My dog Houdini

Above is a picture of my (newest) dog, Jackal, or as he has become known recently "Houdini". He is not as innocent as he looks here.

As spring rolled in I thought it would be a great idea to try and tune up the backyard and fix the patches of grass that had been ruined by a full winter of Canine "gifts". There are several patches of dead grass and holes all over the place. I worked for a couple of weeks landscaping, planting trees and building rock gardens to try and beautify the place. I have two ongoing problems though, the dogs.

First thing they did was start leg upping my new cedar trees, digging through the fresh soil and compost that I had put around them and removing the stones from the rock garden, and of course leaving their "landmines" everywhere. I decided to build a pen. I paced out the size and figured a space of 16 feet by 12 feet would be enough. I got a 4 foot tall roll of fencing and the necessary posts, a hardware pack for the gate and a ton of staples.

I put the thing together without incident (still ten fingers and toes) and put a layer of round stone for the base, that way the pen doesn't become a mud pit when it rains. I filled it with some toys, a water dish and a tree stump for their marking. It looked nice and I was ready to hem the dogs in. I put them inside and they spent the next few hours sniffing and running around the place, they looked happy.

We went back in the house and they ran around inside for a while. I got tired of it and said "hey I’ll just lock em up outside, it's a beautiful day!" So I did. Not 20 minutes later, I hear a scratch at the door. Jackal is there waiting to get in the house. WTF?

I put him back in to see how he was escaping. He was literally climbing the fence, and jumping down. Not bad for a 6 month old, but unacceptable to me. I built a foot long extension to the top that leaned back into the pen, like a backstop for baseball. It took him a day, but he found his way out. He got on his hind legs and pulled himself up to the top then climbed out again.

After contemplating tying weights to his paws, Built a 2 foot wooden railing on top of what has become my Auschwitz-like abode for the lil (expletive)s. A few days passed with no jailbreaks. but magically, Houdini ended up on the steps a few days ago, again, this time with the small dog right behind him. WTF?

Still unsure of how but Wife told me that Jackal can open the gate... Yes, he opens it for both of them now. So this weekend I may put a roof on the damn thing and barbed wire around the perimeter. Failing that I will just let them loose and try to beautify the 16 by 12 space that they seem so determined to vacate, and lock myself in there with the bar-b-q and my patio set.