Pleasantville frowns upon fences. That's a fact and not something invented by the Morgan's.
I chose this particular company specifically because it is the only invisible fence company that allows you to set the shock at different levels. Considering we have one 12-year-old dog who virtually never leaves my side and a 9-month old tazmanian devil who wouldn't stop running if she wore her pads down to bare nubs, I figured I would look no further. I figured our lovable older pooch would need only the audible warning and no shock and that the little one would need to wear two collars at the same time.
To show the dogs where the shock zone is, the trainer held the leash while I walked outside the perimeter as an enticement to the dogs to wander into the shock zone. As soon as they did, he would yank back on the leash while yelling "Watch out!". We started with our puppy, Scout. She figured out pretty quickly that she didn't like the zone and I wasn't really all that much of an enticement. She'd rather work on winning over the trainer by leaning into him for some pets and rolling on her back for her tummy rubs. She, in fact, did win him over and he was soon telling me how affectionate she is. Believe me, I know. If she didn't have this trait, we'd have returned her by now. Scout, being a fast learner, had her shock level set to 4 on a scale of 7.
Next, we got to Zoe. Zoe has had bad legs half her life. She limps along following me around grunting and groaning in pain. We have done everything to spare her this pain but she just has to live with whatever pain her meds can't control. With me outside the boundary as the enticement, the trainer walked up to the zone. She went right into it trying to reach me. He gently pulled her back, set the shock setting a little higher and tried again. Same thing. Higher yet the setting went. Again, she stood in the shock zone wanting to reach me. She finally reacted slightly when she reached a 6 out of 7. The trainer commented that she has the forth highest pain tolerance he's ever encountered and that she is really joined to me at the hip. Her day-to-day pain accounts for some of that tolerance, but I had a huge lump in my throat watching this devoted dog suffer through additional pain just because down to her very core she wants to be by my side.
We finished the training and away he went. Now it was my turn alone with Little Running Beast. I opened our door and out she went like lightning - right through the zone and kept on running. I worked with her some more that day as she obviously needed more training.
The next morning The Swede got up, opened the door and off she went again through the shock zone. The Swede, in his underwear, ran after her, through the backyards and over to the next block where he saw her standing with our backyard neighbor who had her by the collar.
Lucky him! Now he has had the pleasure of meeting his new neighbor, Jed Clampett.
I know exactly what I'm getting The Swede for his upcoming birthday.
12 comments:
Heh. He will look good running down the street in nothing but those!
LOL.. I bet your new neighbors are just going to love ya'll! If they try to run you off or anything you can come here. You guys would fit in perfectly in our hood.. underwear and all.
On a serious note.. that made me so sad for you having to watch your loyal dog go through that, I'm sure that was a difficult thing to endure.
Good luck with the training, it doesn't sound fun.
I seem to recall Bruce telling me that I needed to walk Dominique along the flags on the LEASH for the first two weeks after having the system installed. This had to be done, first thing, each day before I could let her off the leash. Also, the flags needed to remain for two weeks. After the first week I removed every other flag, then a few more a couple of days later, etc. until there were none left. Are you just letting Scout loose into the yard? She obviously doesn't yet totally understand the boundries.
TBF-
They must have changed their approach. They now tell you to keep the leash attached but let it drag on the ground while the dog runs loose. He also told me to expect her to run through a few times. She seems to be getting the concept more each day. Yes, the two week flag thing still applies.
LOL...was he wearing tighty whities?
Michael. How dare you?! I would never wear tighty whities. I was wearing my bicycle short length spandex/cotton blend black Jockey's.
I wear tighty whities (sometimes black or gray).
...is that wrong?
TBF-
Wouldn't they be tighty-blackies or tighty-grayies?
And yes, they're wrong...very wrong. It's not the color, it's the shortness. NOT good.
TMS - Of course you were!
TBF - For some reason that doesn't surprise me?
TSK - I totally agree with you, who wants to look at that stuff like that! Oh wait...hmmmmm
now wait a second... the proper spelling is sauerkraut.
meow.
Sorry Anonymous, would love for you to be able to correct spelling but in this case you have missed the subtle humor...
Wait, THAT'S subtle humor?
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