Cindy S.'s Page

My doggies are multigeneration labradoodles from Olympic Labradoodles in Seattle. They are just the best!!! I am now trying to make a decision whether to get an electric fence. We have nine acres, and most of it is woods, with wonderful smells, squirrels, chipmunks, swamps, etc., etc. Quinn (the older black dog) when he was an only dog, would hang around the yard, and once and awhile venture into the woods, but not far. Suzie Q. is the escape artist, and she just LOVES to run, the faster the better. So she will hang around, then see something and boom! like a cannon she is gone! And Quinn follows her! MOST of the time they come back after fifteen or 20 minutes (and I never let them out unless I am in the garden and outside). Well, two weeks ago they were gone for 2 hours!!!!! I almost died! Last night they were gone for an hour, with me yelling my fool head off and blowing my whistle (which they will sometimes come to). And when they come back, Suzie Q. especially is COVERED in mud!!! She'll come back first and then Quinn comes sauntering back taking his sweet time. I hate to put in an electric fence, because of the shocking, but mainly I think of it as evidence of my failing to train them properly. I have taken them to many classes, Quinn is a Canine Good Citizen, and Suzie Q. is very smart and well behaved except for this, which is a BIG thing, I know. We live down a long driveway, almost a half a mile, and they venture in the woods. I just don't know what to do. I am afraid that if I put in the fence, she will run right through it, or they won't be able to run free and like crazy dogs like they love to do. Any one have any thoughts??? thanks!!!

Oh, you can't see Quinn in the background! Those black labradoodles are so handsome in person but just don't show up well in pictures! I will try and add some more pictures of them. They are wonderful Olympic Labradoodles - Quinn, named after Shari O'Quinn, their breeder and Suzie Q., well, because she looks like a Suzie Q.!!!!