As I wrote about previously in Chloe’s Invisible Kingdom, training on the invisible fence was moving slower than we originally anticipated.  We’ve been trying to get outside with Chloe as much as possible and get her used to using more of the yard that the 6 foot radius her old tie-out stake reached.

She has been timid and uncertain and we have only been able to coax her out either on a leash to walk the perimeter or by playing chase around the yard.  Although she seems to love the chase game she says well within the boundaries and refuses to go towards the edge.  Which is good, but also worrisome since we were uncertain if tempted she would show the same restraint.

Then something wonderful happened, the perfect test to see how she dealt with temptation… there was a cat in our yard.  Without thinking it through fully I put on her collar and let her outside – she took off like a bat out of hell (so did the cat).  At that point we both realized we didn’t have a contingency plan for if she did go through the fence.  Luckily she got to the flags at the edge of the yard and stopped dead, the cat made it safely to the trees at the edge of the neighbors yard.

Chloe wandered back to deck and waited.  Sure enough the cat came streaking from the trees across the lawn and Chloe was off again, going so fast I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop even if she wanted to.  As soon as she got to the back corner of the lot she pulled a u-turn back towards the center.  SUCCESS!!! If a cat can’t tempt her past the boundary I feel much more confident that she is getting used to the invisible fence and will soon start to enjoy being out there.