To Zap or Not to Zap

Here they come! Rough and Tumble. That's what we should have named the Duo of Destruction. Since they learned there was a whole new world outside Greene Acres last fall, we've been searching for a solution to their wandering ways. Not that it would have been so bad for them to travel the world, but it was the few neighbors we have for them to annoy and the conditions they ended up in that required a tighter reign so to speak. Let me tell you, the train with treats method was not working. Pure and utter reckless abandon to cruise the hood was a much better treat than any ol' Milkbone!

First we tried letting them out one at a time. Maybe they wouldn't be so brave to truck around without backup. Not so. Little by little, the yard began filling up with cans, bones, and other oddities. Uh oh. Somebody's garbage. Bella has a stomach like a steel trap, but Thea... well, after quite a few three am cleanups on aisle one... you can imagine. Soon our famous up north weather kicked in. The dogs stayed comfy cozy inside the house except for a few quick outside trips per day. Cold weather would keep them close, wouldn't it? Not for these winter wanderers. One early Sunday morning chasing them down the street in foot deep snow, my still-in-jammies self had certainly had enough. The girls had earned themselves a shiny new cable. We staked it to the ground within reach of the woods and the porch. This is how we kept potty breaks for the rest of the winter and early spring.

The lure of the great outdoors was just too much. Once a wanderer, always a wanderer for these pups. Daily, they wrapped around trees and had to be untangled. Occasionally, a brown blur of fur would streak past our window, broken leash trailing behind like a flag in the breeze! We looked off and on at different devices: some in-ground wire, some hand held training device, and some radio collar. All were pricey, especially compared to just a plain tether. However, the price of replacing broken cables was adding up too. I felt badly about the "static reminder" crossing the border would give the dogs. Who are we kidding? It is a zap. In fact, with "run through protection" (meaning a dog could not just decided to run through and take a jolt for the pure joy of tearing up country on the other side) the dogs would keep getting the reminder until they got back where they belonged. We put it off, until Bella made up our minds for us. While we were away, she wrapped herself tightly around a tree and hurt her leg and hind end. It wasn't bad, but was enough for us to make up our minds. A few weeks later we invested in the radio collar.

For two bull-headed puppies, they got the idea of a boundary on the very first day, and have been happily hounding the grounds ever since. So, we hope for no more midnight messes, no more tangled tushies, no more trash in the... Bella runs up with, what is that... a stick? Nope. It is a chewed to bits paint brush. Across the yard is some twisted lump that used to be an ice cream bucket. Where are they getting this stuff? And what on earth happened to the woodpile? BELLA! THEA! There they go!