Ben got out of his electric fence again last week (at the same time I was about to leave on a two-hour drive for a very important doctor’s appointment)! My chase and rescue ritual has been so perfected over the past month, that this most recent “great escape” wouldn’t have phased me except for my high heels and good clothes and the timing of his exit.  I raced up the hill in my car to my neighbor’s house again with the windows open screaming his name, again, like a crazy person.  He has always parked himself outside my neighbor’s fence where his fellow comrade lives, but on this particular day a group of work men were working on some wires in front of her house.  They all looked up, startled as I raced towards them with my Ford, slammed on my breaks, jumped out of my car and blurted “has anyone seen a large puppy golden-retriever?”  They all pointed in unison towards the open fields behind my neighbor’s house. One work man told me he tried to grab him but his efforts only made Ben run further.

So there I was, in high heels running with an entourage of men in orange hard hats, through high grass, mud and a pond complete with bugs, ticks, snakes and who knows what else.  I was glad not to be alone. When I reached the open field, I felt panic rise in my throat as I didn’t immediately see my dog.  But then, to my great relief, I saw Ben, perched in the shadows, next to another neighbors fence, panting and looking all innocent.

I slowly walked towards him, hoping he wouldn’t bolt again but he just sat there and let me approach him. As I got closer I saw he was shaking and his eyes were wide with fear.  Something had scared the bejesus out of him! Good I thought. Maybe it was the scent of the coyote who lived back there. Maybe he won’t do it again. Anyway, I took off my belt and made a make-shift leash, slipping it through his collars and walked my “bad dog” back to my car. I thanked the work men profusely (they really are the salt of the earth), handed one of them back his cell phone that fell during the chase (so glad I happened to notice it) and took Ben home for a big time out.

I called my electric fence guy again, from “Freedom Fence”,who was very concerned and came out the next day. “Let me check the circuitry and the control box” he said.   He had suggested during a phone call the previous week, that I turn up the volume. That all looked fine. We then went outside, me, the fence guy, Tucker and Ben.  Then, just as he was checking the perimeter of my property, Ben gave us both (pardon the expression) a Cheshire cat smile, turned towards the road and took off up the hill-again! I swear I thought I was going to die!

After the two of us raced up the hill (on foot this time, and did I mention I’ve lost quite a bit of weight running after Ben? Well, I guess that’s the up side from all of this).” Anyway, after we caught him I was glad the Freedom Fence guy saw it with his own eyes. Once back on the property and while I maintained an iron grip on Ben, he asked to see Ben’s collar.  Nothing. It seemed fine. Then he said, “Hmm, let me check Tucker’s collar.” Well sure enough, Tucker had a “tough dog training” collar while Ben had a weaker, calmer version. I had inadvertently switched their collars.  “He needs a tough dog collar” he told me. “In fact, he needs two.”  In the end he put the weaker version back on Tucker because Tucker was already trained, while Ben was still training and testing his boundaries, literally.

He put Ben through some training exercises, walking him on a leash near the audio warning zone and then tugged him away from it.  He told me to get a very long leash, just the right length so Ben could reach the edge of the street and let him train himself for the next week. He said I should hide and watch Ben without him seeing me.  That week I tied four leashes together, anchored one end to a raised tree root and (per my fence guy’s instructions) left Ben alone to ultimately train himself.  (I hid but watched from my garage because I didn’t want him to get tangled up with such a long leash). I watched as he tested the boundaries.  It worked!

So now, I am happy to report, I have been letting  Ben and Tucker use the doggie door independently again with zero escapes.   I did panic the other day though, when I couldn’t find Ben for about two minutes.  I kept hearing him but couldn’t see him until I realized he had gotten trapped under the deck!  He had wiggled his way in under my steps but couldn’t get out.  I guess it’s time to fix the lattice work..oh dear…until next time.

Ben went through the electric fence last week and raced up the block to a neighbor’s dog.  Thank goodness no cars or school buses were on the road at the time.  He did this three times and each time I raced in my car after him, yelling like a crazy person.  Freaked out as I was, I immediately called my electric fence guy.  Here’s what he told me…  “Make sure his collar is on tight enough so it doesn’t move or wiggle and that it is on facing the correct way. Also, make sure both contacts are touching Ben’s neck because the circuit isn’t complete if only one metal contact is touching, hence – no shock.  Also turn up the volume on the electric fence.”

I did all of this and checked that the collar was working, first giving off a high-pitched wail as a warning before shocking him into staying off the road. He went through again.  First he stood right at the edge, looked at me like he was daring me to stop him and then took off. Huffing and puffing as I retrieved him again (and secretly grateful he went to the same spot each time), I scolded him and then called my fence guy again.

“Maybe you need a new battery,” he said.  So I ordered two new ones, and haven’t had any escapes this week so far. But, my anxiety level is as high as my electric fence.  The panic I feel when he goes out and the ridiculous relief I feel when he returns is making me crazy. My older dog, Tucker, his dad, had gotten out during an intense rain storm when he was younger, but not recently, so it’s only Ben, Ben, Ben.

Then, yesterday we took them to the beach for a good run. They decided it wasn’t freezing cold enough so they had to go for a swim. After arriving home with freezing fingers and wet, salty, sandy dogs, I went onto the next phase…bathing them. I have a large stall shower with a hand-held nozzle so we go in together. After drying them off with about twelve towels, I collapsed with exhaustion. Well, I thought. At least they had a good run, fresh air and are clean and smell free! (I used NOse Offense in the car and it worked great). But what about me? My fingers are raw, my back aches, and I keep doing laundry! Someone rescue me!  But…at least Ben hasn’t eaten anything naughty this week…well, as far as I know…on my way home to check.

Just when I thought my 70-pound, 8-month-old puppyBen had stopped chewing everything in site, I came home the other day to find an almost half eaten twenty dollar bill.  Stunned, I stared at the green paper remnant on the floor and couldn’t believe my eyes.  It had finally come to this.  Not only was Ben costing us a fortune in chewed rugs and shoes, he was now going right to the source.

Speechless, I scooped up the remains of the Hamilton and let out a breath.  There was, I thought, at least 55% of the bill intact.  Perhaps all was not lost and the bank would honor the chewed evidence and reimburse me.  I felt a little better.

As for Ben, well he and Tucker (his dad, 7 years his senior) both looked up at me with innocent eyes, and indeed, there was nothing I could do to scold or train them not to eat cold hard cash. In all honesty, it probably smelled really good.  Who knows where it’s been? Maybe I should spray my money with NOse offense.  It works on everything else!

Anyway, after this money incident, my husband and I felt a good long walk was in order, for us as well as for them.  We proceeded with our walking ritual, which we learned long ago, because the electric fence was not to be breached.

The first step – load the dogs into the car. Next, remove their electric fence collars (they always wear two collars, one with the electric battery and the other with their tags always removed at night for safe sleeping).  Then we drive off the property and park in the street, attach their leashes and begin our walk.  As silly as this sounds, driving off and ultimately past the electric barrier, really works.  They know the “car” can pass through without getting zapped.  Whatever you do, don’t forget to remove their electric collars and don’t keep them in the car with you!  They not only freak the dogs out with their high-pitched whine, but it runs the battery down.

When choosing an electric fence company (we went with Freedom Fence), there are differences to consider.  One of the features I like about Freedom Fence is the dog’s ability to return through the fence without that lightning bolt reminder, should they get through. Their battery senses where it is and turns off upon returning.  They don’t get through often. It happened only a couple of times, once during an intense down pour.  I’ve since “turned up” the fence charge which seems to be working.

As for our “walk,” it’s more like an attempt to walk a wild lion, than a dog.  At least it’s that way with Tucker.  My bad as I didn’t know what I was doing when he was a puppy and didn’t train him properly.  Between the very large yard, a doggie door they can access at will, and an electric fence, I never really just walked Tucker on a leash. He really didn’t need a leash at the dog park either, but I am determined to be better this time around. As for our walk together,  my husband ends up way ahead of me, keeping a fast pace with our 85 pound animal. I hold tight to the reins, trying my hardest to walk at my pace with Ben. It’s hard work, definitely not your casual stroll through the neighborhood. But hey, I chose two loving, wonderful, loyal Golden Retrievers and can’t expect them to walk the walk of a poodle (nothing against poodles. I grew up with one).  Anyhow, refreshed after our walk and happy to be back home and off the leash, I had one more errand…off to the bank…to be continued…

“Mud! Mud! Mud!” by Leonore Klein was my favorite book when I was little, BUT THAT WAS THEN! All I have is mud, mud, mud all over my house! Big paw prints on my newly washed rugs and muddy tail spots on my walls! My new favorite book should be…”Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

First I will tell you that blogging about having a puppy and having the time to blog about having a puppy, or doing anything else for that matter while training a puppy, is challenging.  That cute, portable butterball of a puppy can grow over night into a furniture chomping, rug wetting piranha!  And just as an older human sibling might resent a newcomer, so it can be with the four legged variety. However, having said that, our 4-month-old golden retriever, Ben has admittedly brought laughter and love into our home.

My older dog, Tucker-age 6, (Ben’s real dad) was never this mischievous as a puppy, so I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of chaos brought upon our home. But determined to do what is necessary to train little (27 pounds!) Ben, I am proud to say I have now mastered many death-defying feats such as: gate opening and closing, gate hopping, shoe warden, bathroom patrol, and meal-time negotiator.   Ben eats three times a day but he acts as if we are starving him – the poor thing. I know this because, despite what the vet says is the right amount of food, he bee-lines for Tucker’s food the millisecond he finishes his own dish.  My solution was to feed Tucker upstairs at the same time I place Ben’s dish down.  I encourage him to use the outside for the bathroom and he is getting the hang of it pretty much.  I crate him after lunch for his nap which he goes in willingly.

Tucker, happily has warmed up to Ben and plays with him a couple of times a day. As for the gates, I have two long gates which protect my living room from any more offenses and, of course, when he does have an accident in there, I use NOse Offense right away and it does the trick!

I also keep a vigilant eye on all shoes left on the floor which I readily place on counters or in closets.  I have dog toys everywhere and have kept after him whenever he chooses something else to chew like my: carpets, my son’s Rainbow sandals(albeit too late), towels, furniture legs and basically anything he can get his mouth around.  One of my saving graces has been the limitless supply of sticks from my yard. He can spend half an hour ripping a piece of a maple branch to smithereens. My reward for all this hard work are Ben’s kisses and the look of love in his eyes when I play with him. He only wants to be adored and paid attention to.  He loves eating and loves being clean. I love keeping him washed and have trained him well by getting him used to the shower from the start.  My daughter has slowly begun to take over some of my jobs and I have happily passed the baton to her.  She now feeds Ben breakfast and dinner, brushes him, plays with him, crates him at night and gets him (and herself) up and out in the morning.  She also made her first attempt at bathing him the other night but A WORD OF CAUTION…when your young teenage daughter offers to give your new puppy a bath…MAKE SURE SHE ISN’T SITTING IN THE TUB WITH HIM! Oh well…gotta keep on laughing…Until next time…

I realize I haven’t blogged in a while but that’s because of Ben, the new puppy! OMG in the mornings I race out of bed at about 6:30am to let him out of his crate before he has an accident.  Then he goes into zippy mode and races around like he’s insane.  He’s like  a piranha on four legs at this ungodly hour.  So just after I let him out I go make a cup of coffee and sit outside in a fog in my pajamas not caring even a little if the neighbors see me or hear me say “make outside” and “good boy”.  Then after this first turbo charged session,  he calms down a bit. He really is the cutest little thing except he’s not really so little.  At eleven weeks he’s weighing in at 19, yes 19  pounds! I was carrying him around but now i’m trying to train him to just follow me and walk.  It’s working, however, it’s hard to get him to yield to Tucker.

Tucker is completely blown away by our new addition.  I guess the sweet, docile personality that makes Tucker such a wonderful dog, isn’t helping him establish who is king of the castle.  Ben has been chopping on poor Tucker and he just takes it or runs away.  Tuck even got out of the electric fence twice (well his collar was off) but gratefully I found him right away playing with a neighbor’s dog.  He hasn’t run through the fence in years whether his collar was on or not.  Now I won’t let him out if I’m not home and I’ve been praising Tucker and trying to always greet him and give him attention first.   I have gated off part of my yard which can be accessed right from my door which has a doggie door opening.  Ben learned how to go through the doggie door really fast.  I was thinking, wow,  he’s really smart although he did chase his tail today for about two whole minutes. What can I say? House training is working and I’d say he’s about 70 percent house trained already.

NOse Offense has been helping me with the other 30 percent. I use it on the carpets, floors and even in the garbage pail.   A friend recommended I pick up my area rugs until Ben was trained but since I didn’t really want to live like that I guess I’ll have to have the rugs cleaned when he’s trained.  Meanwhile it’s really amazing the way dogs have moods just like we do. Poor Tucker is so completely bummed out that his territory has been invaded.  He’s not himself and mopes around when he’s not running away from Ben’s jaws! I gently squeeze Ben’s nose and mouth when he does this and yell “no” but, gee Tucker, man up will ya.  My friend’s dog Charlie, (my life saver friend who helps me so much)  just gives Ben a growl and maybe a nip and, boy, does Ben back off.  But with Tucker it doesn’t work that way, it’s like two siblings. You love them both but it’s exhausting trying to negotiate proper behavior.  I also wonder if we waited too long to add a puppy to our home.  Tuck’s almost 7.  My friend’s dog, Charlie, is only two and likes playing with Ben.  Aside from the training part, I have had to puppy-proof the house! Did you know dishwashing detergent is poison?! So is sugarless gum which can be immediately fatal.  Also very dangerous is chocolate, especially baking chocolate and many plants.  In my garden are azaleas, hydrangeas and rhodedenroms.  All poisonous. Fortunately my gated area doesn’t have any of those except for one bush which I gated off.  I do allow Ben to chew sticks made of maple or pine which he really likes but mostly I have puppy toys everywhere, giving him lots to chew and avoiding saying no every minute.  So life is crazy right now and sometimes I think I should have my head examined but when Ben looks up at me and licks my face and puts his little paws around my neck and then falls asleep on me and I can feel and hear his breathing, I just fall in love all over again.  Stay tuned…