Mia & Bella meet PetSafe—09/25/2006
Freedom and Safety are our utmost concern when it comes to our German Shepherds. We purchased an invisible fence from PetSafe which has allowed our pups the same freedoms of roaming, investigating, playing & guarding their home & property without us having to worry about them getting into trouble in the woods or in the street. We had a horrific electrical storm here which blew the adapter apart—and right off the wall—wiping out the transmitter along with it! Luckily, PetSafe replaced it free of charge. We had planned a motorcycle trip to NY in July in celebration of my grandmother’s 99th birthday and were very thankful that the replacement arrived just days prior to our departure. Besides the exorbitant cost, we felt that our shepherd pups would do better if they were permitted to go about their daily routine of roaming the property instead of being put into a kennel. With friends & neighbors coming daily to refill food & water dishes, play ball and refill our shepherds’ beloved wading pool, we were confident that our dogs would do well.
In our absence, Bella remained her ol’ goofy self—having managed to “escape” to the neighbors by “squeeeezing” through the zone, while clearly getting zapped—(we later found her collar’s battery was low) but still worth a trip to play with the neighbors’ dog and/or in the neighbors trash while friends noticed that Mia had stopped eating & would only venture out to see who was coming down the drive, “Oh. It’s you;” And upon her utter disappointment, ambled back onto the screened porch. Whenever Mia gets mad, she tends to take it out on Bella by pushing, nipping & yapping at her—Joe & I could just “hear” Mia saying, “See there, Bella, it’s all your fault; You messed the carpet one too many times!” and “I TOLD you not to cross the zone to see the neighbors’ dog!—Now you’ve done it; they’ve been gone for years!” During our absence there had been a lot of electrical storms, rain and flooding. After having been gone a full week, the dogs were ecstatic to see us. We were thankful not only for our good friends and neighbors, but other than Mia now sticking to me like peanut butter & having suffered some weight loss, neither are any the worse for wear & happy to have us home!
In August, we continued to have electrical storms like I have never seen prior to now. I can only describe it as being like those balls of electricity we’ve seen in malls & specialty stores—the electricity becomes stronger as the hands are passed over it. Before I could reach the three miles home from the store to unplug the system, the lightening zapped the transmitter & adaptor once again. Through my negligence, busy work schedules & in view of some personal health issues, I failed to return the damaged items to PetSafe as had been requested. One can imagine my reticence in calling about a 2nd replacement. But PetSafe was yet again, very calm & courteous & happy to resend a 2nd one, telling me to send back the two damaged ones together. And, being once burned, twice shy, I decided to purchase a surge kit from them to prevent the system from being damaged in the future. Our shepherds were having quite a heyday. Mia has always kept about 10 feet from the zone, while goofy, hard-headed Bella, continues testing its limits on a daily basis. “Maybe it will be off, today!” she seems to say. We often think she actually enjoys a quick ‘zap!’ as she conveys her air of care-free chuckling, “Yuk, yuk!” and frolics within the zone. Lol Yet, I must mention that both German Shepherds are so intelligent that should I yell out, “FLAGS!” even in a gallop, they will slam on the brakes and sit. Too funny!
The replacement finally arrived—except the adapter which is needed to make everything functional. Well, Bella and Mia had a grrrrrreat time stealing the neighbors’ trash, dog dishes & towels off the line, while heartily chasing the deer & other wild animals, chastising box turtles and romping down the street…they were busy, the naughty girls!
Oh, yeah, it was bad! One day while we were out, we had another horrific lightening storm. In their fright, both dogs went straight through the back screen door. When we returned home, (and being that they haven’t a lick of common sense), they bolted straight for the headlights & STOP—all I can think of is that animated movie, “DON’T GO TO THE LIIIIIIIGHT!” *!smack!*! Does anyone out there know how to prevent our shepherds from doing this before they get hurt? Fortunately their eyes glow green and their tan fur color resembles a deer—they were soaked to the bone and covered in dirt. Grrrrr! We just don’t have enough dog towels!
In the interim, with the two of them now using the broken screen door as a doggy door, I am ecstatic when I see the UPS has left a package at the gate—it’s the ADAPTOR! I decide that I should hook it up before departing for my customer’s app’t; Everything is ready and the collars are on the pups. As usual, Mia & Bella follow me into the house. As I begin to lock up the doors, I hear, “click, click, click!” and I think, “Surely NOT!” when all of a sudden Bella starts, “Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!” as I could clearly HEAR, “Snap, snap, snap!” as she was continuously hit with quick successions of surges of electricity—I could scarcely get the collar off fast enough as she writhed in pain—and I’m still unsure how I didn’t get lit up myself; I can only surmise that there is no metal on her collar, other than the license tag itself. She immediately started licking me all over as if to say, “Whatever it was I did, I’m so sorry!”—while Mia sat about 7 feet away looking as if she was saying, “I don’t know what she did, but I don’t want any part of it!” Poor girls! It’s a wonder it didn’t stop her little heart! I immediately took off their collars & unplugged the adapter & surge kit until we could find out the cause. Since Joe is savvy with electricity, we found that the 2 wires need to be twisted as we did in creating the loop. I have since written to PetSafe to suggest this info be included in the directions to help prevent future mishaps. Until tomorrow’s dig….Pamela