[LindaH]

Well, if nothing else, Hope has been keeping me busy. She has been wonderful in the house. No waste mistakes, no chewing, no anything, just a couple of little puffs of wind when I gave her some kind edible bone creation that came in an old bag of Purina before I switched to canidae.

It's all going on outside!!!! (said with deep gutteral breath)
I come home Wednesday and Stormy is at gate, tail wagging, no Hope. My breath catches, I call several times and then go into the back yard to look for her. Aaahhhh, there she is, down in the neighbors' yard, chewing on the neighbors' dogs' Christmas hambone. Thank goodness, they are really great neighbors, dog people and they like Stormy and Hope. I am still not sure if she went over or under the fence. I think under(I prefer to believe under). No dig places, but some leaves scratched out of the way in a couple of places.
I retrieve her with neighbors' daughters help, she is a teenager and parents not home.
Well, I can solve this with a trip to the slaughterhouse. Off I go and come back with two, neat, foot and a half cow leg bones. Everyone is sooo happy.
Too much so, Hope kept me up till about 2 am obsessing about her bone being left outside.
Thursday dogs out happily with their bones. I leave and come back in a couple of hours. There is only one bone and Hope doesn't have her brand new $8.99 + tax collar on. One week it lasted her.:sadcry:
Okay, I'm on a collar search mission throughout the yard. Noting a beginning series of brand spanking new holes.
I am not sure exactly what happened, but I think the "one bone" was involved. Hugh fight breaks out real close to me, thanks for not making me run the length of the yard. I had no idea Stormy was in such good shape for a 10/11 yr old dog. My old age sympathy has not been needed!!! I begin screaming "No" as close to their ears as I dare. Of course no one hears me at first. Stormy has ALWAYS heard me, I have stopped her from returning fire on dogs before. SO, I think she started it, and I think she was really ticked over the one bone situation. Hope must have stashed the other bone and then thought she could have the other one to prance around the yard, following me, with it hanging out of her mouth.
I finally got the fight broke up, by grabbing Stormy's tail when she was trying to reach a retreating Hope. This was Hopes' third retreat, but Stormy was the maddest I have ever seen her. I could tell she was hearing me, she just didn't care. She's one tough little old dog. No where near as big as Hope, though she weights the same. Don't get alarmed anyone, this is nowhere near what a doberman fight is like. Hope is totally submissive to Stormy now, where she had been pushing little buttons before. I will just have to do a better job of keeping order, if Hope starts pushing buttons again.
This morning I put Stormys' old collar on Hope and let them outside and I think it took her all of a half an hour to lose it.

 

[PeeWeesMama]

Scary story, glad all is well. One thing that concerns me, I do not leave my girls together alone at all. If I am not able to be around I will crate one or both. Are you able to crate one? I know alot people leave their dogs alone together with no problem but to me it's safer than to be sorry. Just my opinion, thought I'd share LOL

 

[brumwolf]

Ahh girls,girls,girls as a song once went, its highly unlikly that it will turn ultra violent between 2 females(but not unheard of,and when it does it is usually worse than dog fights)sounds to me that Storm is just holding her position as alpha but do keep an eye on the situation,Hope will learn her place,as for the collars could she be related to David Blaine or some other magician to keep making them disappear?

 

[tjmom]

That must have been so scary for you.

 

[Lexus]

Yikes, so the dogs are outside when you are gone?

Man glad it turned out okay, and everyone is back and in one piece though.

 

[DreamDoby]

That is a scary situation. Glad that nothing serious happened when you weren't there. My boys can get on eachothers nerves, but watch out if you get Harmony wrong. She plots a revenge.

 

[JavasMom]

Glad to hear it all worked out in the end.

I find if I look at Java as if she were a small/young child (keeping gates up, watching what goes into her mouth, keeping her out of the way when I'm working with cleaning products, keeping an eye on her when she's at the DP), then I'm not getting angry at her for doing what young dogs do. It's not easy and I really can't let my guard down.

I have recently learned that my girl is a digger. I let her out into the back and she must have picked up a mole or chipmunk's scent because she went at the ground like a piece of construction equipment. Had I been standing behind her I would have been covered in mud. She had never done that before, but I went around and checked under the fencing after she was back in her crate, just to make sure she wasn't plotting an escape route. I couldn't believe how much dirt she had removed in such a short period of time.

 

[PeeWeesMama]

Ok Ok call me a worry wort if you must but....I am concerned that if your girl tries to escape again, over or under the fence that her collar could get caught and something terrible could happen... Im sorry, I just worry about things like that.

 

[LindaH]

Ahh girls,girls,girls as a song once went, its highly unlikly that it will turn ultra violent between 2 females(but not unheard of,and when it does it is usually worse than dog fights)sounds to me that Storm is just holding her position as alpha but do keep an eye on the situation,Hope will learn her place,as for the collars could she be related to David Blaine or some other magician to keep making them disappear?

Your exactly right Brum, more of Stormy enforcing her position. Actually, I had sort of seen it coming. When Hope would jump down off the fence, she would always land on Stormy. She wanted her bone and then thought she could switch to Stormys' at will. I'm pretty darn sure she buried the other bone then tried to lay claim to Stormys'. After the rift, Hope started to dig at a spot and when Storm went over to investigate, Hope rolled over on her side and looked up as Storm stood over her. I can tell a big difference in Hopes' attitude to Stormy now. There is big time respect. I have always enforced Storms' dominence, but they needed to work out the final details themselves.
Stormy just let a little too much build up.

PeeWeeMama, don't worry, part of the reason I wanted another dog was so Storm would have a buddy to pal around with. These are both very laid back, easy going dogs. They will be okay. Remember these are not sharp tempered dobermans. And make no mistake, Hope is very attached to Stormy. Stormy will also follow Hope around and help her tree squirrels. They like each other.
I worry about the dog collar situation, too. I leave them where they will slip off the head, but she could still twist it under a fence. Just going to have to wait and see what she does before I decide what to do. It really bothers me to leave her without any ID on tho.

tjmom, the first 15 secs was scary, then you could see where it was going, none of it was very scary. I have had dogs since I was eight years old and when I hit my teens there were usually three. Seen a lot of dog fights in my time. I don't like them, but they do happen and some of them are normal adjustments.

Lexus, yes they are outside alone. Good neighborhood and not much goes on. My main worry is Hope escaping, but I can tell you, if she gets out, her last thought will be coming to anyone. I'm still letting her adapt and just watching her to see what kind of mind she has. She's still pretty scattered.

JavasMom, yes, the digging, I'm so excited.

Hope I covered everyone.

 

[micdobe]

First, I wouldn't leave dogs outside all day unattended. Quiet neighborhood or not, it only takes one car to kill or seriously injure a dog. Especially a new dog whose tendencies you don't know. Actually you do know this one has a tendency to escape because she already did. I would love for my dogs to be able to have free run of a large property from which they absolutely could not escape and from which there was absolutely no danger of their being stolen or poisoned or of neighbor kidds getting the dogs in trouble. Unfortunatel I don't live in such a world, and very, very few people do.

If my dogs were out all day I'd just worry about what might be happening to them. I personally know quite a few disaster stories of dogs left outside all day, from owners who were "sure" everything was ok.

I live in a "quiet neighborhood" too, totally residential, quite a ways to the nearest major thoroughfare, and yet I see dead cats all the time in the street who have been hit by cars, and the occasional dog too.

I don't know what you mean about "sharp tempered" Dobermans. Dobermans aren't supposed be more than "medium" sharp, and even if they were, what has that got to do with escaping from a fence? All breeds and mixed breeds are in danger of escaping from a fence, they're dogs and you never know what they might do if the opportunity presents itself.

Just the fact you're worried about your dog getting her collar caught if she tries to escape again and worried about her being loose with no ID shows that you yourself do not see the situation as secure.

You haven't had this dog very long at all. While your older dog may not try to escape, obviously this one will. So if I were you I'd take precautions, *at least* until the dog has settled in and you know her better.

But if you insist on this course, I recommend getting both dogs microchipped, that way they will always have at least some kind of ID and it will theoretically at least protect them if they're impounded.

They also make a breakaway collar for dogs that works on a similar principle as breakaway collars for cats, they come in large dog sizes.

 

[Okie-dobie]

I could be wrong but according to Linda in her first post the dogs were only outside for a couple of hours while she was gone, not all day.

I would fix the areas in the fence where she is trying to escape, and until then I would not put her collar on. I would keep her inside. And based on the fact that they will fight I would not leave them together alone unitl they work things out. I would for sure not leave them together with toys or bones that they could fight over. Just my opinion

 

[Lexus]

It only takes minutes to crawl under a fence and get hit by a car, it doesn't matter if they are out there all day or a few hours. JIMO a really bad idea that I wouldn't chance with my kids, and I live in a good neighborhood too. I'm not casting judgement, that's just my opinion on it. Accidents can always happen, I moniter my kids when they are out, but I've put them out and walked away from the door for a few minutes, it only takes that much time for a disaster to happen, but I would say I definetely decrease the chances of a disaster by not permiting them to be loose in my yard if I'm not home.

Either way, it's Linda's choice. Good luck sorting things out with the girls, glad they are getting on well, even the best of buds have a few blow outs here and there Just ask my girls!

 

[Fitzmar Dobermans]

I don't leave my dogs outside alone at all ever! We live in a wonderful neighborhood and my dogs are good dogs. They never bother the fence. I still would not do it.

You are having difficulties with keeping your dog in - it is a tragedy waiting to happen IMHO. Any dog can bite in a bad situation and then you would be looking at a liability claim. If you were not there watching, you have no way of proving what did or did not happen.

Call me cautious, leaving a dog loose in the yard is just something I would NEVER do. My neighbors like us for a reason - they are NEVER bothered by our dogs.

 

[LindaH]

Micdobe,
I do live in a great neighborhood with the only kids being the ones next door and they are the type of neighbors you "dream for". Something could happen some day, but that is not very likely. Not going to live "in fear of something happening". I do not leave them out all day without checking on them every few hours or being there myself. Something could happen to them while I am there and I wouldn't know, for a while, either.
I don't worry about her escaping from the backyard. She went after the neighbors dogs' bone and got it. Their yard is fenced too. She doesn't try to get outside the fence to run away. But, she did slip her collar one day and that scared me, cause she used to look to the woods in front of the yard with curiosity. Everytime I would bring her in or out, she would look and not listen to me. She is better on both fronts now.
Sharptempered dobes, I was referring to the way they fight.
I always worry if I don't have an id on a dog. Do you have an address where I could find out about local microchipping? I have thought about this often. And didn't know about the breakaway collars, addy for them too??
Worry about her getting her collar caught of bottem of fence getting into neighbors yard at that time, but there are other ways she could catch her collar in the back yard. Brush pile, bushes, etc.
Thanks everyone for your concern. Got to go now!!

 

[Codysmom]

If she is a little houdini, I would definitely get her microchipped; your vet can do it for about $45 ( I think that's what my guy charges)

here is a site with lots of microchip links

http://www.petcaretips.net/microchipping-dog.html

it also sounds as tho sweet little Hope needs a lot more exercise. that might keep the trouble and the holes to a minimum

cc

 

[LindaH]

Serioiusly, if these were dobermans, something someone might want to steal or test, I would not leave them outside if I wasn't home. But they are glorious mixed breeds, that no one would want to steal. The back yard is set back about 60 ft from the road and we don't have strangers around. I have seen several dogs and many, many cats survive the road in recent years. I have lived here since the '60s except for a 17 yr break when I lived in Chattanooga. The neighborhood actually got better while I was gone as everyone got older and kids left. I know what I am dealing with.
Hope left to get the next door neighbors dogs' Christmans ham bone and it smelled great, I know cause I smelled it myself the night before they put it out, when the neighbor was cutting my hair.
The dog pound assured me that she had never tried to escape in the months she was there.
I do appreciate everyone and I do understand your concern.

 

[LindaH]

If she is a little houdini, I would definitely get her microchipped; your vet can do it for about $45 ( I think that's what my guy charges)

here is a site with lots of microchip links

http://www.petcaretips.net/microchipping-dog.html

it also sounds as tho sweet little Hope needs a lot more exercise. that might keep the trouble and the holes to a minimum

cc

Thanks for the addy. She's not so little either One of my fears was that I had come home with a hound that you couldn't fill up. I don't really mind the holes so much as long as she keeps them to the back, back yard. She really is a good dog and when I bring her inside she just hits the floor and goes to sleep. She's trying to decide to be a watchdog and has taken to staring out the bay window for something to gruff at when she hears something strange.
Decided the bone situation won't happen again if I keep them supplied, so been to the slaughterhouse again today and picked up a garbage bag of buffalo ribs. Got some for the neighbors dog, too, at their request.

 

[Codysmom]

Molly was digging a bit and after some investigation we found she was going after crickets!

cc

 

[Patches Mom]

What happens to all the dirt know you can never find it all to put back in the hole.If a dog is digging out along the fence line you can put re-barb along the fence line but is hard work to pound it into the ground.
Patches Mom

 

[LindaH]

Codysmom, what a good little girl you have, helping out the birds and all.

Patches Mom, fortunately there is a handy pile of topsoil left over from flower garden project back there in the same area as the holes. Will probably go with electric fencing on the bottom of cyclone if necessary, but looks like it won't be needed.