imagine, if you will, this dog in irish setter red, and there ends all resemblance, except perhaps in houdini-esque-ness.

present dog, the black one, is a wimp, a puffball, a pushover, a pacifist, a marshmallow. when he came to live with me, after retiring from a short career as a blood donor, he was afraid of everything: cars, people, needles and veterinarians [no surprise], cats, other dogs. won't eat if anybody's looking at him. can't be walked on a leash because if something spooks him he takes off running whether or not there's a human attached. leaps tall fences in a single bound. has yet to meet a fence he can't escape.

previous dog, the red one, feared no one and no thing. loved the vet [major source of cookies!], caught and ate all small furry mammals [even a cat once, according to his first owners], beat up a 150lb mastiff, leaped out of third-floor windows, couldn't be walked on a leash because everything was something to be chased and either eaten or beaten up, whether or not there was a human attached. never met a fence he couldn't leap over, climb over, dig under, or chew through.

ok, so that fence problem, i wanted to be able to let red dog outside without constant supervision. i had horses, knew all about electric fences [i thought] and figured i could fix the problem by putting up an electric wire all around the bottom of the fence, 4"-6" out from the 6' wooden fence and 4"-6" above the ground. i went off to the feed store, bought the charger and wire and plastic pegs, and enlisted my dad to help me put it up. we knocked it out in short order, turned it on, and dad went to put the tools away while i kept an eye on red dog to see what would happen.

what happened is that red dog immediately checked out this new addition to his back yard. of course, as soon he touched the wire with his nose, it bit him. never one to back down from a challenge issued by any non/living thing, red dog reached out and bit it right back.

and couldn't let go.

because i had bought livestock fencing, with a continuous charge, instead of small animal fencing, with a pulsed charge.

electric fences hurt when they bite you [ask me how i know this] and red dog, for all his bravery in everything else, was screaming bloody murder [i had no idea dogs could scream like that]. i started screaming turnitoff!turnitoff!turnitoff!turnitoff! [i've had voice lessons, i can make myself heard] and grabbed red dog, trying to pick him up or pull him loose from the wire or something, anything. dad [no slouch in the voice department himself] came tearing out of the house yelling what? what's wrong? and the neighbor from two doors down, who had been out working on his car in his driveway, snatched up a tire iron [i learned later], ran over, and began dismantling the fence from the outside.

red dog lived to be 16 or 17 years old, dad is 80 and still helping people put up fences, and i'm here typing this, so obviously this didn't take years off anybody's life, but shortly afterwards the neighbor did get a job in another state, 300 miles away.

lessons learned --

red dog: if i want to dig out, i'll just have to start my tunnels back here, instead of up next to the fence [he also learned to tell when the wire was hot and when it wasn't]

me: keep houdini dogs in the house [works just fine with black dog]

but hey, if you've got a quiet saturday afternoon with nothing better to do, go ahead and put up an electric fence, they're not all that much trouble to install.