NIco

Last September my oldest boy decides that he would like to start volunteering.  His dad and I thought that it was a great idea, but could only think of one place for a 10 year-old boy to volunteer at.  So off to the animal shelter we went.  He signed some papers and started immediately.  He was to walk dogs and pet cats.  Easy enough. The downside to volunteering at the animal shelter, you want to bring your work home with you.  And we did.

We already had a dog named Chase.  We have had him longer then we have had the kids, he is pushing 13, and knew that a pup would help in the transition when Chase leaves us.  In comes Nico.  All of us fell for him immediately.  What a lover.  We doubt he was a year old when we got him, but already house trained, knew basic commands and was very submissive.  Who knew he was going to be so much work.

We have an awesome dog run lined with lilacs that our older dog never complained about.  It is big, shaded and you have a view of the world.  Will Nico stay in it???  I wish.  Who knew a dog could climb so well.  We added a cable run to the inside of his dog run.  He still would jump the fence.  Then he would be stuck on the other side in need of rescuing.  He learned to pull out of his collar.  We tried a harness, he chewed it off.  A couple of weeks ago we noticed him getting out a lot more.  We would go out to the run and find his collar hook to a branch and him gone.  Four times he did this and always on the same branch.  We cut the branch off.  We caught him hooking his collar to another branch, backing out of it and over the fence he went.  After having the mail lady complain, the police leave notice on our door and multiple trips around the neighborhood looking for him we had to do something more extreme.  Yesterday we put up an invisible fence with a shock collar. 

As you have probably already figured out, this dog is smart.  We showed him the collar and then put it on him.  He got zapped almost immediately.  While we were fine tuning it, not wanting to hurt him, he kept finding places he could get through.  He also was willing to just risk it and run.  By the end of the evening he was understanding his place was in our yard.  Lets hope that this continues to work.

Today I am thankful for pound-puppies.  We have gotten two of the best dogs from the pound and wouldn't have it any other way.