Fences are for Jumping

We’ve been blessed with a number of sunny days to start December. Combined with me flexing my work schedule a bit, we were able to get the dogs to the dog park 5 days in a row.

The first 4 days, we went to our favorite park, Grandview. But on day 2, a man going out the back gate accidentally let Junebug out. Larry instantly followed her by going over the fence. It took 5-10 minutes to get them both back in the bark. Because the lightly wooded area there has way too many good smells.

Day 3, Larry went over the fence in that part again. Because June didn’t get to escape, it only took us leashing her and walking away to get him to come back over. Then, at the other end of the park, he once again decided to go over a fence to explore a stream. And also again, our way to get him back was to move June away from where he was and call him. He came back muddy, but he came back quickly.

Day 4, Larry went over the fence in the back part 2 times, the fence in the front once, with June finding a whole and running in the muddy creek with him. He came back over the fence, but C had to climb over and get June himself. Luckily, other than the muddy creek, this area is pretty small and actually completely contained via good fences at the top of the hill where the parking lot is.

Then the dogs decided to run down along the fence along the far backside of the park. We used to frequent this area, but it’s close to the Beagle Eating Hill™ and have started to avoid it in order to avoid losing June for 20 minutes at a time.

The dogs skipped the Hill entirely, but went out that far back corner and started down another hill that leads toward a busy road. I was able to convince the dogs to come back in the park (but not to get close enough for me to leash. Naturally, they went straight up the hill (where the fence ends) and I was afraid they would loop back around.

This time they didn’t and ran straight to C who was at the top of the hill. He let them in through another gate there, and while they didn’t get close enough for him to grab, they went straight from him to J who was there with us. He managed to get one leash on both dogs until I could make my way up to the level they were on with the second leash.

We’ve stopped going to nearly half of that giant park in order to avoid having the dogs lose themselves on the Beagle Eating Hill™. At this point, though, I think I may prefer that area, as it is at least fully contained in the dog park. I may not be able to get them to come down, but at least I know where they are. After this, it doesn’t seem like there is any place in Grandview that’s safe for them at the moment.

So day 5, we headed back to Westcrest Park in West Seattle, where the fences are higher and there don’t appear to be any bunnies living in the underbrush.