Canine Fear and Uncertainty

In all this, the dogs have had a great deal of change to contend with: The upheaval as we packed up in Poulsbo, living in several different places at different times, handing them off to my parents for awhile, stowing them in the back of the car for hours at a time.

Through it all they've mostly been troopers. Dogs sleep a lot.

Now, we've been in the RV for a couple of weeks. We have figured out a way so they can have the run of the (falling down) house and deck, with occasional sojourns to the yard for bathroom breaks.

They spend their nights with us in the trailer, and they occasionally go on jaunts to the hardware store or to visit friends.

This has all gone pretty well, with a couple of notable exceptions.

For some reason, Quirk has decided the heating vent in the trailer is the devil. It makes noise. It sucks in air. It's right next to where he was sleeping.

So, he refuses to be anywhere near it. To be clear here, it's a small trailer. It's not actually possible to be very far away from the heating vent. After all, it's in the middle of the tiny living room/kitchen/dining room/lounge area.

He compensates by trying to sidle one hip up onto the couch when he thinks we're not looking, hoping to climb up fully onto the couch as he cowers away from the dreaded vent.

Needless to say, we're all glad to see the warm weather that lets us turn the heat off entirely.

Peach has been unflappable about the heating vent. Her nemesis has a different form: the invisible fence.

We decided to install an invisible fence for the dogs so they could have a space to run around on the lawn unattended.

This is a bit of a hassle, since it involves running wire around a permeter, securing it in the ground so it's not going anywhere, but so we can pick it up and move it when demolition begins, and it involves plugging into electricity - and you know the dilemmas with that at our place.

She started getting nervous when we started playing out the wire off of the spool, running it in a big loop around the yard. Nervous, but not completely freaked out.

Peach didn't start shaking until we put the invisible fence training flags up. These white flags are placed along the wire, so dogs have a visual cue of their boundary. This makes it easier for them to learn the permeter and avoid being shocked by their collars. Sounds good, right?

Wrong. Peach appears to associate the act of LOOKING at the flags with being shocked.

Her approach: do not leave the trailer.

Even when the urge to pee is nearly overwhelming, do not leave the trailer. Let the humans coax, weedle, even hold out food. It's not worth it. Just stay with the trailer and avoid being shocked.

Peach was trained on an invisible fence at our old place in Poulsbo. She was quite young, and even the mildest shock used in training made a BIG impression on her. She shakes and quivers when she has to go out in the yard.

The irony of this is, we can't figure out how to get power to the fence, given our current electrical situation. So, not only is she not wearing a training collar, it wouldn't shock her if she did because the fence isn't "live."

We've tried telling her this, but old habits and associations die hard.

When I pause to think about this, it's like having a big board whack me on the head while saying, "Look at the assumptions you make about things that hold you back, and push on them once in awhile!" Not that I'm eager to do this. I'm just saying there's a big board whacking me on the head.

At the risk of being trite and cliche' I'll throw it out there: What's your invisible fence? And is it really a fence, or is it just a set of warning flags? Food for thought, brought to you courtesy of our canine friends.