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.

Parenting Practice

I joked when we got the dog that she was our child that we could return to the pound if she was bad. Of course I'd never return her, but there are days I definitely question our moment of insanity when we got her and I wonder how on earth I'll ever deal with the reality of children for 20 years before they disappear to start their own lives.

Betsy is a lesson in parenting every day since we got her in January. Currently she's digesting some jelly beans she snuck from a box of trash by the door (Amanda trying to motivate us to lose weight by throwing away everything good in the house). I pushed Betsy off the bed after she wouldn't stop whining about nothing thus in my mind deserving loss of privileges such as sitting on furniture. It wasn't two minutes before she came slinking back into the room looking guilty. Upon arriving at me, she rolled over and casually tried to drop a half-eaten lemon jelly bean onto the floor as if she had no idea how it got there. Oh, she knew alright, but I told her it was fine, "You'll deserve it when you throw up now." And pretty soon I think you can see how I'm not quite cut out for parenting yet.

We've been through everything from manners towards strangers, not eating dirt, not wetting the carpet (have to re-learn that every week right now), eating all of our dinner, not getting treats unless we're on good behavior, not whining and crying about nothing, when it's ok to play and when it's not ok to bark loudly. None of these are mutually exclusive and I think I speak for Amanda when I say that both of us are exhausted most days trying to keep up with the dog and her antics. Precious though she may be, she is a challenge and the level of challenge which I can rise to right now. Parenting practice continues for now...

Blog to read

I think any blog with 800 some comments is probably worth your read, but this one really spoke to me in particular because of how much it reminds me of our own Betsy on most days. Thanks to Gail for the pick me up today. :) Even the illustrations are hilarious.