Plenty of gardens are perfectly nice and not remotely dog-proof, whether that is a gappy fence, an open driveway or a holiday cottage with no boundary at all. A ground stake buys you a safe middle option between shutting the dog indoors and trusting a recall near a road. The corkscrew end twists into turf in seconds and comes out just as easily when you are packing the car.

Stainless steel is the material that makes the difference here. A painted or plated steel stake left in wet ground starts to rust at the first chip in the coating, normally at the tip where it takes the most abuse, and a rusted spiral is harder to turn every time you use it. Stainless has no coating to lose, so it can live in the border between uses without seizing or staining the grass around it.

• Corkscrew end twists into the ground by hand
• Solid link at the top for a long line or lead
• Weather-resistant stainless steel with no coating to chip
• Suitable for year-round outdoor use
• Comes out cleanly for storage or travel
• GBP 14.75, shipped tracked within the UK

Two things worth knowing. A tie-out is for supervised time in the garden, not for leaving a dog outside alone, because a line can tangle around furniture, a dog or a person. And always run it from a properly fitted harness or a flat collar, never from a half check or slip collar, which can tighten if the dog hits the end of the line at speed. How well it holds depends entirely on your ground: soft, wet soil gives far less than firm turf.

Who it's for: Owners of active dogs who want garden time without a fence, and campers and caravanners who need a secure point wherever they park.