The Return of the Wandering Dog

On Monday night I gave my dogs, Dory and Angel, a bath. You can review the typical dog bath routine by reading the May 21 posting. Yesterday morning, Tuesday, I let them out of their crates and then into the back yard without their wireless fence collars on.

We had a wireless fence installed around the perimeter of our property 3 years ago because we couldn't keep Dory from climbing under or over our chain link fence. The wireless fence did it's job; Dory stayed home.

About 3 months ago the batteries in both of the dog's collars went dead and we hadn't replaced them. Dory was so conditioned by the collar that she never even made an attempt to get near the fence let alone try and get through it. So yesterday morning I didn't see any problem with letting Dory outside without her collar on just this once.

About half an hour later I went to let them inside. Angel was there ready to come in but Dory was no where to be found. I quickly realized that she had returned to her wandering ways for the first time in about 3 years.

I got into my car and began to cruise the neighborhood looking for her. It took me about half an hour but with the help of several neighbors I tracked her down about 2 blocks from our house. While looking for her I got too close to a dog chained up in a backyard and had to hightail it out of his tethered reach.

Finally I got her into the car and back to the house. I let her outside a couple of times the rest of the day with her collar on and she stayed put. Problem solved without much action required on my part right? Wrong!

This morning I let her out in the yard just as the previous morning, only this time she had her collar on She hightailed it for the hole in the back of the fence and was gone in a flash. This time I was checking on her occasionally and got a bit of a jump on her escape. I managed to head her off before she even left our block. It had taken a couple of months but the dog had finally realized that her collar didn't work like it used to and she could go wandering. Sometimes she's too smart for her own good.

A quick trip to Walmart for a fresh supply of batteries, replacing them in each dog's collar, and a test to make sure they worked and the case of the Return of The Wandering Dog was solved.

I now have a 3 month supply of collar batteries in the house for good measure. I also have come to realize that Dory has a never ending case of wanderlust that she will never get over. I guess I'm going to have to start taking her for walks on a regular basis. Then she'll be so happy with me she'll want to stay home...at least that's the plan.