Either that, or she was in the house all the time. Ginger is a 13 or 14 year old Border Collie mix, I will post pics someday, and she slipped out this morning when my roommate was going in and out. I found out about 5:00 pm, and spent two hours searching the neighborhood on my bike. No luck. By 8:00 my girlfriend showed up with her friend and his truck and we went all over the neighborhood until 10:00. We had given up, and I was going inside, and there she was sitting in the living room. Haven’t talked to the roommate, but I think she might have been home the whole time. She had gotten into the broiler below the oven and licked up a lot of drippings so maybe she crawled into some corner to sleep it off.
The dog was as smart as any Border Collie, but in the last couple of years, she has become a different dog. We think she is getting a little demented, and our eager to please Collie has become, if not completely disobedient, at least very recalcitrant. I think she is losing some hearing as well.
This was a big scare, and had us all freaking out. Just glad to have her back. It was the greatest moment to see her there where she always waits for me to come in the door.
The very first day I got my dog last October I let her wander the house to get used to it. Then I came downstairs to look for her and couldn’t find her - and the front door was ajar.
So I went out and called. No dog.
Great. Haven’t even had my dog for 3 hours and I lost her. What kind of owner am I going to be?
Got shoes on and went around the house. No dog.
Went up the driveway started calling her. Soon I see her chubby little butt wiggling its way up the hill.
Don’t know where she was, but now that I’ve had time to think about it and get to know her, I think she was hiding behind the couch. That is her go-to place when she is feeling insecure.
Glad you found her. Losing a pet is very distressing.
We have 2 rescued dogs we think the world of, and I’ve been giving people a lot of advice on how to properly care for dogs, which adds embarrassment to the fear and guilt if my dogs get lost. Last summer we went to a beach house with friends for a week. These are nice people and they love dogs, but some of them are not used to having dogs around.
Simone is our younger dog, a very serious little girl who’s my special buddy. She also likes to finagle her way into the laps of visitors, and she was in heaven with all these laps around, so I was used to having to go look for her when she was snoozing in someone’s lap.
Saturday morning I get up, rub my eyes, walk into the kitchen, remember the dogs, look in the living room for Simone, not there…hallway, other bedroom, no…back out to living room and the door is open. Someone had just opened the sliding glass door and left it that way on a fine sunny morning.
I tore out the door without even speaking and looked right and left. A few hundred feet down the beach, There’s a lady lying out in a beach chair catching early sun, and Simone’s little head is visible over the edge of her chair, trying to get attention.
I hadn’t brought a leash, so I carried her thirty-four pounds in my arms all the way back through the deep sand. It should have been tiring, but I was too relieved to notice.
I would look into this. I had a collie / shepherd mix and my mum was like "that dog is getting way too stubborn in his old age.
Then one time my brother came home to visit and he said “Hey look at this.” He snuck up behind the dog and started clapping really loud, then the was making noise and the dog didn’t respond at all.
Turn out he was not totally deaf but lost a lot of his hearing. Mr Dog was 14 at the time so the vet said, seeing as he was so old it wasn’t uncommon.