5 year old female suddenly running away

by Emma
(UK)

Hi - can someone please help? I have a five year old female Jack Russell who has been spayed.

She has suddenly in the last month started straying away from home - literally hours away. We live on a farm surrounded by fields, she is run and walked extensively and has her whole life stayed outside playing and digging in the fields just outside the house and waits to be taken for a walk if she wants to go further. We have other dogs that she lives with and none of them stray and we have lots of experience with other Jack Russells and know how much exercise they need!

We've had her from a puppy and she never done anything like this before. She once ran across a field after a rabbit, but that's it. She was picked up this morning on a road a very, very long way from our house. It's impossible to put up boundaries on our property and I hate to think that I might have to shut her inside when she's not being walked but it's such a sudden change in behaviour. Can anyone help, I feel desperate that something might happen to her.

Thanks