"Last night at 4 am, one of our boarders opened his run door, and managed to open the back door to the clinic to escape," the animal hospital said. "Stafford County animal control and sheriff deputies as well as staff members are looking for him."
Video of the escape shows the clever canine pushing open a door with his nose and using his mouth to turn a doorknob, ultimately opening three doors before making his way out into the hospital's parking lot.
The dog was missing for about seven hours before he was discovered resting in the yard of a home near the animal hospital.
"General has been found!" Aquia-Garrisonville Animal Hospital said in a Facebook post. "According to neighbors he was resting in their yard since 11 a.m. this morning. A huge thanks to all that helped General find his way back safely."
General was eventually reunited with his owner Travis Campbell, who told Fox 5 the behavior was nothing unusual.
"He is very special," Campbell said. "He is a smart dog. Getting out of doors, in a door is nothing new. I told them that when we dropped him off, but never had a problem getting out of any place that boarded him before."
The daring dog was generally unharmed after his romp around town, apart from a scratch on his nose that he likely sustained practicing his escape.
"Basically, he spent a night and a half rehearsing trying to figure out how to open the door from the inside, which is how he got a little scratch on his nose," Campbell said. "It's a trick to lift the latch from the inside and he figured it out and pushed on the door. Pretty impressive."
