[JMuedog]

My house is outside city limits and we're surrounded by woods. We constantly have wild life at our door step. We do not have a fenced in yard. So, out one door we have a small semicircle fenced off with the dog fencing at the bottom of the steps of our deck and out another door we have tie outs at the edge of a patio.

When we let them out first we turn the light on and do a quick check for animals. On the deck we always go outside and stand with them, granted its mostly just to keep them from doing their thing on the actual deck, but it also is to keep an eye on them.

When we use the tie outs they get free reign of the distance their tie outs go (maybe 12') and we just stay at the door and watch. One time BF forgot to do a check of the yard and the dogs treed a raccoon right outside the door, it was funny. We try to never let the dogs out of sight at night just because we have so much wildlife.