Invisible Fence

Not too long ago, a friend of mine was down to visit us in Columbus. Early in the morning when both of our reaction speeds weren’t up to par, Betsy beat us to the punch and blitzed through the door. My look of shock and surprise didn’t get time to settle on my face before I grabbed sandals and ran out the door shirtless. Around the first corner I hit the slick, wet grass hard with a jaw rattling fall. I would’ve loved to have savored that moment and evaluated for damage but the image of the dog racing away was motivation enough for me to jump back up and keep running.

She stopped a couple of times, freezing to see a rabbit and also to poop, both times I couldn’t catch up to her in time before she would bolt away again, eventually disappearing into the woods along the railroad tracks. Needless to say, this event caused some stress in Amanda’s and my relationship that morning and I was pretty convinced that if I couldn’t find the dog, the marriage was off. After long, unsuccessful searches and trips through developments, we printed up wanted posters and per the suggestion of my brother took up the search again a little later. I found Betsy up at the top of the railroad tracks, panting and covered in everything – including poison ivy.

Luck would have it that we got her back and I am not allergic to poison ivy. Thus, I was able to wash her down and save Amanda a severe reaction. We got breakfast and had a chance to sit and laugh about the traumatic morning. But it brought to light a severe concern of ours - Betsy doesn’t respond to her name once she gets out and runs. So we decided shortly afterwards to actively pursue her training.

This started with moving Betsy to Amanda’s parents for a while. They have an invisible fence system installed there which would allow Betsy the freedom to run and burn energy and also give us an opportunity to teach obedience off of the leash and reward good behavior. Betsy has been out there now for nearly 3 weeks and we miss her a lot but the training has gone very well with very few shocking corrections. The Invisible Fence training man was very nice to work with and their method of training the dog to light current and a beep long before turning up the system to a corrective shot was definitely part of the reason that Betsy was able to learn quickly without being corrected very much. She is now so much happier outside because she is able to run and play without the constrictive leash always getting tangled. Now the training for “come”, “heel” and “stay” can begin in earnest.