I told you all about finding our dog Goodboy, not far from our home along a country road in Florida. Of all the stories I have yet to share about this dog the best was his ways of escaping his dog run and pen. During the day I kept him in a big fenced area so he could run and play.
However, one day he was suddenly out of his fenced area and we could not figure out at first how he got out until we retraced his steps. First thing we noticed he was wet which meant he had gone swimming. The second clue was his big cow bone was laying outside his runway. That meant he had been to his dogpen to get it, but how was the question. We put him back in his fenced area and watched. He waited till he thought we were not looking and then put his nose under the bottom of the stock fence wire and lifted up the fence and squirmed underneath the wire. So he was found out and the story of the escape was solved. Goodboy, wanted to go swimming and once that was done he went and got his big cow bone and attempted to get back under the fence from the outside. But since it was on a hill the return trip did not work and so he got caught.
We patched the fence by putting wire underground thinking the problem was solved. This big dog managed to squeeze out again through an opening in the fence that a beagle could crawl through, by stretching out his hind legs and squirming and pushing and changing directions back and forth until he got through, not under, the fence. It was a real chore just trying to keep Goodboy penned in.
His second best escape came after many years of owning him, and might be the best ever. I had him in a chainlink fence about 7 feet high with no top. He had a large tall doghouse in the pen. Goodboy, was very smart and was often seen looking and almost planning the next escape.
Then again, one day he was outside his pen. By now that pen had been wired solid from top to bottom. We had gone with chainlink, cause no dog could squeeze through those holes, and we felt at the time it was escape proof, until he got out.
This was a big puzzle and it was as if he knew it and was not going to share this secret with anyone. We checked and rechecked the pen, it was impossible there was no way out that we could find. We were baffled, until one day by accident the escape was seen.
This big 80 pound dog squeezed in a tiny 8 inch narrow gap between his doghouse and the fence, and pushed his back against the doghouse and climbed up the chainlink fence with his feet. He slid his back up the side of the doghouse until the top of the roof was met, and then somehow threw himself over the peak of the doghouse roof and calmly jumped over the 7 foot high fence. If we had not seen it personally we would have never believed that it was even possible. Goodboy was an amazing dog and escape artist. The 7 foot fence was made 9 feet high and the doghouse was moved to the center of the pen. The great escapes stopped and we breathed a sigh of relief.
