When we first got Lucy, and I'm talking the first night, we put her in a separate room because Winston was growling at her and we didn't want him to bite her (she was about 6 weeks old). That night, she destroyed that room. Tore the blinds off the windows, ripped everything to shreds, and didn't quit screaming all night. Lesson learned.
The following nights, we put a shock collar on her, similar to the one Winston does so well on. If she leaves the yard, she gets a shock. Sounds cruel, but it's not. Well, that never did work. What would make Winston coil back if he crossed the line, wouldn't phase her. She could lie down on the invisible line and chew a bone. One collar wouldn't work...
So we tried two. Yeah, looking back, it sounds stupid. One collar looked strange enough on her neck but now two. Guess what. Two didn't work either. (This is a few months into it.) She's still getting out of the yard and stealing anything the neighbors have laying out and bringing it back to our house to chew up. I bought so many replacement newspapers I could have started my own route. Soooo,
I went to the tractor supply store and got a collar for "large and aggressive dogs." The picture on the cover showed an enormous rotty with fangs. Lucy was a 7-month-old Weimaraner when we tried it. It has 5 settings. Lucy started on the highest. $70 bucks and it might as well be a string of pearls as far as she's concerned.
So I try putting her in the back yard. It's fenced in, but we have a pool and a koi pond back there that I didn't want her getting in. Gotta do what I gotta do though. Well, she keeps getting out somehow. I can't figure out how. I seal every crack I find and for the life of me can't figure out how she gets out.
And then I get a letter taped to my door from an anonymous neighbor telling me she's becoming a problem and that we have leash laws. If they had only signed their name, I could have explained that I've been trying, right? Oh well.
So I chain her. What else can I do? I used one of those chest harnesses because I couldn't stand the thought of her running and pulling at her neck like crazy. Well, she apparently figured out how to get the chain tangled in something or just go as far as it will go, turn around backwards and pull. No matter how tight I put it on, she can slip out like a magician.
And so I went the neck collar with the chain route. And then I find her over the chain link fence trapped in a rain storm the first night. Duh, Nagala, move the stupid wood pile next to it. Did that. Check.
Collar. Check. Wood pile gone. Check. This is where is gets out of handl (Yeah, I know.)
This now-9-month old dog can climb a 7 foot tall wooden fence and get trapped on the other side. I figure she'd eventually learn to quit doing it for about a week until I find her hung and standing on her toes. Freaked me out to say the least. Soooo, back to the store for one of those cork-screw pins that goes into the ground. MUCH shorter chain and she can't reach the fence OR the pool. Good to go, right? Come on, you should know better by now.
The first day, I come home from work and see the door ripped off the shed and her tangled around it. She managed to get tangled IN A DOOR!!! What in the?!!! What kind of demon is this? Ok, so I screw the door solid enough to withstand a nuclear blast. What does she do? She pulls the stake from the ground. Either she runs in circles until the chain gets tangled and literally unscrews it from the ground or she just simply rips it out of the ground altogether. Kind of humerous seeing her drag it behind as I came home, I have to admit.
So, here I am today. I got the largest in-ground stake I could find and finally found a part of the yard that doesn't have a rock deep enough for me to install it. I got three people pulling on it and couldn't budge it an inch. So, we'll see. I fear for our lives when she goes into heat. Anyone want to reserve a pick of her first litter? :shock: