Busted!

Oken and Zala in the backyard holding pen after the "incident".

I caught him red handed and got a good verbal correction in as well. What a sneaky boy, scooting UNDER the fence instead of over it as I had thought! I suppose thinking out of the box or "out of the fence" should have been the way to go. I just assumed that Oken and Zala jumped the play area fence going after a critter.

Those two were getting their now supervised play time of the day with a few others and I noticed the group heading to a portion of the fence that I didn't suspect the other day. I called them back to me several times as I was in the middle of some lawn work and wanted to get done before I stopped to check it out. Once I finished and began to head that way, I see Oken on his belly, scooting under the fence. I immediately let out one of my famous loud growls accompanied by an "Oken No!" and I ran to secure the others before I ran out after him. At this point, I was fuming but had I continued my scolding, Oken would have come nowhere near me but would most likely run in the opposite direction as he has seen that crazy woman come out in me before and you just don't stick around for it. So, ever so calmly and with a very upbeat tone, I began calling him. He quickly came to me. I opened the fence gate, popped a treat in his mouth and said "Good, Oken!"

He quickly joined the others in the "holding pen" while I did what little securing of the fence I could without the necessary bits. Those will have to be picked up later, but until then, plastic zip ties worked well to secure the fence to the post because, you see, some clever dog decided that if they just chewed off the bottom aluminum fence tie, they could more easily slide under. I've also done what has worked for hole diggers in the kennel. I began collecting the dog poop from the yard and deposited it all along this area of the fence. It should work the same way - one look and the interest goes away. A more proper fix will be to purchase some metal stakes to stake down the bottom of the fence to the ground and for additional durability, I'll weave a metal strip into the fencing all along the bottom. But for now, I've used what I've got and it will work for the short term.

Now the test. Upon letting all dogs out of the holding pen, they made a beeline for the area in question. One look (or maybe sniff) and everyone turned and ran right back. Another hour of yard work and not one more time did I see either of those two wander to that area.