Shocking Events -day one- The Fence

I’m sure from my prior post about Aussie (the master escapist) that we are all aware of our dog problems. Aussie has spent the last few weeks in the grandparent’s yard because of it. She has enjoyed her time there. She loved digging holes, barking, playing hide and seek with cats, figuring out ways to get her friends to come over and play, grandma’s spoilings, and of course being with grandpa in the castle and learning how to sneak pieces of wood, make beds out of saw dust, and how to chew gum.


However this last Friday Aussie, in all her smartness and mischievousness, figured out Scott and Mary’s fence. I’m not positive on the “how” particulars, but I do know the outcome. Aussie gained full access to the neighbor’s yard. This also means that the neighbor’s two dogs had free range on Scott and Mary’s yard as well. Scott wasn’t terribly happy when he got home, though he couldn’t help but say that it was a pretty funny site. You’ll have to ask Scott about the full details, but I will say that Aussie is pretty good at the one paw take town.

Anyway this event expedited Adam’s and my efforts to install an invisible fence in our yard. For those who don’t know, an invisible fence is basically a wireless router that is linked to a “shock box”, attached to a collar that is placed on any given mutt. This “shock box”, when out of range of the router, emits a warning beep to alert the dog that they are entering a restricted area. A few seconds after the beep the collar will discharge a light static shock. The shock isn’t supposed to hurt the dog; it is only meant to be really uncomfortable.

So we put the fence up on Saturday afternoon, which included placing flags up around the parameter so Aussie can visually recognize it. We also carried out the recommended training. Aussie got the point pretty quickly. We did end up having to increase the settings on her collar because she didn’t seemed bothered by the first, second, or third setting (in all there are 6 levels of “shock intensity” ). After trying a few times she knew to retreat when she heard the warning beep. After we were satisfied we released her into the year. Adam stayed out to shovel and watch her.

As a side note the perimeter of the wireless fence is circular and does not include our entire yard, otherwise she would still be able to jump the fence. The back 3 yards and corners or the yard are out of bounds, including the back of the shed. As she was exploring her new borders she ventured behind said shed and heard the beeping. Adam said you could see her panic and as she tried to run back into the safe zone, she went the wrong way however. I heard the yelping from inside and looked out the window in time to see her running towards her dog house. She hid in there for awhile before we could persuade her out. She was pretty docile after that. I think that we traumatized our dog. We couldn’t even get her off the back patio. We even tried leaving a trail of bone bits that led into the middle of the yard. I felt so bad.