How do you make your home escape-proof?
I'm curious what others have done to make their house safe so the dogs they are hosting don't escape.
4 Answers
If a dog hasn't been trained to wait politely at the door until instructed to go through it, the best and only thing you can do is to have the leashed dog in hand BEFORE you open a door. I did just watch how to train a dog not to charge the door on Lucky Dog. Also, make sure you ask the owner at your M&G (or have it on your boarding form) whether their dog is an escape artist.
Another technique is get yourself some baby gates, so that when you're opening doors, the dogs are in another area of the house/apartment.
So far (fingers crossed) we've been blessed with dogs who don't tend to charge the door when we come and go, or who have good recall. The one dog we watch that occasionally tries to get out comes right back - we know her well and trust her, and we're on a really quiet dead end street. She doesn't go out to the road anyway. She just goes out to pee. Generally, they'll come to the door when one of us comes home, but not to get out.. they just want to crowd around us and say hi. For walks, and other times we're taking the dogs out, we have them sit and wait for their leashes to be clipped on before opening the door, then we practice waiting while the door is open until we are ready to step out, so at least in our house they have to practice good door manners.
My own dog escaped from my home while being watched by a sitter. She dug out under our gate. Needless to say, worst experience ever.
We had concrete poured under the gate so she couldn't do it again.
If we're watching a bolter, my husband or I will hold the dog while the other leaves, or we'll leave out the garage door because in our home we have to pass through two doors to get to the garage which makes it more secure.
If you don't have one, I'd recommend getting a walkthrough gate. We have it set up in our hall mostly to separate guest dogs from rest of house but its great to ensure you're guest doesn't bolt.
The problem I'm facing now is with my new dog, who was a street dog, he's a jumper. A VERY good one. He's found away to jump over my 6ft tall concrete. Luckily, we haven't had a Rover dog who jumps, but ultimately we've blocked off all the easily jumpable areas and try to keep an eye on him when he's out there. He jumps to chase cats!
One of my own dogs is a bolter so I'm pretty used to it. She knows "stay" and will not bolt(unless she sees a cat and ignore me) but i watch her if I'm going out. none of the dogs I've sat have tried to leave but i watch them closely if i go through the door. I had one that tried to dig under the fence. The first few days i watch them ever minute they are outside. I can relax a bit after a few days when they seem settled in but never trust them for more than 5 or 6 min. without a peek out the window.