Maggie's Adventures

[Stacy]

So you think you want a smart dog?

It’s all fun and games until the dog outsmarts you! Just last week I was crowing about how smart Maggie is. And she’s definitely smart. I’m not sure how she learns the things she does. Last week at class we were talking about the automatic sit during heel. This week while we’re out for a walk she’s doing it. Before that it was the down command. I had shown her a couple times, but I had really been focusing on sit. And suddenly I said down and she just… laid down. I thought it was a fluke, but she’s repeated it ever since. Stay? No problem. Don’t pee on the carpet? Okay, I won’t.

Then it happens. They outsmart you. The crate is like a Rubik’s cube. Spin this, twist that, she figured out the secret in 5 minutes. She figured out how to open the door to the screen porch. Just jump up and push the handle. Easy peasy. Except she’s in there because I’m mowing the grass. Dogs aren’t allowed in the yard with the mower. She knows when I put on work clothes and then she doesn’t want to come inside.

Monday was the piece de resistance. Let me preface this by saying that some people give me a hard time about the camera I have set up to watch Maggie when I’m gone. They think I’m over the top, and that the dog doesn’t need to be watched. And I agree, to a point. I have a love hate relationship with the camera. I like to know what she’s doing, but there’s only so much I can do about it when I’m not there. So it brings me comfort and it brings me stress.

Sunday night my dad came over and we put a window air conditioning unit in the window in the garage. Maggie’s condo, as I refer to it. I was a little worried because the window unit isn’t as wide as the window, and it has the little plastic accordion things on the side to seal off the rest of the window. But the window is 31” and the actual AC unit is 20.5” That’s only a 10.5” gap. And the unit is centered, so we’re talking about 5.5 inches on either side. It isn’t as secure as I wish it was. But it’s 5.5 inches! She’s a 50 pound dog. And we secured the window unit to the window, so she couldn’t push the actual air conditioner out.

I went to work, and as usual I’m keeping an eye on Maggie. I saw her get up on the table by the AC a couple times, and then she got down. The last time I saw her she was chilling in her recliner. And then it happened. I looked at the camera and Maggie was gone. Air conditioner was there. Doors were shut. But the dog wasn’t there anymore.

I’m not sure how to express the thoughts that went through my head at that moment. I’ve spent so much time and energy trying to keep the dogs safe and to be a responsible dog owner. And to date I’ve never lost a dog. I don’t count the rescue that I chased screaming for three blocks - I could see him the whole time. And then the thought of, if she’s gone I don’t even know where I would begin to look.

At my job you don’t just go home in the middle of the day unless someone is actually dying. Parents don’t go home when their own kids are sick. We just don’t have the staffing for that. But I begged family emergency, (dog emergency? It’s the same thing!) and I left work and came home and Maggie was just hanging in the back yard. She had jumped through this tiny hole, knocked over a propane heater, opened the door to the screen porch and let herself out back. I think she thought it was a pretty fun adventure. I did not think it was a fun adventure. Needless to say, the window is now closed.

I was off work Tuesday and Wednesday, and I thought about it, but didn’t come up with a great solution to the hot garage problem. So when I had to work today I just took a deep breath and left the dog loose in the house. I made sure she pottied before I left and I said a little prayer. It’s been a long time since she had an accident inside. I finally got the carpet smelling better. But it’s carpet. It’s not the end of the world. And to my delight, I came home to a clean house!

Maggie was so proud of herself. Dare I say that she’s potty trained? She’s well on her way. I thought it was hopeless. It wasn’t hopeless, it just took time. Three months tomorrow. Just like everyone said. Maggie challenges me. She keeps me on my toes. She makes me a more creative thinker and a better dog mom.

What a week!

[Stacy]

She really does! She's pretty great!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I love this story. I feel your desperation when you realized Maggie was gone. Oh my gosh, scary. She is one smart girl, and you are really going to have to up your game to keep ahead of her.  However DID she get out of that tiny space??

[Stacy]

Amazing shrinking powers??? That's all I can come up with! I really thought there wouldn't be any way she could get out of that. But I also thought she couldn't get over a 41" gate, and she made that look easy... But the horror that kept playing through my mind as I drove home was that if she could get out of the garage she could get out of the yard too. I don't know how. The yard is secure, but if she wants it badly enough she can do anything. I couldn't just leave her out in the yard and hope for the best. I had to go get her. And of course when you're frantic traffic never moves so slowly.

Life is never boring around here!

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I love this great story.  Go Stacy, go Maggie.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

I love this story!

We gave a camera on our dogs, too. And, I completely understand the comfort/stress part of having one! One day when Indie was having some GI problems, I confined him to the entryway so that he wouldn't have diarrhea on our carpet. The whole day he did just fine- no potties, and no trying to weasel his way around the gate that was keeping him there. Literally 5 minutes before I got off work I watched him move the gate and shimmy his way upstairs... so that he could poop on the carpet! :-)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Our dogs have gone through screens. When we leave I don’t leave windows open in rooms where, if they went through, they would be ‘free.’  When we dogsat a whippet who could climb/leap a 6’ fence, we bought lattice panels, laid them sideways and fastened them to the top of the fence, thus making it taller. 

[Stacy]

I've never had an escape artist before. And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be happy at all if she actually got out. She only thinks she wants out. I'm really glad that she doesn't think she wants to go over the fence. I'm pretty sure that fences taller than 6 feet aren't allowed in my city, or if they are I would need some weird special permit or something.