In the dog house / patio/fence debacle

We installed a gate to our patio/backyard to contain the dog. Right? Right.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

She's contained, see?

Well, she WAS contained.

One day, she squeezed through the neighbor's wabbly fence. We took care of that and patted ourselves on the back. All done!

Not quite.

About a week later, she was out. I couldn't figure out how. Until I saw ... THIS ....



STINKIN' DOG broke through the lattice and wiggled out.

THIS IS WAR, I declared.


I went and selected this from the home improvement store. Our buddy had to help get rid of the loops/attachments on the side, but once he did, it fit into the space PERFECTLY.

I, in my typical (Polish) fashion came up with all sorts of complex ways to affix the fence piece to the post. We were walking down the aisle and Erik said 'what about a zip tie?' .... and holy cow, they make zip ties in 2-foot lengths! Genius. I love it when Erik has fabulous yet simple solutions to the issue I'm trying to solve.


Notice how the 'tails/ends' of the zip ties are pointing into the backyard area? This will be important later.

So I put the fence length in and put on just 2 of the ties to see how I liked it. I'd show Erik when he awoke from his nap.

I put the dog outside, and patted myself on the back. I HAD WON.

Then, there was the most awful noise from outside. I'm not sure what exactly was going on, but I go out and someone must have taken the tails/ends and started pulling on them. That or pulling on the fence. AND BROKE THEM. :( :( :(

Let's not talk about how livid I was.


I readjusted and did the zip ties again ... but left the extra on the OUTSIDE of the fence, so the do had nothing to pull on. And I secured it with a tie on the top/bottom of each side. This thing was FAR more stable.


Plus, it covers the hole.

Since the zip-tie mishap, things have been better. Sure, she cries/whines some, but it's actually decreased significantly. I suspect one of the neighbor dogs made fun of her for crying like a baby in the backyard. She will still occasionally whine, but sometimes, she will just sit by the back door and stare at me until I let her out, and then not want to come back in. So I shut the gate and let her roam around.

Everyone *seems* happy with this arrangement.