Count down to 60--Bella, just jump

Bella has learned something new that she can accomplish- and I don't think its a good thing.

Bella is our German Shepherd. She is going on four years old. She's proven many times over that she is highly intelligent, so much so that my son calls her obnoxiously smart. She listens when you speak, and up until just recently obeyed immediately. She is an inside, outside dog. This means that you can find her mostly outside during the day and inside in the evening and at night. She is spoiled, but I see no harm in that. Aren't all of our kids spoiled to some degree, whether they are of the two or four legged variety?

Bella has always respected boundaries. Our front yard is fully fenced, so when we let her outside there are no worries about her safety. Even fully grown she has, so far, not attempted to go over, around, under or through the fence in an attempt to escape. She has, if either gate was left open walked right on out, but always returned immediately when called. She has even turned around and went right back inside when she's been caught and asked, "and just where are you going?" I have an area of the yard where I plant flowers. As a pup she thought she was both carnivore and herbivore. I would plant the flowers, she would go over to the garden and eat the flowers. I had to put a fence up around that area. Its only three feet high, easily jumped, but only once has she jumped the fence. Then upon realizing what she had done, looked at us guiltily and waited for someone to open the gate and let her out. When I needed to confine her to a specific area of the house for what ever reason, I used a standard size baby gate. She would sit in front of the gate at times and cry, wanting out, but never attempt to escape. Partly I'm sure, was because this was a rare event. For example, if we needed to carry the groceries in and needed to leave the gate open when the neighbor's kids and dog were outside and we didn't want to risk her wanting to run over and join them. (She doesn't really like the neighbor's dog)

Bella is also incredibly strong. She loves to play fetch with twigs, sticks, tree branches, small trees, what ever you can throw, she will try and usually manage to bring it back. I would not want those jaws clamping down on me. I have been up on the roof cleaning off small branches and leaves. I would toss the branches for her to find. It was a bit unfair as she couldn't bring them back to me, but she would drop them at the base of the house and await the next throw.

Bella is incredibly quick. She can be stretched out on the porch one moment and the next all the way across the yard waiting at the fence for the vehicle coming down the road. She will bark insanely then run along the inside fence line to the corner to bark a bit more.

Bella is annoying in that she does bark........ a lot, and her bark is very high pitched meaning I keep waiting for windows or glassware to shatter. She barks at traffic. She barks at the neighbors, she barks at the neighbor's dogs. She barks at the squirrel or other wildlife that wanders up out of the woods. She even sits in the middle of the yard, looks straight up into the sky, and barks for no reason. she loves to make herself known.

Bella gets along with our two cats, but does not like the stray that has started wandering up on a regular basis. Our cats will tease her, pretend to be friends, rub up against her, then turn and slap her across the nose. Our cats have a mean streak.

Bella is always learning new things. I mentioned that Bella loves to chase sticks, but she will not chase a ball. Throw it if you want, all you want, but you will be going after it because she won't. She has though, recently learned to catch a Frisbee. It is amazing how high she can jump. I even toss the Frisbee in a manner that she will have to jump to try and catch it in flight. I should stop, but it may be too late.

Bella has shown me that she knows how and can and will open the gate. She loves to ride, as most dogs do. I was getting ready to leave for the bank last week when she decided I wasn't leaving without her. I heard the gate open, then watched as she ran past me and jumped up into the vehicle. Banks have drive thrus so up into the car I climbed and off we went. She loved every moment of it.

I had to go into work early this morning. I had let Bella out and for the most part she was being quiet. Right before I had to leave at 5:30 in the morning, she decided to start barking. I called her in, she ran into the bedroom, jumped up onto the bed and looked at me. I put the  baby gate between the hallway and the living room so that my son would know to let her out when he got up. Bella realized that I was leaving and she did not want to be left inside. She was sitting behind the gate crying and only got louder when she saw me pick up my bags. She then did the thing she had never done before. She ignored a boundary and jumped the gate. I knew it was only a matter of time, but her timing stunk. I managed to get her back into the bedroom even though she did not want to go back, closed the door and returned the gate to the position I had it, because my son would still need to know to let her back out.

So now Bella knows she can jump the gate, will she do it again? Probably. Especially if she doesn't want to be confined. What does all this mean for me? It means that I need to spend more time with her, continue her training and remind my husband when he is home not to undo what I had done. She is a baby, but she is a big baby that needs to understand rules. yes, she is a dog, but even dogs can be taught obedience.

The thing also about this gate? Bella could have jumped that thing a long time ago, but she chose not to, or didn't believe that she could. Or both. Now she knows. So it will be a matter of- once again- obedience, and training. I could just close the door, but I don't want to do that. The gate at least doesn't shut her completely away from family like a closed door would. Its also the fact, there are times, some of those things we think are blockades, are all in our mind. If we believe we can, or when we want to badly enough, we can jump those boundaries and get to the places we really want to be.