We have had dogs for years. When our current pair were younger we put a home made fence around the yard, Maggie, the older dog, soon found a gap under the fencing and crawled through to go exploring. We tried to block the places she found to go through, but with little success. Finally, we built a real fence with a concrete base that kept them from digging their way out. That was good enough to keep them from escaping though the back. But Maggie was able to find a way to climb over the front gate. We added some fence wire to cover the side of the gate and prevent her from doing THAT again. That gave us a few years of peace.
Recently we’ve had trouble making the gate latch close completely. Our ever creative dogs checked out the gate and found they could actually open it by pawing at the bottom of the gate. The first time they made it open was on a Saturday. That was good, because the dog police don’t work on the Sabbath. Otherwise, we’d be facing a stiff fine for each of them. Not to mention the necessity to go to the local dog jail to pick them up and pay an additional fee for the food they were given, whether they ate it or not. We left the gate open for them. Sure enough, when they got hungry they returned fro their adventures.
Our initial reaction was that the canines had been set free by some local children because we couldn’t believe they could open the gate themselves. It was only after the second time it happened that we began to have suspicions. The next time we kept watch and caught them in the act. I did not have the tools to move the latch, so we took a plastic tie down strip and looped it through the open wire in the gate, The end could then be slipped over the post at the end of the fence to hold the gate in place. The closure wasn’t tight, but the gate only opened to allow passage for something about an inch and a half wide. The dogs, of course, are not that slim. We actually giggled when we saw them, each one separately, try to pull the gate open with their paws or push it with their noses to make the opening larger.
Today we had the latch replaced. Now they have no way to escape to explore the world unless we take them out on a leash. Will they find another way? We hope not. Only time will tell.
Wetherhorn 