“If you’ve got any advice for me on that topic I’d love to hear it.”
Other than building him a secure and dig-proof, jump-over proof enclosure, he’s gonna want to roam.
Once our puppies are old enough to be sold, they go into a kennel in the Kennel Shed, or have their own doggy condo in the barn yard with a long chain.
Oh, there is WHINING and CRYING and WAILING and HOWLING - but they eventually settle down and get with the program and integrate into the Pack.
Dogs in the Kennel Shed get to go out into the exercise yard daily. If you jump the fence or dig under it, you go into an outside doggy condo. Each dog is different. And usually the ones that are ‘escape artists’ ARE the ones that end up being our best hunters. They’re smarter than the others and can easily figure things out.
You probably want to invest in a tracking/training collar for Howard if you want him to run around freely. Beau always did that with our Beagle, ‘Chief.’
We are miles away from any traffic, but that doesn’t mean our dogs won’t cross a road or two if they make a run for it. Haven’t lost ANY that way so far. Thank goodness!
So far, so good with Howard staying in his enclosures. I have one pen that’s ~20’x30’ with a big dog house inside. That’s where he spends the night. The section of fencing where the gate is located is only 4’ high. I’m sure he could jump/climb over if he got the notion.
I’ve got another section of yard fenced off that’s 50’x50’. The fence around that is 5’ high and is gated to the deck that wraps around Mrs. Augie’s sun room. He’s happier there than he is in the other pen so I’ve been letting him use that spot during the day.
So far he hasn’t shown much interest in digging, which is a good thing. Our yard is already full of holes from my Aussie and #1 Marine Daughter’s doberman digging moles out of the ground. It’s a rare to go more than three or four days without finding a dead mole in the grass here.
I’ve got a remote-controlled training collar on the way. I tried the bark collar on him a few days ago. Forgot to shut off the shock function before I put it on him. He barked once, got zapped, and didn’t bark again until I removed the collar. That particular collar beeps when you shut off the power... Howard was sitting on my feet when I did that... the collar beeped and he yipped like he’d been whacked with a broom handle. Poor guy gave me the “what did I do to deserve that?” look. I haven’t used that collar on him since, but if/when I need to I’ll make sure the shock is disabled.