It was a rough weekend in Paint Lick, Kentucky. I spent a big chunk of Saturday straightening out the kennel situation and doing yard work with all the dogs. I left the kennel about 1:30 and then came back around 4:00 to feed everybody. When I went to feed Dillie she was AWOL. She had climbed out of her six foot high run and headed out to parts unknown. Spent a couple hours riding the roads around the kennel looking for her to no avail. Checked at the kennel a couple of times that evening to see if she’d found her way back but she didn’t show. Yesterday we put a whole bunch more miles in on the roads and still no Dillie. Finally decided to work the other dogs in hopes that Dillie would come in to us.
This turned out to be a good day to run dogs and everyone got some ground time as we figure out how best to utilize the 450 acres available on the farm were on. The high yesterday was 50 and it was perfect weather for running dogs. The first dog out of the truck was Spot who ran up a hill behind one of the many barns and locked up in a little patch of cover. When Katie and I got close a covey of at least 2 dozen quail blew out in front of him. That’s covey number 2 on the farm and I’m sure we’ll find more. When we were headed to our third spot, Katie spotted Dillie out in the field and I jumped out and yelled to her. She took one look at us and decided she wasn’t ready to come in and went over the hill. We split up in hopes of corralling her and Katie saw her one more time and then she disappeared. Took a break for lunch as we had no idea which way she took off. Later that day, I ran Dottie in that general area in hopes of seeing Dillie again but all we got for our trouble was a lot of blood as Dottie nicked the tip of her left ear and was covered in blood. We finally got it stopped for awhile by soaking a towel in an almost frozen creek and applied cold and pressure. When she came out of the box back at the kennel, she shook her head and her ear started bleeding again. She’s fine today but there sure seemed like a lot of blood.
Spot enthusiastically taking an edge after pointing his first covey of wild quail.
This morning I got a text from the farm that Dillie was found in the shed sharing the farm dog’s bed. They were able to entice her into the workshop with some food and then locked her in. It’s always good to get one back.
Dillie this morning back at the kennel.
So, with Dillie back I needed to spend some time today creating a more secure space for her. In between I spent some time with her on a check cord. Used coated garden fencing over the top of three kennels ganged together and put her in the middle one with the other two puppies on either side. I won’t tempt fate and say she can’t get out, but it’s going to be a lot harder. Fortunately it was a rainy day here in Central Kentucky so beefing up security seemed like a good project. Here’s the results.
It took a lot of zip ties, but it should be pretty tough to break out.
Looking forward to a really nice stretch of weather here. And hope to have Dillie collar conditioned soon so we can put some of her energy to work.