Cedric Houdini, teaching the others!

[Janelise]

This morning I let the dogs out as usual and was shocked to see, from the kitchen window, three running down the drive: Naïcha, a ruby and a black and tan. I assumed the ruby was Cedric, but was unsure about the black and tan. I grabbed three leads and followed them: they were at the side of the horses’ field, not too close to the electric fence, and all came back when they saw me. I didn’t need to put the leads on as they followed me back to the house and the two Cavaliers came in the front door with no need for commands. I then realised that I was still missing Maxim and Goldi, so this time put on my wellies and a jacket: there had been a “wet” frost and I thought I might need to walk in the fields. Half way drown the drive I realised Melody was running along the fence beside me, in the “garden”: “I’m just going to find the others” I told her and a few minutes later she was trotting by my side, so I put a lead on her and continued walking. I can’t say she’d come to help me: I think she just didn’t like being left behind with the doors closed so she couldn’t go in the house. There was no sign of the missing dogs but I could hear barking quite a way off down the road and wondered if they’d gone further than ever before and met other dogs or even as far as the kennels. About to head off in that direction I was quite surprised to hear running on the gravel and there were Naïcha and Maxim galloping down the drive towards me! “We’re going home” I said in a stern voice and they all followed me, although I had to get a lump of cheese to bribe Naïcha into the house. I then had a good look at the fence. Cedric had actually unravelled the wire mesh of the liner fence, and undone the chain link sufficiently to make a big gap! I covered over the space with a large rigid fence panel and wired it to the fence posts. When I went inside I realised I’d left Naïcha in the kitchen and my breakfast on the worktop – naturally the breakfast was no longer there.

A little later I went to hang out some washing and saw Cedric on the other side of the fence, and Naïcha was scrabbling at the fence, clearly trying to get through to follow him. I went through the house and told him to get back in the house NOW, which he did, and found he had dug a little burrow underneath the fence. The weather isn’t right at the moment, but I think I’ll need to get the concrete mixer going and concrete the base of the fence all the way round. I have also learnt a lesson: chain link is no good if a dog wants to get out as they can unravel it, but so far none have managed to get through the rigid wire panels.

Naïcha now wants a cuddle: she keeps coming into the office where I’m sitting and putting her paws or head on my knee. Now she has slipped under the desk and is lying on top of the Cavaliers already there: she’ll get at a cuddle from them, if not me!

It is no surprise my hair is going grey!

Jane

[ByFloSin]

I would have expected your hair to turn bleached white after those little escapades Jane. Cedric is surely worthy of his Houdini title.

I had no idea Cavaliers could unravel that sort of fencing. Fortunately where I live we all use wooden lap fencing otherwise there would be a mass escape from the Cavaliers in this house at the very least, ably led by Winston Alexander, aka 'the locksmith', aka 'Burglar Winny'

[julieb7]

OMG... Little Houdini's My hair would have definitely gone white!!!!

[Dorothy]

Oh my gosh, Jane. You certainly have your hands full. I've found "escape artists" will stop at nothing to explore the outside world. My Cavs were creating quite a racket a couple of weeks back and when I went out to quieten them I saw a dog on the pavement, thought it was the Jack Russell from over the road,then the tail moved and I saw the fringe - 10-month old Amber!! How had she got there? Could only have been THROUGH the fence, I have a precast wall, they're very popular here, all sorts of fancy designs, mine being the "table leg" and she had been able to get through where the pattern made it a little bit wider! Big scare, because although the pavement is 12 metres wide with three street oak trees as well as my shrubs and garden beds, this is a very busy road at certain times of the day as it is the access for a high school, two primary schools and two nursery schools in the neighbourhood! Thank goodness that by the time I'd switched off the electric fence (on top of my precast), fetched the gate keys and gone out onto the pavement she was still this side and came to me as soon as I called her. A thousand rand later I have plastic netting right along the inside of all the open patterns! And double on the portion of fence which separates the front garden from the small area of the driveway which I had already gated off so that a car can be driven in/out with the dogs having no immediate access to that small area! But any form of relaxation on my part remains a thing of the past!
Dorothy

[Janelise]

Amber sounds a little character!

What puzzles me is WHY Cedric wants to go out, (thankfully) he never goes very far and often just goes round to the front door and barks to be let back in again! The late Vincent, at the old house, used to climb over the fence, wander round the field and then climb back. Google Earth Street view caught him crossing the driveway ;-)

Jane

[Mark Ellis]

Amber sounds a little character!

What puzzles me is WHY Cedric wants to go out, (thankfully) he never goes very far and often just goes round to the front door and barks to be let back in again! The late Vincent, at the old house, used to climb over the fence, wander round the field and then climb back. Google Earth Street view caught him crossing the driveway ;-)

Jane

What little terrors you have Maybe Cedric thinks he's a cat, and just likes to disturb you. Maybe you need a dog run within the garden - perhaps with a front door in the middle for Cedric to wait at

[Janelise]

I like the idea of a door for Cedric to wait at, but don't think he be fooled. When I say my “garden” it isn't really a correct description, it is really just a big dog run about 36 metres square under the fences of which Cedric is so adept at digging holes. My garden (with flowers etc.) is only a small fenced area at the front of the house, accessible only from my room which makes it perfect for baby puppies when they take their first forays into the open air. I have other land which is unfenced but could not possibly dignify it by the term “garden”, there is a big area of rough grass, reclaimed field, and another that I had ploughed and levelled and managed a small crop of purple sprouting broccoli and a lovely display of cosmos, but I couldn’t keep the weeds down so this year it became more of a wild flower meadow, full of cornflowers - and thistles. The photo is from Google Earth, before my driveway was completed, so I’ve roughly put it in red and the dogs’ run fence in blue and the front garden fence in white, which, as can be seen from the photo with the daffodils, it is.

I bought fencing to make two small adjoining runs at the back of the house, one with the door opening from the utility room and the other from the dog room, with gates from each into the big run, so that I could let the dogs out in the mornings and evenings and not worry about what they were doing: the plan was to have paving blocks too so that they would not come in with muddy feet. I can hire a mini digger locally to level the ground for the blocks, and there is a man with a van who advertises that he can carry heavy goods from the various builders’ merchants in the area, so transport is not a problem. One big merchant, Bricodepot, has those paving blocks (photo below) that jigsaw together for 9.90€ a square metre! Unfortunately it’s nearly an hour away on the outskirts of Bordeaux, but it does hire out flat-bed trucks that can be driven on a normal car licence, fee by the hour so not very cheap by the time one has been loaded and unloaded and the return journey made. The fence is a two person job to put up (the posts need to go deep and be set into concrete, and the panels are quite long and unwieldy for one person) but am unable to find anyone interested in the job: for most it is too small and others would only do it if they were providing the fencing. The chap who put the chain link fence up and also helped with the fence for the small front garden has moved away and I’ve learnt that he has subsequently died. The fencing is currently leaning against the back wall of the house, with bindweed happily growing up and through it which is going to be fun to get off when I need to move it!

[Janelise]

This morning Cedric and Naïcha got out: they have got sneaky: they have found that they can wriggle between the two fence panels to get to the old hole, having removed the wire ties that I’d used to tie the panels together. They were over the road at my old house, Naïcha clearly having followed Cedric as she doesn’t know he used to live there. I went out and waved a treat stick (Lidl’s’ brand: the dogs love them!) pack in the air and she flew over the road and came in willingly: a bit of bribery works wonders. Cedric just looked and carried on trotting around what had been his yard, marking everything. I went inside and put on a jacket and picked up a lead and because the grass was frosty walked down the drive and up the side road. Jeannot’s dogs in their kennels barked and howled at me, and Cedric answered from within the old barn. I called him, and rounded the corner just in time to see him dash over the road and up the bank onto my driveway. Good, I thought: he’ll be waiting at the front door! No, he wasn’t. I called him and there was no reply, so I wondered if maybe he’ gone along the road in another direction. I could hear other dogs barking….but not him.. When I passed Jean Michel’s house and his dogs barked I realised Cedric could not have passed there; the dogs I’d heard earlier had different barks and wer further away. I went home, thinking he’d turn up when he wanted to. In the kitchen, pouring a cup of tea, I glanced out of the window and saw Cedric in the dog run, so he had clearly got back in the way he’d gone out. I opened the door and called “Cedric, come on in. Today.” But he ignored me so I closed the door and took my tea into the sitting room. Almost immediately there was a bark at the front door: there he was. I told him I’d anticipated that he’d come in the back door but he seemed totally unconcerned and asked to go into the kitchen, where his water bowl was. I don’t know why he couldn’t be bothered to go down the passage to the dog room where there is a water tower which I knew was full. Maybe he just wanted to prove that I’m not boss! I sat down again and found that by this time my tea was no longer hot! Obviously I have another job, to tie the fence panels with something that his teeth can’t unravel. Once in a while I remember that I had wanted to sell him when he was a puppy but that Tom had liked him and wanted to keep him. When Cedric went to his very first breed specialty and was awarded the reserve CAC it gave Tom had the chance to say “Told you so!” Cedric did get his Cotation (quality grade) 4, so Tom had been right. It was after Tom died that Cedric lost interest in shows and began to be a bit of a scamp, and I admit sometimes I look skywards and ask “Tom, what do I have to do with him?” In the evening Cedric is very happy to sit on my lap, if he can squeeze in between Naïcha and the other Cavaliers, and if he can’t he will either place himself under my feet or lay on another sofa and look at me, wagging his tail if I mention his name. I can only conclude that he likes living here but, rather like Tchi, doesn’t consider me to be his boss. When he went to the vet recently he got out of the car and wandered around the shrubs at the edge of the car park. That time when I called him he came straight away, but that may have been because it was a place he didn’t really know.

Jane

[julieb7]

The little tinker.. Your garden will have to be made in to a fortress!!