind of silence so I called her, not a sound. I ran to the side of the house and my heart stopped. OH had left the gate open while doing the bins. It's so dark and she is brown and the street lights are so dim. I run to the house and collect my whistle. 3 pips and she comes running out of the darkness and into the house with me. Super massive reward out of the fridge. When OH gets back back from the gym, by the time I had finished telling him off he probably wished he had stayed there. So super impressed with Mabel's recall.
My OH did that and I didn't even know my dog was missing, why would I when the gate is always shut and bolted! Horrified when someone knocked on my door and asked if 'this is your dog'! Had only gone about 30 yds, but that was more than enough
Ugh, how scary! Had the same here the other week; DH opened the gate to get something out of the car and didn't notice Shadow slipping out. Luckily we're nowhere near any busy roads, but we had a frantic few minutes trying to find him, with our hearts in our mouths.
My OH hasn't let Dexter escape but he's often in the bad books on dog related issues!! Glad all dogs were ok and safely returned home x
Well done with the recall Mabel. She could possibly have been a little anxious finding herself 'out alone' and was only too pleased to be called home
I left our back gate open a few weeks ago. The first I knew about it was 5 min. later when Cooper was standing on the front porch asking to be let in the house. If it had been Tilly we might have had to go looking for her, but Cooper doesn't go far. Tilly's recall is not so good now because she seems to be pretty hard of hearing. A combination of old age and lots of ear infections.
I think my OH must top the gate stories. He built a gate for my Mum's yard to keep the dogs in. Sis and I each had new dogs, the ones previous were happy to stay in the back without the gate. Anyway, he made a really nice gate with grate work in it so Mum could sit with the dogs and see who was going by on the sidewalk. That gate was a piece of art. And when he finished hanging it up he left it open. I let Oban out to pee in the backyard where I couldn't see that the gate was open and he got out and went merrily away down the street to explore. Obviously that worked out ok, but really, you make a gate to keep the dogs safely in and you leave it wide open? Really? On the day you put it up? And this man is allowed to drive a car.
