Escape artist Jake

We've had Jake now for 3 weeks and overall he's quite cute, but he's starting to drive me nutsos with his escape artist routine. Jake is a 2 yr old yellow lab found as a stray, and now I know why. He loves to hang around people and he's good indoors although he is constantly doing something (eating soil, chewing ornaments, ripping apart stuffed dog toys, playing tug-o-war with Max). He is extremely mischievious but also very cute and sweet. He'll climb right on top of you for attention and licks all of your face.

In the last couple of weeks though there must be a lot of wildlife moving around outside. He's gotten out from a hole in the wire once, which we immediately fixed. He's also gotten out once by digging under the wire and shoving his body through, making him extremely muddy. The good thing is those two times he came back when we called for him. Last night was a completely different story. We let them outside and he got out through a small hole (no deeper than about 3 inches) and went traipsing about in the woods behind our house. We kept calling him since we could see and hear him but he refused to get near us. I finally took the car and went to the other neighborhood calling for him while Mike continued to look in the woods behind the house. When I called Jake, Mike finally heard his collar jingle again and so Mike called for Jake. This time Jake went running straight to Mike and we had to really towel him down after his trek through the very muddy stream.

Needless to say three times is it! So last night we took him out the front yard on a 30 ft leash and brought him back in. This morning I figured I'd go out back with the dogs and play some ball, thinking that Jake wouldn't wander around since he enjoys playing ball. Boy was I wrong! There must be some serious wildlife smells because after one throw, Jake dropped the ball and went running all over the backyard and the fence areas. He tried to get under the fence several times while I was watching and yelling at him. At least the yelling caught his attention and he stopped digging to get out, but we know now that he's completely distracted when he's outside and pretty much ignores us. I had to chase him around the yard to finally catch him and bring him back inside. Time to start letting him out front on a leash, especially at night.

Some pretty cute pictures of Jake are here. As you can see, he's a very cute dog and overall a sweetie-pie. It's just that I'm still a bit peeved at our non-anticipated adventure from last night and this morning.

Comments