Funny you should mention this because just yesterday I saw a similar "phenomenon" with a GSD in a yard I often walk past. This gsd always barks like it wants to kill you when you walk past and it has this giant fence you're glad is there. Yesterday it's owner I guess was driving into the yard, and I guess used a remote control to open the gate, but then had to wait for traffic (for quite a while) before they could turn in. Meanwhile the gsd was free to go out the gate and onto the footpath, but it wouldn't, it just stood at the gate entrance and looked around. Then a guy came along to walk past and then realised the gate was open and crapped himself. The gsd barked at him from the gate entrance and then even ran down behind it's fence to bark at him through the fence (like it's used to) even though it had access to get at him easily. Just had to step a foot to it's right and then waltz out and engage the man. I couldn't work out if it was well behaved, dumb, or a coward. My dogs are pretty good about not just taking off when they get the opportunity, I think this comes with a bit of freedom on walks, a lot of off-lead time. A bandog I recently had got out of the yard a couple of times when I was at work but then spent the day in the drive way or on the footpath (according to neighbours) watching passer-bys and presumably barking at them but not going over to attack or even meet and greet. I'd like to think that was knowing he shouldn't be out there doing that, because he wasn't a coward. I used to have a dog that if he saw an inch would literally run a mile, possibly many miles to the other side of town and be gone for days. Then we'd be desperate to keep him tethered nearly at all times, and that just of course exacerbated the problem. Hard to say which came first, his inclination to take off or our tendency to keep him on a short leash. A bit of each one feeding the other I think, until eventually he was as good as a wild animal itching to be free. Needing to be chained up when unsupervised, big stones and barbed wire along the fence line to stop him digging under, etc. Not good. Freedom on walks from a young age is important I think.