Yesterday afternoon we received an email notice from our doggie daycare provider notifying all of their clients about a recent incident. Four dogs escaped. Two were immediately recovered waiting just outside the fence, and the other two were found a couple blocks away when they ran to another doggie daycare facility they were familiar with. So luckily, no dogs were lost or injured. I applaud the business for taking ownership of the incident and getting in front of it by notifying all clients and being honest.
What really got to me, however, was a reminder of my number one piece of advice I share with all new dog owners. Dogs have all the time in the world to focus on whatever their objective is, and those objectives are typically fairly limited. Dogs like to run, eat, play, chew, dig, etc. So when a dog decides he wants something, he’s going to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to achieve that goal. This is why your dog is smarter than you. Imagine if you focused all your energy on a single objective. You didn’t have to worry about work, bills, chores, family, etc. You didn’t watch television, read books, or play internet games. If all you did was focus all your time and energy on a small handful of goals and the rest of life was pretty much taken care of for you, you could expect some amazing success.
This is how it is for dogs. The story from the doggie daycare was a perfect example. The company recently expanded their operation by building on an additional couple thousand square feet of space. So you have a company who is focused on minding dogs and are obviously familiar with dog behavior. In addition, this space they built was designed very specifically to house dogs. This wasn’t some random warehouse that they just moved into or converted. And then you have the dogs. According to the report it was one dog who found a loose panel in the new fence and broke it out. The other three dogs followed. This one dog, for some reason, wanted to get out of the play area and set about figuring out a solution to his goal. Who knows how long it took or how many hours he spent looking for the vulnerability, but the fact remains he found a soft spot in the security and executed a successful break.
So when you have a new dog in your house, and you set about puppy-proofing to protect both your dog and your possessions, don’t be surprised to learn you just didn’t do it well enough. Crate-training is always helpful, but if you’re looking to leave your dog home alone, definitely don’t just put up some gates and assume the dog can’t figure out a way around them. The best solution is to put your safeguards in place while you’re still home, and that way you’ll be able to catch the dog exploiting any vulnerabilities and work on a better solution. Plus, you should be able to limit any potential damage or harm before it is too late.
(Creative Commons photo courtesy Wendy, Flickr)
