Bad Doggy

Django is the first dog in my life. I got him 13 years ago when he was 10 weeks old. He is a typical pomeranian, very happy and very energetic. I kept waiting for his puppy energy to wain and I am still waiting. When he was a puppy we did all the usual training. Puppy class, Adult Dog I and Adult Dog II at the Humane Society. He knows several commands and he will follow them, when he feels like it. He knows he is not allowed on the couch and he stays off unless there is a foreign object. I set my computer case on the couch and left the room, when I returned Django made himself quite comfortable. It's as if he tells himself, "Hey if that thing is allowed up there then I am too."

For years Django would escape from the yard. If the gate popped open he would escape. He always came back within two hours, but I would spend the whole two hours driving around town looking for him. We live on the main thoroughfare and he is a small black dog. I worried about him being hit by a car. Sometimes he came home after rolling around in the neighbors horse stalls. Somtimes he came home soaking wet from wading in the creek. Late in life he figured out that we live two blocks from a deli and I knew that all I had to do was wait at the deli and he would show up. There came a point though where I had secured the yard, fixed the gate, filled all the holes under the fence and he was still escaping on a regular basis.

I decided to stake him out. I put him outside and watched through a crack in the blinds. He laid on the front porch for a long time. He stood up, stretched, looked around him to see if anyone was watching and walked up to the four foot high dog fence and started climbing paw over paw. He got to the top and was balancing as he was about to jump down to freedom when I grabbed him. Bad doggy.