
I live in a two down, three up terrace. My garden is walled on three sides, with a fence between me and my neighbour on the fourth side and a gate leading to a shared ginnel which runs under the upper floors of the two houses. A few weeks ago my stepdad was round doing some DIY for us. He left the back gate unlatched. My neighbour was in his front room with the back door open, sitting on the settee playing with his toddler son. Suddenly a giant head appeared over the arm of the settee, saw Andy staring and disappeared again - Andy told me he nearly had a heart attack. Ekko had been in the back garden and had seen the open gate, gone through the ginnel, Andy's partially open gate, his garden and the kitchen. My husband came out to see where he was and saw him trot silently in from the ginnel and straight into our kitchen.
This is the first time in eleven years owning dogs in that house that they've got out of the garden. I had always thought it totally secure. It gives you a funny feeling when you realise it might not be.
I'm sure the other two are conditioned not to go through the gate, in the same way that they don't try to go upstairs. The front door got left open a few years ago (my fault this time, I must not have shut it to), and I came back five minutes later to find Spooky on the doorstep looking confused. Ekko didn't look chastened at all - he'd enjoyed his voyage of discovery.