Pixel is a dalmatian - she’s 8. Bernie is a border collie/lab mix - she’s 7. We got them a few years apart from different rescue groups - Pix when she was 6 months, Bernie when she was about 18 months. So we’ve had them a long time.
They’ve always had their own room at night, always had a fenced yard, always get doggie treats and the occasional rawhide or bone. They sleep on hand-made afghans - one that I crocheted, one that hubby’s grandmother made. (We didn’t make them for the dogs, but still…) As doggies go, they’ve got it made!
So, what do they do? They climb the fence and run away. Frequently. We put a lattice extension at the top of the fence - they climbed it. We ran an electric border around the fence - they climbed. We blocked the corner that they favor for their escape - they still manage to get out.
Pixel is the instigator. Bernie has a bad hip and she’s content to lie in the sun for hours on end. Pixel seems to think that life is better on the outside. We’d keep her chained for weeks at a time - and she seemed to figure out that she had to stay in the yard. So we’d let her loose and things would be fine for a while… till she remembered that she could escape.
We came home today to an empty yard. I drove around the neighborhood a bit but I didn’t see them. When I got back from my grocery shopping, I went out on the back deck and called their names. I watched this muddy black creature coming from the woods - only the slightest clear patch on her back gave away her pedigree - Pixel. Bernie limped along behind her.
So, Pixel got chained up. Then she got squirted down - how does one dog carry so much muck??? Bernie wasn’t nearly as dirty - I’m not sure how that happened. I got a call from the neighbor across the street - she’d seen both of the beasties about a mile from the house - just strolling along. She couldn’t get them because she was going to pick up her son at school. I’d have been amazed if she’d put them in her car anyway…
Anybody want a coupla traveling canines?? I’ll throw in 50# of dog food! I hate having to chain Pix, but I’m out of choices. Stupid dogs. Don’t know when they’ve got it good…
Tilt your lattice extention in, like in my crappy ascii fence below:
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This stopped our fence jumper - couldn’t work out how he got over 6’ fences until we noticed he was CLIMBING the wire at the top. Anyway, once we tiled the wire in, he couldn’t do that anymore, and had to find another way out of the yard. Our Memnoch was well named.
cazzle, I considered that, but the corner where they escape is a gate and it opens in - so the angled part would hit the side of the house before it was fully opened. But it is a double gate - I wonder what it would take to change which side opens… I’ll have to look at that in the daylight.
Incidentally, idiot Pixel is sleeping sweetly beside my chair. Doesn’t fool me for a second tho… evil doggie…
My behavior? I’m the Alpha dog here - and they follow me around the house like, well, puppy dogs…
No, apart from not realizing how good they’ve got it, I think Pix just likes exploring, and Bernie doesn’t have the self-discipline to stay home when Pix is on the loose.
No. I’m not some kind of cruel dog owner. But I had the same problem. Tried the same things. Incuding the tilted in fence section on top. No good. Little puppies still escaped. One day one came home with a bb imbedded in his nose from some neighborhood punk. I got desparate.
I decided on the electric fence. Went down to the Tractor Supply Company and bought the smallest fence controller they had, roll of elctric wire, two grounding rods and two bags of insulators. Not very expensive at all.
No more escaping puppies. One or two shocks is all it took to get the message across. I was able to turn off the fence later. Still no escaping puppies. If you want to keep your dogs, that might be worth a try as a last resort.
Put the dogs outside with cones. You know, the ones the vet puts on them to keep them from biting at stitches. They’ll look so ridiculous,if they do manage to escape, they’ll be instantly recognizeable, but odds are they’ll be so wiereded out by the cones they’ll never think to jump fence. And if you make the fence good enough to not get over, they’ll dig under, guaranteed.
Invisible fence does work, and it’s pretty inexpensive these days.
And they sound like they are way cool dogs. Worth the extra effort to keep around
Ever consider building a short kennel run? with a doghouse and a chainlink roof? keep them in that during the day and let them run when you get home and can monitor them?
We’ve got that - well, except at the one corner where they climb out - the buried wire shorted out and my husband never replaced it. He and I have come up with (we hope) the solution to the climbing corner - we’ll try it out this weekend.
I read a tip somewhere about tying an empty milk jug on a string and hooking it to the dog’s collar. That way if they dig out or climb, the bottle gets hung up and the dog stays put. Unfortunately, the dog would be stuck without water or access to shade or shelter, so that won’t work.
As for leaving them in the house - we can’t do that while we’re at work/school all day. They’d destroy the place or climb on the furniture or do the stuff they know better than to try when we’re at home.
We tried the invisible fence thing too - but a certain spouse decided he knew better than the training video and he just put on the collars and put the dogs out. They immediated ran like crazy thru the barrier. I’m still biting back the “I told you so” from that episode.
They’ve got the yard, the deck, and access to the basement where we’ve put rugs and blankets for them. When I work in the front yard, I stake them out there on runs so they can hang with me and bark at the neighborhood kids. It’s certainly more than they deserve…
