Smallz in the City: Part 2

Alright, so I was hoping I would not have to update this quite so quickly but the drama with Smallz has continued. Today, we decided that the training had been going pretty well with the electric fence and we decided to put the dogs outside while we ran a couple of errands close by. As Smallz had barely been brave enough to leave the deck, we were not terribly concerned that he would try anything. Of course, as we have been so many times before, we were wrong.
As we were completing our errands, Tommy got a call from a random number on his cell phone. I was on the other line and didn't click over since I didn't know who it was. Tommy checked the voicemail a few minutes later, and sure enough it was our neighbor that lives behind us. They have gotten to know Smallz pretty well over the last couple of weeks, so we are on a first name basis now. When we called, she confirmed that he still had the shock collar on and Tommy was so angry! He was in the car ranting about how we wasted all that money on the electric fence and that Smallz will never leave his kennel again. I wasn't quite ready to give up on the wireless fence myself. When we got home, Smallz was tied to our back fence on the neighbor's side, still wearing the collar. Tommy tossed the collar over to me and I examined the back fence to figure out how he escaped. We were able to figure out what he has been doing. He has figured out that he can just push out the back chain link fence at one place where he had previously dug it out of the ground. He doesn't even have to dig anymore and I am sure he can get out in less than 30 seconds if he wants to.
While checking the fence, I noticed that the collar did not seem to be working. I brought the collar inside to try to check the battery, thinking that maybe Smallz's escape had run it down really quick. As I came into the house, I remembered that sometime in the middle of the night, I had turned the receiver off because the red light was in my eyes. So, we went to the bedroom to check it and sure enough, it was still off. So much for consistency. My bad...... So, we are somewhat relieved that he didn't just push through the shock out of sheer stubborn will, but I am sure he is more confused than ever now that we have it on and it is shocking him again. Last time he went outside, he tried to go to that back corner again but he high-tailed it back to the deck as soon as it started shocking him. Now he is afraid to go outside. So tomorrow, our friend Joe is going to come over and help Tommy fix the back fence so he will no longer be able to escape in that particular way. We won't leave them out there again unsupervised until that is fixed. So, between the electric fence and the real fence, hopefully we will be able to keep him in the yard again. Tommy called it "first line of de-fence" and "2nd line of de-fence." So, back to the kennels for the doggies today while we are out. Hopefully, Smallz won't be mad and poop in it again. I am pretty sure he is just about the craziest dog I have ever known. He's sulking now because we won't let him escape.
All the while, we have been watching everybody else's dogs because we don't get a spring break so of course we are still in town while a lot of our friends got to get away for a few days. We have had some challenges keeping our friends, Shaun & Lauren's dogs in their yard as well. They have a beagle-pug mix that is every bit as smart as Smallz and just as keen on escaping. Crazy beagles! She managed to figure out that if she ran fast enough she could get her chain that was keeping her tied off to just unlatch and let her free. We managed to get her back and had to wrap the chain around her collar twice and attach it to itself and she has not been able to get that off yet. Hopefully, we will have no more escaping dogs this weekend. We have had quite enough.....
Hopefully our next post will actually be about the baby as I am sure that most of you are much more curious about that. Here's hoping that we will finally be able to solve this problem permanently!