Dogs that get out • Richmond, VA
How to stop a dog getting out of your yard.
A dog who has got out once will try the same way again, so the fix starts with working out which way that was. This guide covers the four escape routes, what actually closes each one, and the point at which patching a fence stops being the answer. Plenty of dogs never need more than a shovel and an afternoon.
Start here
Find the route before you buy anything.
Owners tend to raise the fence, and most dogs were going under it. Walk the fence line after rain, when fresh digging and worn tracks show plainly, and look for one of these four.
Under it
Digging is the most common way out and the easiest to miss, because the hole is often on the far side where you never walk. Dogs dig where the ground is softest and where they can brace against something, which is why corners and gate posts go first.
What you’ll see: A scrape or a hollow against the fence line, usually at a corner or beside a post.
Over it
Real jumpers clear a fence from a standing start. Far more dogs climb: they get a back foot into chain link or a horizontal rail and go up it like a ladder. The two need different fixes, so watch which one your dog is doing before you spend anything.
What you’ll see: Scuff marks on the panels, or a chewed top rail. A four-foot fence with a wheelie bin beside it.
Through it
Small dogs need very little. A gap that looks far too narrow is usually not, because a dog will flatten and push through anything their skull clears. Walk the whole line at your dog's eye level rather than yours.
What you’ll see: A loose picket, a gap behind a shed, a spot where the wire has pulled away from a post.
Straight out of the gate
The most common failure of a physical fence is a human one: a gate left on the latch by a delivery driver, a lawn crew, or a visitor. It is also the only failure mode that gets worse in summer, when the gate gets used most.
What you’ll see: No damage anywhere. The dog is simply gone, and nobody knows how.
Fixes worth doing first
Most escapes are solved with hardware, and we’d rather you tried that.
We install underground fences for a living and we still tell people this: if your dog has found one hole under one corner, fill the hole. A boundary system is for the dog the fence cannot hold, not for the fence that needs an hour of work.
For diggers
Bury chicken wire or hardware cloth along the base and bend the bottom foot of it outward into the yard, away from the fence. A dog digging down hits the mesh and stops; a dog digging at the base hits the buried lip before they reach the line. Large landscape stones laid along the fence work on softer diggers and are quicker, though a committed dog moves them.
For climbers
Height alone rarely helps a climber, because they are using the fence itself as a foothold. Take away the footholds: a smooth panel over chain link, or an inward-leaning extension along the top so the angle stops the climb. Then move whatever is parked beside the fence, since bins, firewood and AC units are the usual launch pad.
For gates
A self-closing hinge and a latch that a person cannot leave half-shut fixes more escapes than any amount of fence work. Add a second latch at the bottom if your dog noses the gate open, and a sign for delivery drivers if the gate is on the route to your door.
Worth saying plainly: a dog who gets out when left alone all day is usually bored or anxious rather than badly fenced, and no fence of any kind treats that. More exercise before you leave, something to do while you are gone, and in some cases a vet conversation about separation anxiety will do more than anything in this section.
When the fence isn’t the problem
Some dogs go through the fix, and then the next one.
If you have buried mesh, moved the bins, capped the top rail and your dog is still out on the road, you have a dog whose drive to leave is stronger than the barrier. Hounds working a scent line and herding dogs who want the neighbour’s children are the two we see most.
An underground dog fence works differently from a barrier. The boundary is a buried wire around the area you choose, and the dog learns where it is during training, with a collar that warns before it corrects. It teaches the dog to stop at a line rather than trying to out-build them. It also holds the line where a physical fence cannot go: across a driveway, around a pool deck, or along a wooded edge nobody is going to fence.
The honest limit is this. A dog with enough drive can take the correction and keep going, and a dog who is already out is no longer contained by it. It depends on your dog, which is why we look at your dog before we recommend anything. When the answer is that ours is the wrong system, we say so.
Reading the rest of the site
This page is the behaviour question. These answer the ones that follow it.
- Electronic vs. physical fencesThe side-by-side, including where a physical fence is the better buy.
- How boundary training worksWhat the training actually involves and how long it takes.
- What it costsInstallations start at $1,399, and what moves that number.
- Is it safe for my dog?The correction, what it feels like, and the dogs we turn down.
Questions we get about this
Will it work for a dog who already gets out?
Will the system work for my dog?
Most dogs do very well, but suitability depends on age, temperament, and your property, so we evaluate rather than promise. Puppies need to be old enough for training; anxious or high-prey-drive dogs need adjusted protocols. Tell us about your dog and we'll give you an honest read.
Tell us how your dog gets out.
Describe the escape route and the yard, and we'll tell you whether hardware fixes it, whether a buried boundary is the better answer, or whether neither one suits your dog.