And With A Leap, He Exits Stage Left

A couple of weeks ago we made the decision to stop sending Ollie to dog camp. It was a lot harder for me than hubby since hubby thought that dog camp was too foo-foo-la-la anyway. Whatever. I looked at it as a way for Ollie to socialize with other dogs a couple of times a week. Especially now that we have Claire. ESPECIALLY because remembering to take him to the dog park is a lot of work for us.

The unfortunate side effect of our decision is that Ollie has been extremely rambunctious. If he doesn't get in a walk at least once a day he begins bouncing off of the walls. Nevermind if the weather is horrific for days on end. That only makes the situation worse because come that first day of sunshine he is putting on his own collar and is waiting for us to unlock the door. It must be noted that we have a fairly big backyard and Ollie has free access to it via his doggie door, but apparently that isn't enough. He is our little prince and that part of his personality has only been slapping us in the face now that Claire is older and demands more of our attention as well.

Today has been a fairly low-key day and I kept trying to get Ollie to understand that a walk wasn't going to happen. Usually one day a week we just don't do much except hang around the house and do as little as possible. Today happened to be one of those days. I don't think Ollie understood. Actually, I know he didn't understand because he left us a little surprise when we returned from grocery shopping.

It's usually known that an owner's dog gets excited when the owner comes back home and the dog will usually greet its owner at the door. Not our dog. It depends on his mood. Sometimes he'll just hang out on our bed or his bed (in our bedroom) and wait for us to approach him. Today, when we returned home we didn't get a greeting. After finishing with the groceries I head into the bedroom and notice that Ollie wasn't anywhere in sight. Red flags starting going off in my head. So I check the other rooms, then head downstairs. OY!! His doggie door was left open. This has happened before... sometimes we forgot to close his doggie door when we leave and when we return and he sees us from the yard, he'd come shooting through the door to greet us. Except this time I didn't see a flash of gray streaking through the yard. So now I run out and start calling his name. Within seconds I hear our neighbour shout "He's over here!" WHAT??!?

I run out front to meet up with our neighbour. Apparently, as she was leaving the house she saw Ollie in her driveway. She tried our house but no answer so she brought him into her house to hang out. What concerned me most is that we both noticed that the yard gates were closed, which means the buggah jumped the fence. Never has he done that before. Never in the 6 years of his life has he jumped the fence because he has always known better and honestly, he is too cautious of a dog. But I guess the lack of play is making him more bold in many ways. I'm still so angry and yet grateful that he's ok. And I am so appreciative of our neighbour for watching him.

If anything, this was a big wake-up call for us. As much as hubby dislikes my planning, I am going to plan that Ollie is taken to the dog park no less than twice a week so he can play with other pups and get his energy out because I can't have this happen again. It's also a note for us to replace our back fence too. See, after this past winters intense snow bombing (5 feet dumped in a weeks time), the weight of the snow destroyed our fence so it's now easier for him to jump it if he is so inclined. And now he is inclined too.

argh.