Our dogs have their collars on at all times because they have tags on them and that is a rule with Guide dogs, so I guess we just stuck with it. We train our dogs to not go out the door unless asked, so we could leave it open and they would stay. We also train them, this might be a good idea for some of you, to stay in the yard while we garden or anything so they can just play together out their while we work and we don't have to worry about them running off.