For the second time this week, Jackie absconded to midnight-visit with whatever dogs are awake at this ungodly hour in the nearby town. How he got away...I don't know. My mother, who is very very tired, tried to let him out to pee on the yard-line, which he shouldn't have been able to get off. I can only assume she didn't attach it to his collar correctly, I don't know. He's not even supposed to be on the yard line on his collar, only on his harness, never mind that he didn't need out this late. I only knew he was missing because I could hear her yelling for him. *sigh* He was thankfully wearing his light-up collar, so once I got to the village, on foot because I don't have a drivers license, he was easy to locate. A bit spooky, since the light up collar made it look like he had no head, and the air was completely still so there was an eerie echo, also fog. For a moment I actually wondered if I was just having a nightmare based on earlier this week.
There is a bitch in season being a male Dog his hormones are going haywire and he will be doing a lot out of character just watch him keep him on a lead and walk him regularly for his toilet etc when she's finished her season he will return to normal behaviour
Yikes, glad you caught up to him with no harm done. Good thing he had his collar on, just in case you didn't catch up to him, assuming it had ID on it. It certainly could be there's a bitch in season somewhere but that doesn't account for any of the dogs I've found who ran off from somewhere, all neutered males or females. Oops, no, one intact male I found. In other words, don't count on neutering or no BIS to necessarily stop running off to find adventure. My favourite find who ran off was a massive Percheron gelding. Henry, wish I could have kept him.
What a scare you had! Glad you found him safe and sound. Shades of Hound of the Baskervilles, though....
There might be a bitch in heat, sure, given that out of the ~30 odd houses in the area, only one doesn't have a resident dog. Neutering isn't the culture here, unless there's a good medical reason, though several of my neighbours suggested that it might help last I spoke to them. My vet doesn't think it's necessary, so I'm not going to get it done. He was wearing his collar, with the legally required ID tags, as well as a nifty LED collar I bought because he is essentially invisible at night. He always comes running back when I get in sight-distance, which can be pretty far in the hilly area we live, but it is with tail between his legs and lowered ears, so I think his previous owner wasn't welcoming when this happened in the past. My favourite "fetch" of an escaped animal must have been my niece's black rabbit a good deal of years ago.
We don't have a suitable area for that close to the house. We tried it with a previous dog, but it ended up being just as easy to take them for a walk as to take him to the dog-run. We ended up using the run for chickens. It would also offer the same opportunity for escape as his line, given that he'd have to be walked over from the house.
This is his walkies kit. He usually only wears the orange collar when not outside. This is how invisible he was last night.
Our spending area is right outside the door, I swill every wee with watered down bio gel - no smell whatsoever.
Oh, I thought you meant a proper tall dog run. We already have a fenced off patio, but he jumps that as if it wasn't even there.
I accidentally left the back yard gate open Tuesday when I was collecting construction debris for the trash pickup. A little later I went out the front door with more trash and there was Cooper waiting to be let in. She just walked around the house and said "let me in" We have been surprised at how little it takes to keep our dogs in. We have large 8' x32' covered front porch with an 8' wide opening. We always thought it would be nice in the summer to let the dogs out on the front porch so they could see the street and neighbors. We are planning on having a custom iron gate made for it, but this summer we have just used a 30" high pet play pen, opened up across the opening. Cooper could jump over it standing still but she doesn't. They like sitting out there because there is more activity in the front than in the fenced back yard. Twice in the past month, my neighbors niece has left their gate open and her Sammy has escaped. He normally doesn't have good recall but both times He made a beeline for our house and stood outside barking to be let in so he could play with Cooper.
So glad you managed to find him so quickly. Hopefully your mum will ensure he's secured on his harness before letting him out
I'm so glad that it ended well. Are you rural? Lucky there aren't many cars out at midnight! Time to have polite yet stern words with your mum I think. Wow, that is impressive! So catching Jackie must have been a breeze lol.
I can see what you mean about the fence on your patio, that wouldn't stop any labrador determined to go out and do a bit of midnight roaming. So glad you got him back safely! And the light up collar seems like a very good idea.
Well, I've found that with rabbits and chickens the same technique applies; slowly find their comfort distance, then inch in and wait for them to relax, rinse and repeat. It takes patience, but I like to think I'm good with that. I've had an escaped chicken literally fall asleep half a step ahead of me with this method. Sadly it isn't really applicable with a bouncy lab. Had to take Jackie for a midnight run to tire him out tonight. This last week, maybe the last fortnight, he's been really unquiet at night, walking around, whining, barking, and otherwise making it hard to sleep. I've had to take emergency measures a couple of nights and slept on the couch with him to calm him down. He's not been this clingy before, it's somewhere between worrying and annoying. I think it must be that there is a bitch in heat somewhere nearby.
