Strange Front Door Visitor

I have seen a similar post on this sub and want to share my experience about this scam…or potentially something even more nefarious?

I woke up at 11pm-ish to a “call” from my video doorbell. I opened up my app to see a woman, maybe in her 30s, standing at my door knocking and looking generally distressed.

I speak to her through my doorbell and ask if what she needs and she said she lives a few doors down and thinks her dog ran into my backyard and asked me to open the gate. Not sure how a dog could get into my fully fenced back yard? But I tell her to hold on a minute and I’ll check. I look through my back window and don’t see any dogs, but I have a decent sized backyard and it’s dark. I speak her to again, this time talking through the door, and tell her I don’t think her dog is back there. She asked if I could open the gate to let her in to check.

I tell her I’m not comfortable with her going in my backyard and she keeps asking, begging, and insisting, saying “He’s a puppy and I’m worried he’ll freeze outside”, as it’s January with a foot of snow on the ground. I’m very non-confrontational and generally felt bad for her, as I also have dogs, so I tell her to hold on and I will physically go look in my back yard. I do, and there is no sign of a dog. I go back to the door and tell her again there is no dog, and ask her things like what the dog looks like and which house she lives in. When I ask these basic questions, her attitude immediately shifts. She is visibly annoyed, turns away and leaves.

Is this some sort of scam? I don’t know why someone would want to gain access to my backyard. Did I turn away some innocent lady who was just looking for a lost puppy? Was she up to something? Of course, there is no real way to tell…but wanted to share this experience and see if this is at all common.

Mind you, I had never seen this person before but I don’t really know my neighbors very well so it’s possible she really was a neighbor. Also, I have security cameras surrounding my house that are purposely conspicuous, so not sure if someone would be foolish enough to try and target my home.

TLDR; a stranger knocks at my door at night insisting I open my gate to my backyard to let her “look for her lost dog”. When I refuse, she leaves, visibly annoyed. Scam? Tactic?