Bad Doggie

FreddyC has learned that he can jump the fence. This is particularly true because of the snow drift up against the front fence that has now become hard-pack because of all the melting/freezing cycles. This reduces the effective height of the fence by 1'. Both yesterday and today, I had to chase after him as he jumped the fence to go "play" with dogs that were being walked by in the street, which is maybe 100 ft. from the fence.

Of course, FreddyC has some dominance issues, and he can never "play" with an unfamiliar dog without it turning into is snarling, snapping session. So, this is really annoying. This morning, he was out and he ran to the front of the fence and started barking. The Mrs. went out onto the back deck and started calling him.

I put my boots on.

He hopped the fence just as I hit the snow, so I had to go tearing off after him through the snow, jumping over two fences. All in my bathrobe and pajamas. When I got to the street, FreddyC was a little confused as he knew the guy walking the dog as well as the little girl with him (a friend of HannahC's), but he didn't know the dog. So these people were saying, "Hi Freddy," while he was trying to decide if he should attack their dog or not.

He decided in the affirmative, but I was already there, and I grabbed his collar.

I decided to buy one of those "invisible" fences with the buried wire. I did a little online research, went to Petsmart, and came home with one. It was a combo electric fence and handheld "trainer" remote. I opened it up, began reading the directions, and after about 20 minutes, I packed it right back up and took it back to the store.

Wow, electric fences are a pain in the butt. The need to make a complete loop around the yard is tough enough, but the thing that really took the cake was that this one also said that all metal dog tags needed to be removed from the dog before putting on the training collar. Riiiight. I have a dog that jumps fences, and this thing tells me I should remove all his ID.

I decided to just skip the fence part of it and go with a remote-controlled training collar. We'd teach him to stay back from the fence, and then if he "forgot", we could hit him with a little reminder jolt from across the yard or in family room.

Well, I went to five different pet stores, and every one was sold out of any decent model. Finally, I ended up at Jax Outdoor Gear, cuz the last pet shop was quite close to there, and I figured an outdoor gear place might have a good training collar for the bird dogs.

I was right.

So now begins the long process of trying to train the dog not to jump the fence to attack other dogs. In the mean time, I got out my beloved snowblower and took the snow down to the grass in a 6 foot wide strip along the fence in the front where he has jumped two days in a row. So at least I'll be back to full height fence in the front. I couldn't get back to the back fence to do it, though. The drifts were too deep and the ground to soft. Plus, there's a plant bed back there that is about 9" high that he likes to jump from. I shoveled that out as best as I could, but I'll probably have to put some mesh extensions up there. A number of the houses here have them, since they only allow about a 40" high fence.

Stupid dog. All day I obsessed about this. I'm still obsessing. So obsessed have I been, that it has put me completely off my liquor.

Though, speaking of liquor, it turns out Lincoln triumphed over Washington, and the liquor stores in Colorado are open on Presidents' Day. I managed to swing by my favorite store to replenish my Jack Daniels supply and also pick up a sixer of Moose Drool. I like this liquor store cuz they have a frequent-buyer's program where you earn store credit somewhere between 5%-8% of your purchases, depending on how long you let it ride. I let it ride quite a bit, and I had enough credit to walk out of that store with a 1.75L of JD and the Moose Drool without having to pay one penny.

Plus, MaxieC got a free Hershey's Kiss.