dog | Hicks House

Having raised my doggy child in apartments and a condo for most of her life, one of the big perks of this house for both her and us was the half acre of flat land it sits on. We would talk about how Chloe was going to love running around outside without a leash. More specifically what we really meant was “I can’t wait to not have to take her out in the rain or cold” (I know, I know we’re terrible doggy parents but I swear the colder it is the longer it takes her to do her business).

The first day we moved in we tied and outdoor lead to the deck so that she could go out on her own on the deck and for about 20 feet out into the yard. Then Ken installed the fence with the help of a power edger and a day off of work we got this:

the fence is in!

We naively thought that because over the past few years we had trained Chloe to an obedience collar that this fence was going to be a piece of cake. I mean after all, that was one of the main reasons for getting the collar so that if in the future we were to get an invisible fence she would already be trained to the warning beep and the zap if the warning was ignored.

WRONG! What we didn’t anticipate was that we had used the collar to teach her to heel, teach her to come and over all behave and never leave our side whether on a leash or not. That’s all well and good until you walk to the other side of the fence – Chloe tries to follow – gets beeped and her response is to continue running toward you (since we were the idiots that trained her to come with a beep). Not good. Especially if you don’t wan’t her to make the connection between getting shocked then getting on the other side of the fence where the shock stops. After all, if you know that the shock may be worth it to gain freedom.

Chloe is also no spring chicken anymore, she’ll be turning 7 next month and she isn’t as fearless as she used to be. Our few attempts at taking the leash off and calling into the center of the yard – far far away from the border mind you – have her running back to the safety of the deck once she realizes how far out she is. Needless to say there is work to be done. We’re seeing progress though, she doesn’t seem to want to be anywhere near the border and 9 times out of 10 if she gets beeped she beelines towards the deck without sticking around to find out what will happen. That’s great as long as no one is the yard next door, walking by, walking a dog, kids playing outside etc.

Hopefully soon we will be comfortable leaving her out there without watching like a hawk, and she will actually enjoy it. Fingers crossed.

You may remember at the beginning of last month I posted about the new fancy crate we bought for our dog Chloe Read the original post here. In an an attempt to be good doggy parents we wanted to break her into the new crate gradually so she didn’t have to many new things to deal with all at once.

Things were going well… until the thunderstorm ... Then this happened:

chewed! Bad Dog!

Our well behaved dog that never chews turned into a monster trying to break free from doggy prison during the storm.

Don’t let this face fool you… she isn’t sorry

Due to this current turn of events, some alterations need to made to the crate. It took a couple of days of brainstorming and another chewing event (apparently once she knew it was chew-able she hatched an escape plan). Some ideas we vetoed –

Putting one of those ugly wire crates inside her wooden crate. This option is quite pricey as those crate run about $100 and in order to fit in the wooden crate it would have to be smaller which cuts down on her room. We still love the booger so this got vetoed.
Putting hot sauce or the sour spray they sell at the pet store on the crate bars to discourage chewing. Chloe actually likes buffalo sauce and wasabi peas so this option seemed like it would just get her to chew more.
Buy a replacement door. Seemed like a viable option, the door is a separate piece that could easily be replaced. Unfortunately an internet search revealed the door is not sold separately, they want you to buy a whole new crate… greedy jerks.

Then Ken had a light-bulb moment… Wire meshing! It seemed like a perfect idea, nice holes so she can still breathe and look out, but will put a barrier between her teeth and the wooden slats. So off to the big Orange store Ken went and came home with a nice big piece for less than $10.

Measured to the size of the door

and cut it with wire cutters

Then we took it upstairs to the crate, lined it up and used some painting tape to hold it in place.

he pre-drilled in all 4 corners and 1 in the middle

Thanks to the chewing machine we were aware that it was made of cheap particle board and didn’t want to risk it splintering by screwing directly into it.

then screwed the mesh in place using the pre-drilled holes

try and chew through that!

Doesn’t look to bad, some wood putty and stain on the few visible chew marks from the front and it should be good as new. And chew proof! We didn’t do the two sides yet, and Chloe has yet to figure out that they are chew-able as well… we’re hoping she remains blissfully unaware.

Peace and order has been restored in the Hicks House (until the next thunderstorm that is)