Yard Work

Our back yard is enclosed with a fence. The fence looked okay when it was new. Of course, when it was new we had different dogs. We added two feet of height to the fence because my young male dog, Jackson, could jump over the original 4-foot fence any time he wanted to. He would wander around the neighborhood and eventually return by jumping over the fence into the yard.

Not a good thing becuz we live on a busy street.

Then we found out that Jackson would climb over the 6-foot fence. Any time a strange dog should wander by, invading his territory, don't you know. So we lined the inside of our fence with an electric fence. That worked, but the first victim was Lilac, his sister. All she wanted to do was bark at the neighbor's dogs. Lilac is about as likely to jump as oh, say, a dump truck.
We raised the electric fence to a height of about five feet.

Finally Jackson got a taste of electro-shock treatment. He got bit by it twice and we have had no further problems with his jumping or climbing out.

Jackson and Lilac are true to their heritage, tho. They are half-Lab and half-mutt. People use the abbreviation 'Lab' without thinking about it overly much. 'Lab' is however, the short form of 'Labrador retriever' and that's the tradition that Jackson and Lilac maintain. They retrieve.

Lilac more so than Jackson. She's as persistent with her retrieving as someone who says "you know" in every sentence. As soon as she wakes up in the morning she picks something up and carries it around in her mouth. Usually one of my dirty socks. I've resigned myself to her sock fetish. It's either the socks or something more valuable; books, eyeglasses, shoes, undies.
The socks will survive a trip to the yard, not so other items.

Another favorite thing to be retrieved is the empty cores of toilet paper. I've been trained to set them on the floor near the toilet to be retrieved at a later date. Jackson and Lilac will tussle over the toilet paper cores. Makes for some interesting expeditions to the bathroom.

If we have company both dogs will retrieve...something. Usually something paper-ish since the dirty laundry is confined to the bedroom and bathroom upstairs. A wrapper, a bit of newspaper, to greet new arrivals. And of course all the normal dog gyrations of greeting.

If we are outdoors with our company many people make the mistake of thinking that retrieving is the same thing as fetching. It isn't, is it? At least, not here. Lilac didn't pick up that cheese wrapper and greet you with it just to have you pull it out of her mouth and throw it across the yard. She won't go and 'fetch' what you've thrown. Why should she when there's a perfectly fine piece of a Ruffles bag right here by your feet?

The yard work part of this is that many items that have been retrieved are abandoned in the back yard. I patrol regularly for socks but other items tend to accumulate. Wrappers of various kinds, Ruffles bags, toilet paper cores, ice cream boxes that MySpouse gives them. A colorful mess now that the snow is melting. A mess that I'm going to clean up in the next day or so.
Most of the project will consist of taking things away from Lilac and depositing them in a garbage bag, never to be retrieved again.

Yard work, yes. Any excuse to be outdoors on a 50-degree day.