Escape Artist!

[kiwigirl]

Hi! I need some ideas for my Border Collie. Bran is 14 months, and earlier this year (we live in New Zealand, so it was autumn) he started being kept in an outdoor run while people were away from home during the day. We far prefer this to tying him up. At first the run was made from a type of chicken wire, which he (surprise surprise) got through pretty quick. That was replaced with a wooden trellis, and we started putting him in there at night. We also added a second fence to keep him in a smaller area at night, an area that was also raised off the concrete. Then he managed to break out one day by removing three horizontal pieces and climbing out and over his kennel. Next it was a lovely Bran shaped hole by the door. Then he figured out somehow how to open up the inside gate and then out the hole. Finally we fixed the hole and added a second latch on the inside gate, so tonight he went back in.

It took a few minutes for me to hear whining and the sound of wood breaking. When I looked after 10 minutes he was already out of the night area. He managed to somehow break the top corner of the small gate and crawl through, and I think was very lucky not to do any damage to himself.

So once again he is spending the night inside the laundry in his crate.

We are at our wits end. Suggestions?

[teresaserrano]

Maybe for some reason it's not practical for you, but couldn't he stay inside the house with you at night? Bc's are very owner oriented and vallue being with their person above everything else. Tess is an inside dog ans has stellar behaviour in the house - which we worked a lot on, of course. She sleeps with me, in my bed actually, but if for some reason I don't want her to i just don't invite her up and she has no problem sleeping on the floor. I can see she really values being allowed to spend the night near me, and it contributes a lot to our strong bond.

 

If it's important that he stays outside, I don't know how you can fix it... but it's, as you know, a dangerous situation when he will do his best to get out of the kennel.

 

Tess stayed in her crate, when alone in the house, till she was 18 mo. She was perfectly comfortable with it. Now she has free run of the house, no problems.

[waffles]

Do they not sell dog kennels in New Zealand? I can't imagine anything made of wood or chicken wire will contain a dog. Dog kennels here in the U.S. can be bought pre made at the store or have a fence company come install one. They're made of chain link fencing and can be anything size you wish and a top can be added for climbing dogs.

 

Other than that, why can't he be inside the house with you? Crates are great options for when you can't be home with him or at night. Is he getting enough stimulation, mental and physical during the day? Or is he trying to break out because of boredom or being alone a lot?

[gcv-border]

Yes, I agree with waffles. You should be upgrading the materials used to build the kennel. Assume the worst and build for that. (Note: whenever I build something, I always opt to over-build (stronger, larger and/or more enduring materials) if I can fit it in the budget.)

 

I also keep my dogs in at night.

[GentleLake]

I don't know what it's like in NZ, but with all the dog flipping (stealing for profit) in the US and GB, I wouldn't leave a dog outside at night or when I'm not home either.

[Chanse]

Yeah, theft in the US and UK (and probably Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc? I only know about the articles I've read and those are usually US and UK) is frightening. Moving on to the problem though, upgrading materials is probably always a good idea. I was also wondering if anyone has ever tried doing crate training techniques for the kennel? I feel like the main problems is that the dog wants to get out. I imagine that spending some time to train the behavior that you would like to see in the kennel would be helpful. Do some stuff to make the dog like the kennel, like crate games or something. Just an idea.