Thursday, March 5, 2009

Escape Proof

When Kodiak and Quinn were younger, and a little more agile, they were quite the escape artists. And destructive escape artists at that.

We had only had Quinn for a couple of months when hubby fell asleep while she was outside. She ate through part of our fence and dug out. She was gone for 12+ hours before someone called us. She had managed to find her way, miles away, to a house near the train tracks. Not okay.

Kodiak, when we had a rental and a short 4 foot (or 3?) fence, managed to get out. I looked out the window and all of a sudden there’s a white fluff ball walking by in the front yard. Sheesh. I think he climbed out.

Who me? Escape?

Huskies are especially notorious escape artists. Quinn was taken to the kill shelter FOUR times before the Husky rescue finally had a space for her (and her previous owners abandoned her). They did testing to see how dogs escaped or not…she managed to climb under less than a 12 inch space under a fence. She’s that good.

Hubby and I decided that we had to be very proactive in keeping our dogs in our sphere of control. I hate it when people let their dogs wander, or don’t secure their dogs enough to keep them fenced in.

Our recipe for success?

Horse Mats.

On top of concrete blocks (those flat kind…ours are 12 x 12 but they have bigger ones) that we laid out over ground that we cleared ourselves. It wasn’t *that* expensive.

Then we bought a kennel - 6 foot high chain link fencing - I think it’s 6 x 12 feet but it might be larger.

We didn’t buy the top of the kennel … we put tarps over it and that seems to work best. But we also don’t have any sort of dog house within the kennel. I KNOW that Timber would climb on top and try to climb the fencing. Seriously…they are amazing dogs.

Even this set up wasn’t 100%. One day hubby came home and all the dogs were in the back yard and not in their kennel where they belonged. Somehow one of them figured out how to flip up the little latch on the kennel door. Damn smart dogs.

So now we have bungie cords that we use on the door and so far (5 ish years) that has worked out well for us.

I believe people need to be more responsible with their pets. They are not just objects…they are special beings who deserve our attention and safety.

Please don’t let your dog wander. Because as I commented in this post here, I will shoot a stray dog who threatens me or mine.

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