OK, I was busy yesterday doin' nothin' but tryin' to keep my escape artist dog, Comanche, to stay in the yard. I have no idea what has come over her lately, but it seems like every day lately, she has found some way or the other to get through the chain link fence. Lately, she has been pushin' at the bottom of the gates, so as to bend enough of the actual chain link part upward to allow her to squeeze through. I keep adding more ties, each time, thinkin' hopefully she will tire of the game or I will have tied every possible place she can find so that she cannot do such again. So, last night, she find a new place to dig a hole under the fence. Surprisin'ly, each time I found her outside the fence, I chain her up to a big oak tree at the corner of the fence, where she has about 3 foot of chain left to allow her to move around, as it took almost the whole length of chain just to go around that danged tree. Usually, she finds herself chained to that tree overnight, then the next mornin', I do my bes to repair the problem and allow her the freedom to roam the whole yard. This mornin', I did drop a large piece of concrete curbin' I found from the road work still goin' on in front of my house, but the game is wearin' thin. It is like the danged dog's life mission is to find anyway possible to escape the yard compound. Anyway, it was jes' 'bout time to post last night's report when I discovered Comanche runnin' 'round outside the fence, and it took me considerable time to coax her back into the yard and then to coax her to get close enough to that big oak tree that I could slip that choke collar back 'round her neck.
The navel make no remarks about its condition, so you are free to assume whatever you want about it for last night. End of report.
Posted by Tiger at August 30, 2004 11:00 AMMaybe you need a longer chain. I know the chain seems unkind but it would be terrible for her to get hurt outside the yard.
Posted by: Ozguru at August 30, 2004 04:28 PMShe actually used to be on the full length of that chain when it was attached to one of the wrought iron posts holdin' up the porch roof. However, when the foundation around the base of that post started giving way, I felt that it was unwise to keep her chained there any longer and allowed her another opportunity to have the run of the yard. She was doin' very well for a long while, but it seems the escape bug has bitten again. I am unsure if all the activity involved with the road work is not part of the current problem.
Posted by: Tiger at August 30, 2004 06:38 PMWe used to have a Lab/Kelpie cross who used to go nuts when they re-graded the (dirt) road near our place. Used to take em about a week and you could hear the machines all week. We had him on a short chain which was attached to a long wire that ran the length of the front yard (about 90 feet) between two trees. The dog could run up and down all day but never more than about 6 feet from the wire. It was a great compromise and stopped him getting tangled up with the dig-n-scrapers.
Posted by: Ozguru at August 31, 2004 05:37 AMI have actually thought of doin' that same thing using the abandoned clothesline in the back yard, but figgered I might as well get rid of her before doin' that, as I hardly ever go into the backyard and would likely only see her when I went back to check the food and water supply. Thankfully, she seems to have no inclination to escape when the road workers are around, choosin' instead to use darkness to conceal her escape efforts. I think she watches ol' Hogan's Heroes episodes to get ideas.
Posted by: Tiger at August 31, 2004 08:50 AM