Ask Me Help Desk - My Blue Healer keeps getting loose!

First of all, thanks for reading this. One of my dogs is a Blue Healer, who is about 7 years old. We used to keep him in a kennel, but he kept escaping! Once he figured out how to scale the fence, her escaped right after we put him back in. We tried putting fencing on top, and he still escaped so we had to tie him up.

Now, he has discovered how to somehow escape from his collar! The same thing has happened, every time we put him on his chain heslips out of his collar! Right now he is locked in a rooom of my dads garage (Around nothing that can harm him, I will add) but he can't stay there forever! (It is the paint room of an auto body garage and cars have to be painted)

I am in an urgent need of help. Is there a special collar I can get or what for this Houdini? (Choke collars are not an option because I personally find them inhumane and he stays outside 24/7 so this would also make for a dangerous aspect of it).

Please help!

By the way, we have tightened the collar to the point if it were any tighter, it would run the rick of choking him. So it isn't that the collar is too lose, it is that the dog will to either be in the garage or run around is stronger than his will to stay where he is supposed to and has most of his life.

Hi, cosmic,
I have known other dogs who are "Houdini's" and it is amazing with how some of them can figure out things!
Have you tried a "Harness"? It's one of those available from Walmart or other larger department stores (cheaper) that go under their front legs, around their body, and "clasp" at the top, and go between their front legs to the "clasp" around the head, like a normal collar.
Here is a link with a picture; look at the picture by the heading "Halt-no tug Dog Harness".
http://shop.petsmart.com/products/25...4302032961.htm

They are made from very tough material, and the dog can't get to them to chew them apart. They can't pry themselves out of it, or pull their head through it.
A larger metal "clamp" can then be used to tie the dog to a strong rope, or even "plastic clothes line" with a strong wiring inside, used as a rope.

Fred is right a harness is about your only hope at this point; it is a shame that you can not keep him in the kennel as chaining dogs sometimes has a deadly out come. With his collar tight as you say it is you will also have to watch that it does not wear into his neck. The only down fall to the harness is if he does a lot of rolling he can pop the snap open that holds him to the chain. Again he will be loose. I have a dog, that learned to do this when she is outside with me and I can not keep an eye on her I will hook her to a tether in the yard and my yard is also fenced, (no touring the town for my dog) it takes her about 20 minutes of rolling around like a crazy beast and she is off, so if I an washing my truck or something else that I do not want her involved in like watering the flower gardens, I have 20 minute to complete it or Miss Piggy is coming to help out. She loves the hose, what a mess.

Have to tried keeping the dog inside with you and hand walking for exercise, once he figures out the harness this will be it and he will have to stay in doors with you.

Thank you all for the suggestions, but we have actually found a solution that lets him be in a kennel. The kennel we were using before was a store bought one from Lowe's or something similar, but we have another kennel built for 3 of out other dogs. The walls are higher and it has a roof over the top of it. We figured out that by moving one of the dogs from the kennel (it is divided into 3 sections. One for each of our cocker spaniels and the other was origionally for our horse of a dog who is a mixture between a collie and possible a lab or retriever, or possibly a german shepherd. Very smart, but also very hyper and extremely large) into another fenced in area until this point we have been keeping a goat in. We are ltting the goat live in a field and also gave her a doghouse. This will giver her fresh grass in the spring, mocha (the huge dog) gets a much larger living space to hopefully burn off some energy, and spike (the blue healer) gets more space to run, gets to be closer to other dogs, and gets to be off the chain. All in all it seems it has worker out for the good of all the animals involved in the switch. By the way, to ensure spike (AKA HOUNDini) won't scale the walls as he did before, we have put chicken wire up to the top of the kennel so he can't get out of the kennel or in with the other dogs (both females).

He has been on a chain most of his life, but this has actually not made him or another dog that we have had for several years mean in any way. I can say given an alternative that I would opt NOT to chain up a dog, but sometimes if one wishes to keep the dog it is unavoidable. It seems many people believe this practice to be a wrong option because it will make the dog mean, but I don't think this is what makes a dog aggressive. I believe the aggression comes from the fact that much of the time people who chain up their dogs are the type of people who pay no positive attention to their dog and treat them horribly. Both of the dogs we have who have been chained up most their lives, Spike and Mark (if you are doing the math, we have 5 dogs total. And a goat. We live on a farm in the country so we have plenty of room for all of them and they all get taken well care of.) , by the way, mark's mom was a malamute and his dad was a wolf, are two of the most loving dogs you will ever meet, and, except for the natural hyperness of Spikes breed, 2 better natured dogs do NOT exist. Both of them love attention and, Mark in particular, will befriend anyone providing we are outside with them (they are both very protective over our family and their "territory" which seemse to expand to an earshot when it comes to other dogs or coyotes barking).

So please don't judge people who tie up their dogs as not loving towards them, and by all means don't assume that because a dog has been tied up they have an aggressive nature!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmic_ryvre

So please don't judge people who tie up their dogs as not loving towards them, and by all means don't assume that because a dog has been tied up they have an agressive nature!

No No no, I was not judging you on the matter of chained dog, I know several people that have healers, they are beyond hyper, to begin with, one of my friend actually had her healer get tangled and hung himself, she was distasted by this, I apologize, if that is what you thought I had meant, I was not judging, I was merely trying to help.