Behaviour
Out in the road five minutes after you go inside. Running off is a safety problem first and a behaviour problem second, and you deal with them in that order.
Worth knowing. An old dog who wanders out of the garden and is found disorientated, a dog bolting in panic at noises that never bothered him, or any bleeding in the week after an escape (rodent poisons work with a delay) all mean a visit to your own vet.
You have a 1.6 metre fence and a dog who is out in the road five minutes after you go indoors. Or a garden dog who has been digging under the gate every night for a fortnight, and every morning you find him three streets away, delighted and covered in mud. Or a flat dog who, let off the lead in the park, heads off in a straight line and never looks back. Running off is two problems at once. It is a safety problem, because out there are cars and poison. And it is a behaviour problem, because a dog who has got out once and had a great time will try again.
Either there is something out there he wants, or something in here he is getting away from. It is worth working out which, because the plan is different.
Hormones. An entire male can smell a bitch in season from distances you would not believe, and he will jump, dig or chew through anything to reach her. The classic study on this found that after castration, roaming dropped in almost all males and stopped altogether in most. Bitches in season run off too, less often, but they do. If your entire male started taking off at around 8–12 months, that is very probably why.
Boredom and loneliness. The garden dog spends ten hours a day alone in the same 200 square metres and knows every smell in it by heart. Outside, everything is new. He is not running away from you. He is running away from nothing happening. At our training sessions we often see garden dogs who, once they start nosework once a week and get walks beyond the gate, stop jumping the fence. The fence has not changed.
Hunting. The cat on the fence, the deer at the edge of the village, the rabbit in the orchard. The dog takes off after something and comes back an hour later, if he comes back at all. Gundogs, hounds and the northern breeds (Huskies, Malamutes) are champions at this.
Fear. Fireworks, thunder, a bang next door, a car alarm. A panicking dog no longer sees the fence; he goes straight through it. These are the most dangerous escapes, because he has no idea where he is heading and does not stop.
Fence frustration. He sees dogs or people passing, runs up and down the fence line, barks, and one day he goes over. A fence he can see through (mesh, widely spaced slats) practically invites it.
Missing people. The dog raised indoors and then moved out to the garden, or the one with a friend, human or canine, two streets away. He goes there, every time.
What he has learned. The first escape was an accident: the gate was left open. The second was a choice, because the first was the best day of his life. The third came with a plan, because he has learned that a telling-off waits for him at home, so there is no rush to return. Every successful escape is practice for the next one.
Telling him off when he comes back. He comes home, or you find him and bring him back, and you scold him. He links the scolding to what he is doing at that moment: coming to you. Next time he comes back later, or not at all. However much he frightened you, a dog who comes home by himself gets a happy welcome, a piece of meat and a heartfelt "good boy".
A chain. It stops the escapes and creates a frustrated dog with unbalanced muscles who reacts to everything going past and often turns aggressive, because he cannot get away when he is scared. And whichever way you look at it, it is a chain. If the only alternative to running off is a chain, the problem is not the dog.
Invisible electric fences. A collar that shocks the dog when he crosses a line. A dog with a rabbit in front of him crosses it anyway, and then cannot get back in, because the shock works both ways. Nervous dogs learn to be afraid of their own garden. We do not use them and we do not recommend them.
Chasing after him. A dog who runs off and sees you running after him concludes either that it is a game or that you are cross. Either way he speeds up. Stop, crouch down, call his name cheerfully and run the other way. Most dogs will follow.
Just a bigger fence. A higher fence stops the jumping. The boredom, hormones and fear are still there. He digs, chews the gate or waits for the day it is left open. You need the fence, but on its own it is not enough.
Letting him "run till he's tired" in the park. A dog with no recall, let off the lead, learns exactly that: off lead means gone. Every walk where he ignores you when you call is a training session in running off.
While you work on the cause, he does not get out on his own any more. In practice:
If he is an entire male who runs off, talk to your own vet about castration. It is not a cure for running off, but for males who go after bitches it is the one thing that changes the reason. The hormones do not vanish overnight after the operation; give it a few weeks. For bitches it is the same conversation, with different arguments.
Hardly anyone bothers with this part, which is a shame, because it is the step that decides whether the fence gets tested again.
For the dog who bolts in the park, this is nearly the whole plan. For the fence jumper, it is the safety net.
Gate, front door, car door: he learns to wait. You stop at the threshold, he sits or at least stands still, you wait two seconds and say "OK". If he barges, the door closes again. Ten repetitions a day for a week and he stops shooting out when you open the gate for the courier.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Walk the fence, move anything that works as a step, check the latch. Tag and microchip. He no longer stays alone in the garden. |
| 2 | Book the vet (castration and a general check). First walk beyond the gate, 30 minutes, on the long line. |
| 3 | Start whistle recall indoors, 20 repetitions a day. Food hidden round the garden. |
| 4–7 | A daily walk outside the garden; recall indoors and in the garden; waiting at the gate, 10 times a day. |
| 7 | Check the fence again (dogs find a new spot) and decide whether you need the angled extension. |
Tell your own vet how long he has been running off, whether he is neutered, when her last season was and where he went.
The dog who jumps the fence out of boredom is going off to find himself something to do. If the work comes to him, he goes less often. We see it in training with garden dogs who start mantrailing: after an hour on a trail through the woods, nose to the ground and the person found at the end, they have enough to chew over for three days. It does not replace the fence and it is not magic. Still, a dog who gets, once a week, exactly what he was looking for over the fence (a trail, new ground and a big celebration at the end, with the person found and his favourite treats) has far fewer reasons to leave. And mantrailing is done on a long line, with his person behind him, so he learns to work at a distance from you without losing you. It is the best recall exercise we know, even though nobody calls it that.
Our assessments happen outdoors, long line in hand, and that is where we see what draws the dog out. With this problem, the plan is usually about what you do with him, and the fence comes after.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
Most often because there is something out there he wants: a bitch in season (the main reason in entire males), a cat or a rabbit, new smells for a bored garden dog. Sometimes he is running from something: fireworks, thunder, a bang next door. Every successful escape sets up the next one, because out there he had the best day of his life.
A fence at least 1.8 metres high for an agile dog, with nothing beside it he can use as a step (crates, logs, compost), and a mesh extension angled inwards at 45 degrees or a roller along the top. For diggers, mesh buried in an L shape. The fence alone is not enough: a dog who jumps out of boredom needs taking out of the garden daily, and with an entire male you talk to the vet about castration.
No, never. He links the telling-off to what he is doing at that moment, which is coming back to you, so next time he comes back later or not at all. However much he scared you, a dog who returns gets a happy welcome: a piece of meat and a heartfelt "good boy". If you chase him he speeds up; stop, crouch, call him cheerfully and run the other way.
For males who go after bitches in season, usually yes: the classic study on this found roaming dropped in almost all males after castration and stopped in most. It does not fix running off from boredom, fear or after cats. Decide together with your own vet, and expect the effect to show over a few weeks rather than the next day.
Stop letting him off until he has a recall: a 5–10 metre long line trailing on the ground and a new word or whistle, practised 20 times a day at home, every time with something amazing and lots of fun. In the park, call him 10 times per walk and send him back to play 9 times out of 10, so recall does not mean the end of the fun. Off lead only when he comes 10 times out of 10.
A behaviour that appears suddenly or changes for no apparent reason can have a medical cause. For full details, consult your dog's own veterinarian.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
You call him five times in the park and he looks at you like a stranger. Recall is built at home, with plenty of fun, long before you need it.
Chewing, barking, racing round the house at ten at night and still not tired. A dog like that tires through his head, and you see the change within days.
Shaking under the desk, panting, refusing food. On the night you help him through it; the fear itself you work on during the rest of the year, and it does improve.
A visitor's leg, a sofa cushion, a puppy in the park. It is rarely sexual and almost never dominance; nearly always it is excitement looking for a way out.
An assessment session tells you where you stand and which plan makes sense for your dog. The behaviour programme then works step by step, reward-based only.