# Houdini - the dog



## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

This is not a hunting dog. She's just a sheep dog, and we don't have any sheep. She's a really good dog.

Recenly, she's figured out how to escape the back yard. It hasn't been a big deal, because once she escapes, she just stays in the front yard. Often times she'll start barking at the gate so someone will let her back in the back yard. 
But, still, she's not supposed to be in the front.

i put up a camera to try to figure out how she's doing it. Unfortunately, all i'm getting are pictures of the sprinklers, a fox, and some robins. i do get pictures of the dog too -- just not how she's escaping!

We did watch her this morning, and I think we have it figured out. All the way in the back corner we have an old wood pile. She climbs the wood pile and steps over onto the cinder block wall. She then proceeds to walk, like a cat, all the way to the front of the yard along the wall, and jumps down.


Any suggestions on preventing this? Maybe just place an obstacle on top of the wall (5 gallon bucket)?


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

PBH said:


> All the way in the back corner we have an old wood pile. She climbs the wood pile and steps over onto the cinder block wall.


Move the wood pile away from the wall.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

This is NOT the "K.I.S.S." game. I'm sure we have some engineers around this site that are just waiting to make a complex solution out of a simple problem....


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Maybe try conditioning her to stay off the wood pile--then you don't have to move anything, set up barriers, etc...

I'm thinking you could walk her around on a leash over by the wood pile, if she steps foot on it, correct her with the leash and verbally. Repeat a bunch of times. 

I don't know if this will work, just throwing it out there. Most sheep dogs are extremely intelligent, so she may learn quickly. On the other hand, maybe she's too smart for her own good and will find a loophole. Good luck. 8)


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Another thought--maybe her new interest in getting to the front yard is related to the fox visiting your front yard? Get rid of the fox, get rid of the fence climbing problem?


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Maybe increase the difficulty of the challenge?


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Gdog -- Sally (the Border Collie) is extremely athletic! She just might be able to complete that squirrel obstacle course!!


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

PBH said:


> This is NOT the "K.I.S.S." game. I'm sure we have some engineers around this site that are just waiting to make a complex solution out of a simple problem....


Ha! Just being me every day is complex enough, so I have to KISS. It's the only shot I've got!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Add a small shelter structure with a roof that extends past the edge of the woodpile. Dual purpose solution there that will keep your wood dry, and prevent your pseudo-feline from her current access route.


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

What kind of sheep dog are we talking about? You mention she is smart and athletic, so I'm assuming she has some border collie in her. 

Sorry- after raising border collies for over a decade, I can confidently say your sheep dog is likely smarter than you and me and most engineers. So simple obstacles or even moving the pile may now not be enough. BUT- the plus side of that is she should train well- if you are up for the challenge. 

GDog- great video. Very entertaining.


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## 7mm Reloaded (Aug 25, 2015)

Vanilla said:


> Move the wood pile away from the wall.


I had a beagle mix that would literally climb trees and chain link fences and he jumped off a 10 ft woodpile once to get out and killed himself. Some dogs will do anything to escape.


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## Slockem (Nov 29, 2016)

Once a dog gets out of a kennel or a yard they never stop looking for a way out...ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure...your are screwed now!


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Pack -- yes, border collie.


She's great. i watched her yesterday from the window -- the squirrel obstacle course immediately came to mind.

(I'm living at my parents right now while our home is being built. This is a new yard to Sally. We should only be here for a couple more months. Then Sally will have all the freedom she ever wanted - and probably won't leave the porch!)

Yesterday she ended up in the neighbor's back yard behind us. Before we could go retrieve her, she just jumped the wall coming back.

The wood pile is actually against a compost bin made from cinder blocks. This bin is about 3' away from the perimeter cinder block wall. Sally climbs the wood pile to the top of the compost bin, then walks then jumps the span to the perimeter wall. She then proceeds to walk the permiter, steping over / under tree branches until she gets wherever she is trying to get to.

I watched her do this, and made sure to give her a scolding. She knows she shouldn't be up on the wall now. As added insurance I placed some 5 gallon buckets (with water) on top of the compost bin. So now the question becomes: does she accept the challenge?

This should be fun. I need to get the camera moved so I can get more video of the real action.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Dogs are interesting to watch when they are by themselves. 

Years ago a friend borrowed my video camera and set it up in his apartment to see what his two Britney spaniels were doing during the day. 

We watched it that night. The dogs were all over everything that they weren't suppose to be. Up on counters along with running around in the apartment. They both opened the cubbard where the trash was at and looked in and then politely closed the door with their noses. Without the video evidence you would of never had the idea of what they had been into that day.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Critter said:


> Dogs are interesting to watch when they are by themselves.
> 
> Years ago a friend borrowed my video camera and set it up in his apartment to see what his two Britney spaniels were doing during the day.
> 
> We watched it that night. The dogs were all over everything that they weren't suppose to be. Up on counters along with running around in the apartment. They both opened the cubbard where the trash was at and looked in and then politely closed the door with their noses. Without the video evidence you would of never had the idea of what they had been into that day.


I've seen that video as well. It's called "Secret Life of Pets" I'm pretty sure there was a sequel too.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Cool obstacle course! I like Gus I think those squirrels might be related to Rocky the Squirrel!


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

PBH, we need video of this! Get er done.


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## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

After reading the first post, I knew you were talking about a border collie. They are smart, and at least from my own experience, won't leave your property. They are velcro dogs, and don't stray far. We hard a border/aussie mix, and somehow he got outside, and I went to the front door, and there he was sitting there like, "Hey, you gonna let me in or what?!" I have no idea how long he was there, but it was awhile.

Picture or video of the escape route in question would help. Offhand to boil things back down to the basics, there's only two ways to go about it:
a.) Somehow make it physically impossible for her. (easy way)

b.) Dissuasion. (hard way)


The good news is that border collies are easily trainable, and learn things quickly... .though that can be a double edged sword.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

So far, so good -- I placed some buckets on the compost bin wall to prevent the dog access. She hasn't escaped again.....yet.

The biggest thing is just keeping her busy. It's those days that she doesn't get a walk that she starts to get in trouble.



Vanilla -- I'm affraid a video isn't going to happen. I should have pulled out my phone when I watched her do it last week -- instead I went out and scolded her. The last thing I want to do is encourage her to do it again....which she hasn't.


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## Ansamy (Dec 4, 2020)

You don't need to put any barriers, just your dog is an active breed and needs physical activity. You have to give her a lot of attention and give her a lot of exercise, so the dog will get tired, and she will lose the desire to climb over the fence. You should get to know your dog better, you can read about this breed on Inspire Dogs. Of course, the most important thing is to show as much love and pay attention to the dog as possible, so it will feel that the owners need it, and it won't have thoughts of running away from them.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

*update*

We've since moved to our new home. The dog now has 10 acres of sagebrush to roam freely. She loves to explore outside of our property, which is OK too. Most of the neighbors also have dogs -- in fact, we have a really pretty yellow lab puppy neighbor that has decided that she likes our place more than her own!

Sally (our collie) has only been caught in a snare one time so far. Luckily, I realized she was gone and went looking for her. I found her just after dark with the snare around her neck with one leg. Lucky dog. She learned that the field she ended up in is not a good field to go under the fence.

More recently, she had another adventure. One morning she was just laying on the back patio, and did not follow my wife out to feed the horse. That was unusual. Upon my wife's return from the horse, she discovered Sally was soaked with blood, and had a large cut on her rear end. The vet discovered three more lacerations (4 in total!) - on her back, rump, belly, and leg. She was a mess! She has numerous stitches, and is doing much better today than last week.

We do not know what happened to her. Some things I think might have happened:
A. There is a hole in the wire mesh fence (thanks to the horses next door!) that the doges will use to get through the fence. Maybe she cut herself running through the fence? But 4 cuts all at once? That's odd.

B. Another dog. Sheep were moved in to some fields across the street two weeks ago. Some great pyrenees dogs are in with the sheep. I wonder if Sally went to check out the new neighbors, and got attacked by the sheep dogs?

C. Other wild animal?

D. Maybe she got tangled up in some old barbed wire?


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

That sucks. My guess is she went looking to play with the sheep and the pyrenees did their job or maybe she found a coyote, and she was able to put on the after burners and escape.

Things like that are the #1 reason that I personally never just let a dog roam free unattended and unconfined to my property. 

Good luck to Sally and hope she heals up quick


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## Charoung (Nov 17, 2020)

Poor Sally((( I guess she might get tangled up in some old wire. Since the other animals are not attacking like that. The animals usually can't leave lacerations and cuts like that. It seems more that she got stuck into something, and she put pressure and force to get out, and wires sound more realistic. An animal bite would be more like deep holes left by their teeth. Hopefully, she will be better, and don't forget to pay attention to the changes in the breathing patterns. It will usually show if the dog is feeling okay or is having some issues. They are not people; they won't tell what hurts. Please be very attentive to their behavior to make sure that there won't be any other issues.


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## 1trhall (Oct 18, 2017)

PBH said:


> Pack -- yes, border collie.
> 
> 
> She's great. i watched her yesterday from the window -- the squirrel obstacle course immediately came to mind.
> ...


 My shorthair was a fence jumper. 6 ' cinderblock walls didn't slow him down. I solved the problem by getting an electric fencer from IFA and stringing a hot wire right at nose height a foot out from the fence. Never got out again after that.


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## 1trhall (Oct 18, 2017)

Charoung said:


> Poor Sally((( I guess she might get tangled up in some old wire. Since the other animals are not attacking like that. The animals usually can't leave lacerations and cuts like that. It seems more that she got stuck into something, and she put pressure and force to get out, and wires sound more realistic. An animal bite would be more like deep holes left by their teeth. Hopefully, she will be better, and don't forget to pay attention to the changes in the breathing patterns. It will usually show if the dog is feeling okay or is having some issues. They are not people; they won't tell what hurts. Please be very attentive to their behavior to make sure that there won't be any other issues.


 Sorry dude, but when a dog gets into a fight with a coyote they don't usually have deep puncture hoes, they actually usually are all cut up. I have lots of experience with this growing up on a ranch in Idaho. Coyotes kill by slashing and tearing with their canines.


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## 1trhall (Oct 18, 2017)

PBH said:


> _update_
> 
> We've since moved to our new home. The dog now has 10 acres of sagebrush to roam freely. She loves to explore outside of our property, which is OK too. Most of the neighbors also have dogs -- in fact, we have a really pretty yellow lab puppy neighbor that has decided that she likes our place more than her own!
> 
> ...


Looks like the results of a battle with one or 2 coyotes.


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