The DMZ

Our new neighbors are in!  Welcome to the hood, Ya'll.

A very nice family of 5...Mom and Dad, little girl, baby boy and Huck.

Huck is their 3 year old dog who is more than a little overwhelmed with the move.  Why? 

Well, I came home from work the other day greeting SM and the pups.  It was a nice, warm evening so SM had some of the windows and the back door open.

The dogs went charging through the house while SM explained to me that "Casey "yurped" in the kitchen and I'm sorry I didn't clean it up but I just ate dinner myself and ....."

Suddenly I hear this weird noise from outside.  "What the...?" 

So I hustled out to see my dogs plastered to the fence with Mom holding onto what I had to assume was Huck.  The kids were on the trampoline along with another lady (Sister?).

So we got to talking and I figured it was best to approach the introductions one dog at a time.  I calmed my squad down with the promise of "snackies" and took Scooter and Ginny into the house to get theirs. 

Casey was having none of it, though.  She planted her ample backside down and stared at Huck.  I got her leash and collar from the house and snapped them on to bring the meeting to order.  Casey settled right down. 

Huck wasn't in the mood to socialize though.  While friendly enough, Mom reports, Huck is very protective of the kids.  When I stuck my hand over the fence to sweet talk him, Huck growled at me and we all decided that it was enough for today.  It was all just "too much" for poor Huck.

So they went inside, I turned Casey loose and SM and I got to talking.

"This is gonna be a problem."  I said to SM.

"Give it time.  It'll all calm down."  SM pointed out.

"It's not just that."  I said. 

"You know how Casey loves to race other dogs up and down the fence?  You know she'll run over anything in her way.  How many times have we seen her mow Scooter down?  And if Huck gets going on his side too...?"

"And then there's the kids.  With the trampoline and jungle gym along the fence here, just having the kids out playing will cause a lot of excitement for the dogs.  Never forget that dogs are animals.  When things get excitable they revert back to instinct no matter how well trained they are.  I can't be out here monitoring the situation 24-7."  I said shaking my head.  "This could turn into a free-for-all."

"That's a good point."  SM agreed.  "I hadn't thought of the kids."

"What we need is a buffer."  I said walking around our shared fence line.  "A neutral zone."

"You need a DMZ."  SM said laughing. 

"A demilitarized zone?"  I asked eyebrows up. 

I waved my hand at the garden, sweeping it up towards the house.  "Expand it again?"  I asked.

"If you want."  SM offered. 

"Then all we really need to do is buy more rabbit fencing and connect the garden fence to the house.  The dogs won't be able to come over on this side at all then."  I said.

"Problem solved."  SM agreed nodding his head.

Most of our shared fence line is garden already, which the dogs have never had access to.  So there's really only about 40 feet or so of fence we need to worry about blocking.  That's easy enough to do.  And with the width of the garden separating the dogs from each other, I won't have to worry about nose to nose confrontations between the contestants.

Perfect!

So that's what we'll be doing this weekend.  Putting up a bit more fence all in the name of peaceful sanity.  Can't put a price on that, can you?

Hm. 

My garden...The DMZ.