Underground Fencing

Warning: Not my usual post.

I have been waiting until I had something constructive to say before I posted about underground fencing systems. Well I'm still mad but I think I am calm enough to write.

We recently moved into a lovely neighborhood and we and our Cardis 3 were welcomed with open arms. We were told everyone has dogs and that it was a very dog friendly place to live. Great right? Unfortunately no! This neighborhood prides itself on no fences.

Fortunately for us only .10 of our 3.10 acres is technically in the subdivision, so a traditional fence will be installed in the spring. But I digress....

So here's the scene... The Cardis 3 and I are out for a nice fall walk when out of no where these 2 St. Bernard's come charging at us barking and growling. I was pretty sure they had an underground fence but I wasn't sure it would contain them. It contained one but not the other. I gave a pretty clear stay and back command to the over sized evil St. and turned my 3 around and headed for home. Shaker was pretty upset, Russ was okay and Music walked so close to me that I ended up on her leash several times. So at this point I am thinking--we'll get home and I'll settle everyone.

When I see this yellow lab heading right for us. What the heck? Now I have St. Bernard's behind me and a yellow lab in front of me. So we just stopped and waited. By this time Shaker is pretty nuts. Fortunately for me the neighbor came home and got control of the lab. So at this point, I am thinking this is NUTS, we just need to get home.

We are almost home when the crazy Airedale comes bounding across my yard. That's it I'm done. Underground Electric fences are the reason I am spending countless hours trying to rehabilitate my baby puppy who before this fateful day was fun loving, social and generally wonderful.

So here is the constructive part. Sarah of http://sydneygooddog.blogspot.com/ left a comment about using "Look at That" rather than "Watch me". She referenced a book called Control Unleashed.

So I decided to do a little research and ultimately purchased:

Control Unleashed - Creating a Focused and Confident Dog - MLA, CDBC, CPDT Leslie McDevitt,

Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog - Ali Brown,

On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals Turid Rugaas.

Here's the deal each was highly acclaimed to have tips, tactics and strategies to assist with the reactive dog. I'll keep you up to date but paint me quite hopeful tonight!