The good news doesn't last

Some readers might remember my post last month about our battle of wits with a dog. It appeared that our battle to keep our once-sweet and disciplined dog from tunneling beneath the fence or tearing the furniture apart had ended with a truce. Little Bear was behaving herself again. But there's an update.

The acceptable indoor behavior was a mirage. We had thrown out one rug because the dog urine odor wouldn't come out, but we thought we had salvaged the other one. Then we found it damp with, you guessed it! I also found yellow liquid pooled on the sunroom couch. And, just to be certain, we found she had leaped up on our bed and soaked it, too. We'd have to keep her outside while we are gone. But she refused to stay inside the fence and managed to tunnel out every day, sometimes twice a day, leaving herself covered in mud and scratches.

Dogs, I discovered, are efficient diggers. The holes just large enough for her to wriggle through are difficult to refill. Her paws broadcast dirt in a fine pattern that can't be easily shoveled back into the hole. And although concrete blocks buried in the ground have stopped her in places, it would take me weeks of labor to line the entire fence with concrete blocks. The chicken fencing I thought would discourage her has been of little help. She chews through it.

At the suggestion of my wife and her sister, I installed an underground fence just inside our picket fence, thinking it would keep Little Bear away from the fence altogether. It didn't even slow her down. She just tunneled away, oblivious to the collar's electric shocks.

I'm open to suggestions. I'm also sort of desperate.