November 19   2023

Who Let the Dogs Out

Dear Friends,

I believe I mentioned earlier that we have moved our Mennonite shed to behind our retreat building.  A fellow who sometimes works for us on outside projects has completed a fence to include one end of the shed and provide a big run for Bailey and Zeus (shepherd & golden doodle) It’s a great looking fence, and puts page fence (i.e., field fence) right at the ground to keep the dogs in.  Their run is now 200 ft x 50 ft, which in dog-terms, is absolute luxury.  A great part of this is that we installed a dog lock in the fence . . . . like an air lock.  It’s a 10 foot space between two walk-in gates so we can get one dog out at a time without much danger of the other escaping.

When we first got the shed some years ago now, I cut a hole in the front of the building and built a dog house inside that is easily large enough to hold the two dogs and more.  Most of the shed is storage.  Also built a porch roof on the outside over the dog entrance.  So all of that moved with the shed to right behind the retreat.

Moved the two dogs out of their previous house and run (only 20 ft x 30 ft), and into their new run last week Sunday.  It contained them for a whole day, so they were in their new run all day Monday and did just fine.

Come Tuesday evening, about 7:00 pm or later . . . well after the shop was closed and while were on the couch watching reruns of Matlock, Sandy (our indoor poodle whom most of you know) raised a conniption fit.  Our driveway doorbell rang several times, so I got up off the couch to see what it was about.  There was Bailey at the front door, a fugitive from her dog run.  She spent the night with us in our bedroom, and waited until the next day for me to ut her back in her new run.  Bailey is a digger, and can rapidly dig her way under and out of the fence.

Then Wednesday evening, there was Sandy again having another conniption fit, driveway doorbell again rang with no customers driving in . . . and this time both Bailey and Zeus were at the front door.  So they both spent the night with us.  Fortunately both are good calm dogs, none of that defective-dog hyper behavior displayed by some dogs.  Both slept calmly on the floor beside our bed.

So Thursday morning, I took them back to their old run, because they don’t get out of it.  Then went to the hardware store (Commerce Fix & Feed) and bought supplies to make an electric fence, with plans to run the electric wire only about 6 inches from the ground around the inside of the dog run.  Once they hit that two or three times, I don’t expect they will dig their way our again.

So . . . . both our outside dogs are beautiful and well-behaved, so long as they will stay in their run from now on.  They typically love people, and If they get out (which they won’t), they are not terrors.  And if you love dogs, you can now easily visit them when you come to the shop and take a brief walk outside as part of your taking a break from quilting, sewing, or attending a class.

Chip