Yesterday was the day from hell. Ollie decided to be very bad. Up to this point, the dogs go out with me in the am or whenever, while I feed Remus, or water him, or clean his stall. Gretchen never goes far (and if she does she is always to be found at the front door of the house waiting to be let in). Ollie tests his boundaries. He can get out of the dog fenced area behind the garage by crawling under it. He kind of wanders the perimeter of the barn but never has gone out of sight. Until yesterday.
First when I took them out to potty in the front yard about midday, he saw the goose in the field and took off after him. I was shouting at him (and he usually stops when he hears that voice where he knows he is in trouble, not this time) and he kept on going. Mr. Goose jumped in the pond…so I thought good, I will go get Ollie, as I ran down the hill toward the pond, yep OLLIE DOCK DIVED into the pond. I had no idea if my dog could swim or not and I sure as shit did not want to go into that pond after him if he couldn’t!
I am screaming my fool head off while silly ass dog paddles around the pond trying to get to the goose who was swimming better than Ollie. FINALLY he comes up the bank and wants to go back in the pond. I scruff him and carry him up to the yard cussing the whole time.
I was SO mad at him. First that he didn’t come back when I told him to (up to this point he always has) and two that he went swimming in that nasty ass pond water. Of course then he was a wet dog so he felt good and went scrambling around the house running in circles. Dogs.
But wait, there is more! Went out to feed Remus around 5ish yesterday and Ollie and Gretchen came with me. Ollie was in the barn aisle with me while I was watering and then…then he wasn’t. Like in one minute he disappeared. I thought that he was just out in the paddock. Nope.
So I didn’t panic yet. But I had a feeling he was gone, I couldn’t see him I couldn’t hear him traipsing through the woods. Nothing. Just quiet. So I shut the door to Remus stall and started calling for Ollie. Nothing. I went and put Gretchen in the house and came back out. Nothing. I went down the neighbor’s access to the lake. No Ollie. I ran back up to the barn and Mark was pulling up so got him all panicked too. Still no Ollie. Mark started down to the lake again and I got in Mark’s car to go look for him on the road.
Remus at this point got stressed and started pacing the fence a bit. I was like shit I don’t want him freaking out so I threw him some hay in his stall and then jumped in Mark’s car to ride out. Something made me turn left (toward the dead end part of the road) to my neighbors’ land.
And as I pulled up my neighbor came out (she had just gotten home from work and was letting her dogs out) she said are you missing Ollie? I said yes did you hear me screaming she said no but I just saw him on our property when I pulled up. I tried to get him but he growled at me and took off.
So I knew where he was at least. As I was talking to her I saw the little shit head creeping up from their field. He must have finally heard me. I called him and he came running. Even though I wanted to beat him half to death I didn’t lol. I put him in the car and thanked my neighbor and drove him home. Mark was freaking out and didn’t realize I had him in the car. SO all is well that ends well BUT Ollie is on a leash now and tied up in the barn while I do chores. Can’t trust him. I need to get a longer tie out but otherwise NOPE NOPE NOPE. Bad dog. I was so worried something would get him (he is not a big dog at all just big attitude). I thought I was going to puke after all the running around in the heat I had done and I barely could eat after that since I was still so stressed. Bad dog. SUCH a bad dog…
We need to fence in the front part of the garden (not least because of the raccoon family that treats our front yard like theirs (I want to run a hot wire on the top of it, it won’t stop them but I wouldn’t mind frying a few of them LOL) but then we could let Ollie out to potty without worrying he is going to make a run for it. I worry about going away next week with Mark having to handle the horse and the dogs and the cat and still work. It is a full time job just taking care of all the critters. Thank goodness I work from home so I can take minibreaks during the day to take care of things. Remus will miss me next week since he wont get his midday lunch snack and fly sprayed and locked up in the heat of the day.
So how do you handle dogs on the farm? Any tips or suggestions? One cool thing was by going down to the lake for the first time I took Mark down there later with Ollie on the leash and we got to see two storks fly in. I shit you not. When I was panicking looking for Ollie before Mark got home I saw a kingfisher down there too. But meanwhile I have a bad, bad dog. Anyone else or just me?
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
Bad monkey! Er, dog. Er, monkeydog.
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We have an electric/invisible fence. The wire isn’t currently working but for the most part it works for large areas. Hermione wanders and doesn’t come when called. Marble is better. Sometime we just stick them in the pool area and then that works but… We have to replace fence wire soon. Maybe I put new wire down this week. where I need to.
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I second the invisible fence! They have always worked great for our family dogs. You do have to train them to understand where the boundaries are, but once they do, they stay where within the bounds.
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Maybe you can get Ollie a doggie jail …
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Uhhh my husband trained Hannah by turning her out with goats for a month, but that’s another story for another day. She has ridiculously good recall. The other day, I left her out and she TOOK OFF like her butt was on fire towards the stream that runs next to our house, which she never goes near. As soon as I called her, she stopped dead, spun around, and came back. I think it’s partly a breed thing though, those herding dogs just have it wired into them.
For the record, my Yorkie always tried to run away.
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i have no idea WHAT Ollie is (besides a pain in the ass and cute as sin) but dang if he doesnt act like a hound when he gets the scent of anything. SIGH…..Gretchen is halfblind and half deaf and stops dead if i even raise my voice. She gets it. She lived on her own for a while, she knows how good she has it. Ollie is the devil 🙂 Good Hannah (and goats LOL)
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Hannah was a very bad puppy 😉 the goats were a last resort. Maybe you just need some of them? hahaha
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Choco has never been good off leash – she’d always run away. I am not sure what got into me but recently I was like “hey let’s train her to be off leash” lol. She’s a very sensitive dog so all I had to do was tap her “kind of” sharply on the butt to get her to understand that not listening/coming when called/wandering where she wasn’t supposed to was unwanted behavior. But whenever she’d come when called she got treats. Liver treats worked very well haha. We don’t have a whole ton of property tho and I would take her out expressly to “train” so there was that.
I third the invisible fence. My relatives have one and it worked super well for their dalmation and retriever. But bad dog Ollie! haha He must’ve been a mess lol
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Invisible fence all the way.
We’ve never had to use it, but my parents dogs were always well behaved and stayed around.
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Shock collars can work well if you don’t have time or money for an entire fence. Most dogs get them pretty quickly and rarely need the shock. Bad Ollie for taking advantage!
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Oh I can relate!! Also, when you use “angry voice” as I call it, and your dog DOESN’T come, does it just enrage you even more? Cause it sure does for me! That voice is SERIOUS
So, my Dad suffers from dogs running away on his farm so sadly they are on leash a lot. He also got the invisible fence for the part that goes along the road so he doesn’t have to worry about them being hit.
I got him the Whistle gps collar device. So when they DO run off, he knows where they are. It alerts you if the dog is out of the designated boundary. It’s not expensive, easy to charge, and so far he really likes it. May be worth looking into? Give you some piece of mind?
I’m not a fan of shock collars (for multiple reasons) but in this case, mainly because, as you said, he disappeared in a moment and you didn’t even see it. And you can’t shock, or even vibrate, a dog you can’t see, so it doesn’t really help.
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OMG I have 3 bad doggies and one of them went missing overnight a few years back. Thankfully found her through a lost pets group on Facebook!!
But what I’ve found to work the best (at least in my area) is Whistle 3 (though I think they’re coming out with a 4?) it attaches to their collar and tracks them using cell phone signal. If the cell service is spotty it can’t always find them but for the most part it’s been the best way to find my dogs when they’re run off. It does require a monthly fee (but you pay for it 1x a year) but it’s not that bad (less than $8 a month). I’ve been really happy with it so far and it has helped my stress levels when I can look at my phone and see exactly where the bad dogs are 🙂
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OMG what a little SHIT. I’d super pissed too! Like soooooo pissed!!! I’ve always had fencing, otherwise I think I’d try the invisible fence if it’s cheaper!
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Invisible fence, x 100. The only thing that kept in our GSP (who would go over anything, she was like a freaking GP show jumper) AND the JRT (who can go under or between anything).
Fin is not trusted off leash. Terrible recall, he’ll look at you, flip you the bird and keep doing is own thing. He also hates horses so he’s not allowed anywhere near the barn for his own safety.
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I know that kind of shitheadery and that level of anger/stress/worry. So sorry you had to deal with it! Kenai is a professional at it… I haven’t trained him to our electric fence yet because he’s usually pretty good, but after a recent bout of skullduggery he’s going to be trained to it sooner than later! Taiga took to it quickly and it’s been a great help. Not 100% – nothing but a giant stone wall would be – but definitely a great safety net.
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ha we will figure out something when i get back from my work trip but for now a 25 foot tie out does wonders. (he thinks he is free but he is not) Silly dogs!! Gretchen is trustworthy too (must be a boy dog thing) Thanks!
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I don’t really mix my dogs and horses too much. Artie barks at the horses non stop which is SUPER annoying. P is fine, but she’s old and just as happy to sleep in the house as out in the barn. My pups can go out by untethered in the area around my pool. It’s grass on three sides and is fenced in entirely. They seem content with that. I’ll take them out on lunge lines sometimes so they can run around the rest of the yard, but I can’t trust either of them off leash out there.
SO glad you got Ollie back none the worse for the wear. I know that feeling when they take off, and it’s AWFUL!
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