How to Confuse and Annoy your Beagle

[Gina D.]

As you may have guessed, I am prepping for my long trip. Got the brakes handled, the desination dates planned, and got a place for my pups when I get there.

I decided that I would grin and bare it, and finally get an X-Pen.

My problem with X-Pens is that they are HEAVY!!!! All that steel will do that. They also are somewhat of a pain to wrangle together, since the panels can flex and shift against each other when they are folded, the connecting parts can catch on each other.

Walked into Petco to be immediately accosted by a friendly Beagle. I petted her and made my way to the back corner where all the doggy jails are.

New product! At least, I have not seen them before, and none of the clerks had ever handled them, so we had a good old customer and clerk training session.

The Item is a North States Pet Yard XT.

Beagle Jail

I also "borrowed" the friendly Beagle from her mother to test it! Oh, we had fun!

[Gina D.]

The VERY appealing thing about this pen is that it weighs virutualy nothing. Two molded plastic porch/yard chairs weigh more. And the pen is made out of the same material.

It fan folds flat and has a carry strap. I can lift it with one arm and hardly feel it.

Part duex of this item is it killed two birds with one pen. I can set it up in the back of my van, and assure the kids won't try to get in the front seat with me, or when I have to leave them for a couple minutes. Since my lovely stinker male locked my keys in the car last year, I have been tethering them under such circumstances.

The plastic will not gouge or scratch my car either.

I can keep them seperate from my supplies, put netting on ti to keep thier hair in and basically stop struggling to drive safely and worrying about thier comfort!

I will get two more panels and make it a bit bigger. (They didn't have any at the store) I got a small garden fence, the kind you fold and stick in the ground, to keep them seperated from each other when other dogs are around. 10 bucks, hom depot.. weight, about 1/2 lb. This is to protect my female from the males roughness in his excitment over other dogs.

Here is them bewildered in it. I left my escapee stinker male in it for an hour and he couldn't get out. YAY!

[Karalyn]

It looks nice. my little ones will chew through plastic baby gates. Just a word of caution if your dog is a chewer. That is why I have the metal x-pens. Is this one lighter to carry? Let us know how it works for you.

[Gina D.]

oh, and it fits inside my pop up screen room so they have shade and a roof.

[jack maloney]

Maybe your dogs are more willing prisoners - my superactive springer would be over the top and out in a blink. I keep her out when we camp with one of those corkscrews and a 10ft. cable, or - when a couple of trees are convenient - an overhead line with a shorter leash running on a carabiner, which gives her a lot more room to exercise.

[Gina D.]

Niether are chewers, but one is a digger, so I have to be careful about where it gets set. I also got some hefty tent stakes to anchor it down, but so far, little Mr. hanger hasn't been able to push it over. It's too high for him to jump. The Hex shape helps with the keeping it upright, no doubt.

I don't think they could chew through this even if they tried. The webs are spaced so that thier small mouths couldn't get hold.

This is that thick plastic that you commonly see yard chairs and table made of. I don't know the official name for it, but I work near Syrco (sp?) where they make them. Football field of lawn furniture stored outside.. who cares if it gets wet?

Is it PVC? I am not sure.

Jack, my Springer would have too. (Boy I miss her) but this one is Beagle sized. I didn't see taller ones, so maybe they only concentrate on small breeds.

[Karalyn]

I like the idea of it being light and will not scratch things. I do have to be careful when placing mine around the camper. I have 5 of them and want a couple more for next yr. Guess I will check out Petco to see one in person. Thanks Gina.
I do wonder if my little 3 lb Nicky will climb this one. Oh, and Jodi will climb over 2 baby gates stacked on top of each other. These dogs will do anything to get to mom at the neighboring campsite

[Kurt & Ann K.]

Gina,
Looks like you've found a winner! Hope it works well for you. Because of the light weight, our 2 that died this year would have teamed together and moved a plastic one all over a campground. I can just picture them trotting down the road "wearing" that "Pet Yard", blocking traffic with some disgusted camper behind them while he leans on his horn. Our X-Pen is 48" tall, and they sometimes moved it around enough to completely change the shape of the enclosure. Stickey and Kitty are quite a bit smaller but they do have "four wheel drive"!
The variety of uses, including placing it inside the screen room sounds wonderful. Can you still get inside with them? Is there enough room inside the Element for the open pen and traveling essentials? It is great knowing the canine members of the family are contained when on-the-road.
We pray you manage to achieve some relaxation on your trip.
Is the camera packed yet?
We'll you sometime after you get back.
Have fun
Kurt & Ann K.

[Gina D.]

Kurt, it can be bungeed or otherwise tied to the bumper of the trailer, a picnic table or tree.. and I got those stake with the long hook on the end to hold it down. I am not too worried about them scooting it around.

Doggie brains work wierd as you well know. Sometimes just the big visual barrier there makes them not even try. Kitty can't knock it over anyway, and jumping is out of the question for both of them. Too high.

It fits in the Element. I am taking the seats out of the back, and it can fold to a rectangal as well as a hex.

Camera is on this list Yep.

[Mike Watters]

Unfortunately that little thing wouldn't keep our little dog at home. We had a 4' tall french-gothic picket fence at home but the little girl would jump (and/or climb - watched her do both) it. We were forced to put up a 6' fence instead. She's recently taken to climbing the other fence so she can go play with the neighbor dog. Replacing that one with a 6 footer has to wait till spring and better weather.

[Pete Dumbleton]

Heh, Heh, I've been helping a friend of mine lately with some problems he has with raccoons eating his plums and garden stuf, plus Bay Otters coming up onto the top end of his dock and staking claims with poop -- He supplied the money and I've been having the fun of installing low-level electric fencing around various and sundry things -- The stuf doesn't cost much for a small power supply and some of the wire and after a few jolts, you prolly wouldn't need to use the power supply again.

The first nite up, the neighbor reported yipes and yelps and flashes of light for about twenty minutes ('coons are really stubborn, plus there was a whole family of them so I guess everyone had to try the E Ticket Ride), but they didn't mess with it after than and all the plums were saved!

The thing can be set up for a smaller jolt (wire to ground) or a larger one (hot wire to ground wire) -- Having tried both, I can attest that there is indeed a difference. BUT, you just couldn't leave it unsupervised in a public campground of course.

[Sharon Herman]

Pete,

Think that would keep my husband out of the cookie jar?

Sharon

[Brian B-P]

Originally posted by Gina D.@Nov 20 2005, 06:06 PM
...Kitty can't knock it over anyway, and jumping is out of the question for both of them. Too high...

Assuming that Kitty is actually a cat (you never know...) I'm guessing that it is still really a kitten. I have yet to meet an adult cat in reasonable physical condition which cannot jump a couple of feet with moderate motivation. The bigger factor is the landing spot: it seems that most cats will jump up to a platform, or over an obstacle to visible ground, but will not try a jump when they do not have confidence in a clear landing site. That makes barriers with significant visual blocking more effective.

The more effective plan for cats is a fully enclosed space or a harness and long leash. Folding cat play cages made of wire are available, and we have one. It is not featherweight, we haven't used it for travel, and in fact haven't used it for cats - only for parrots.

[Lizbeth]

Brian, Kitty is the beagle on the left in the picture. I'll let Gina tell her naming story.

Gina, those jails had their beginnings in toddler pens. You can ocassionally find them at garage sales, ebay or in the recycler once their human has out grown them.

We have to use a metal xpen and the big crates. I can't lift them, Eric has to do it or we gang up on them. After these dogs pass on IF I get another it will be smaller. Two 100lb dogs are a bit much.

[Gina D.]

Kitty is indeed.... a dog.

Short version. She is a rescue from the Beagle rescue group. She would not respond to her fancy pants AKC name, and nothing I tried worked. A few days of trying was uselss.

One day, I called the cat, the dog came. It stuck, like she had had it for life.

She is now a very old (13) arthritic girl. She can't drink out of the toilet anymore.

This Jail is way beyond her capabilities to escape.

Gina

[Brian B-P]

Okay, now I understand how "Kitty" entered the dog pen discussion: I had just thought other people were crazy enough to keep cats and dogs together...

While Kitty is an unusual name for a dog, we called one of our Dobermans "George", which got us some strange looks from neighbors - it just seemed to fit. They really don't understand what we're saying, which is why the current dog in our house happily answers to "fur ball', in addition to his real name - again, it fits.

[Lew King]

Hi All
When I had my last dog, it was just a mutt, but real nice but also real stupid.
Half the time I called him Ginger and the other half the time I called him stupid, because he did real stupid things. And so finally he only answered to stupid not his name Ginger.
One night about midnight he got out of the yard so there I was walking down the street calling 'here stupid' and all the neighbours were laughing at me.
So my next dog will not not not be called stupid, no matter what!
Lew