I have a couple random questions that some of you may know the answer to:
1) A friend of mine has a dog who is constantly jumping the fence, digging under the fence, making holes in the fence and escaping (it’s a typical metal fence). What would you recommend for keeping the dog in the yard? Would an electric fence be a good idea?
2) Can someone recommend a good historical account of the Spanish Civil War? I just finished reading this (which was discussed and linked to in the comments). I’d like to expand my knowledge beyond “Spanish Bombs” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.
Frank Sobotka
Antony Beevor’s “Spanish Civil War” is probably the best introduction to the topic in English.
Mike in NC
Haven’t read it myself, but Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” is a pretty famous work on the Spanish Civil War.
NS
It’s not an overall look at the Civil War, but Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is a great book.
I also remember reading a book called The Spanish Labyrinth which wasn’t exclusively about the Civil War, but a very good book that takes a wider look at modern Spanish history.
pcbedamned
What kind of dog is it?
r€nato
1) you’re going to catch all kinds of crap over the electric fence… there’s a system called “Invisible Fence”. Check that out. Seems to be vet-approved.
2) Orwell wrote “Homage to Catalonia”, a first-person account of his time as a volunteer with the Republicans in Spain. Not really a history of it of course… but he was there.
hwickline
I read Antony Beever’s The Spanish Civil War a few years ago, and thought it was pretty thorough for a fairly short book.
Ann B. Nonymous
Antony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain was an award winner and bestseller in Spain itself. I’d go with that.
West of the Cascades
Gabriel Jackson’s “A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War” is a good academic coverage of the war, heavily illustrated with contemporary photos and art, a nice balance between describing the social background and circumstances of the war and the military situation (including many good maps). He also does a good job of describing the involvement of the broader world in the conflict.
And put “Spanish Bombs” on a loop while you read it …
DougJ
What kind of dog is it?
A medium-sized mutt.
West of the Cascades
Gabriel Jackson’s “A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War” is a good history of the war, heavily illustrated with contemporary photos and illustrations (war posters, editorial cartoons, art works), a nice balance between describing the social background and circumstances of the war and the military situation (including many good maps). He also does a good job of describing the involvement of the broader world in the conflict.
And put “Spanish Bombs” on a loop while you read it …
donovong
Electric fences are designed for cattle and such – not pooches. An “invisible fence” might be an alternative.
Long before “invisible fences” were invented, I used short lengths of rebar driven into the ground along the fence every few inches. After long period of fruitless attempts, she eventually got the message.
gnomedad
@r€nato:
This seemed to work for friends who had a wooden fence and an escape-artist dog.
Sly
Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” is excellent for a variety of reasons. Great writer, first-hand account, and deals with the grand politics of the matter.
If you want more in the way of Hemingway, Tricia Goyer’s “Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War” series is also very, very good.
BillCinSD
I agree about Beevor’s book. I also liked Javier Cercas’ “Soldiers of Salamis”, which concerns the Spanish Civil War, but is not a history of the entire war
Scott de B.
There aren’t any really outstanding books in English on the Spanish Civil War, but Beevor is a decent author.
Believe it or not, it’s also difficult to find a good book on the war in Spanish as most writers treat the conflict from a partisan point of view.
Bill E Pilgrim
I think a good healthy dictatorship is the answer to both questions.
Peter Monger
I have 2 mutts (a Potcake and a Beguiler) and have an invisible fence. I have had it for 8 years and have never had a problem. The dogs will chase squirrels and rabbits to the fence and then stop. It gives them the freedom to play and safety from running onto the road.
Wombat.
LesleyAP
There’s a great documentary called “The Good Fight” that I loved.
DougJ
There’s a great documentary called “The Good Fight” that I loved.
Thanks. I may watch that as well.
pcbedamned
@DougJ:
The reason I asked is because I have 4 dogs (1 cocker, 1 husky, 1 husky/border, and 1husky/cocker) and use the invisible fencing. At first I was skeptical because I had been told that huskies could not be contained by the fencing, but to my amazement, IT WORKS!!! Mind you, the level on my one husky’s collar is set at a very high level because he is very stubborn (and smart – he knows when the battery is low) They still dig the hell out of my yard (which is why regular fencing doesn’t work). I wish I had gotten it years ago. We fenced off an acre of land and they are out more than they are in. We have even left them outside while we’ve spent the day out of town. It is quite expensive, but money worth the peace of mind it gives. I recommend it all the way.
Aaron Baker
Haven’t read it, but Hugh Thomas wrote a history of the Spanish Civil–and every Borders I’ve been to seems to have a paperback copy of it.
Persia
A second recommendation for the invisible fence. They really seem to work.
llama
I think this is the best book on the Spanish Civil War in English:
http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Civil-War-Revised-Paperbacks/dp/0375755152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252771955&sr=8-1
Davis X. Machina
Hugh Thomas’ magisterial The Spanish Civil War, though it’s the size of a small cinder block. Updated through 2001 in its most recent edition, a Modern Library paperback.
You read this puppy, you can check off “Spanish Civil War” on the list. Highly recommended.
MattF
Best book in English on the Spanish Civil War is the one by Hugh Thomas. Period. It has been through several editions– I happen to think that the first edition was the best. But in any event, it’s a great book and the standard in English that everyone else aspires to.
demkat620
OT, but wtf are the Teabaggers shouting on CNN?
Gotta love the WWHD? sign.
No more lies? Where the hell were you for the last 8 years?
Maria
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a very popular novel about the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, and you should look at this photo essay:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/photessay.htm
tripletee
Another rec for invisible fencing. Absolute life-saver for my parent’s wandering mutt. We also have an indoor variant designed to keep dogs out of areas (like the kitchen) instead of in – it’s made life in our household a lot more tranquil, since our dog would always get into anything remotely food-related the second you turned your back.
JenJen
Dogs run away, dig up yards, jump fences, etc. for reasons that have little to do with the size or strength of the fence.
The dog is bored. Does your friend walk him enough, play with him enough, take him in the car when he runs errands? Dogs have wanderlust as much as humans do.
I suppose an electric fence would do the trick, but there are other methods. I’ve never had a dog with this problem, but I honestly think it’s because I keep them active and give them something to do; I take them in the car, and let them see the outside world. Aussie Sheps are notorious for being jumpers and runners, for example, but not any I’ve ever had. Sounds like your friend has a really active mutt who is just begging for more attention, and who really wants to go around the neighborhood and smell stuff.
One more question… is he altered? Because if he isn’t, that could be the problem.
Anyhow. Just my highly-judgmental opinion.
Warren Terra
The Hugh Thomas is an absolute doorstop but can’t be beat for comprehensive detail, and is quite readable. I chose it because it was the the book often cited by popular historians and by memoirists.
RedKitten
My in-laws have always owned terriers, so they know from digging. Their solution was to basically dig a 2-foot deep trench all along the inside perimeter of the fence, and to then connect chain-link fencing to the original fence, but instead of having the chain-link fence reach the ground, insert it into the trench, so that it goes 2 feet underground. Re-fill your trench with dirt, and if you want, plant something decorative all along that border to hide where the chain-link fence connects to the regular fence. Your doggie will dig, but he’ll bump into the chain link fence over and over.
Invisible fencing also can work, although I’ve heard of the occasional very determined dog who, especially if their prey drive is triggered, will just barrel right through the fencing line. Plus, one drawback is that invisible fencing keeps your dog in, but it doesn’t keep other dogs out, which can be dangerous if you own a smaller or older dog.
Chad N Freude
The Spanish Civil War – A Very Short Introduction. Very readable and short enough to get through quickly. One of a seemingly infinite number of Oxford University Press “Very Short Introduction(s)” on a seemingly infinite number of subjects. All of the VIS’s I’ve read are excellent.
The DVD of “Pan’s Labyrinth”. Young girl escapes the horror of the Spanish Civil War by entering a fantasy world. No historical context to speak of, but an excellent use of fiction to dramatize the effects of the war. Highly recommended.
Warren Terra
Another good Spanish Civil War book to get flavor, not a full history, is Louis Fischer’s memoir (“My Life And Politics” IIRC). And Fischer’s biographies of Gandhi and of Lenin are not to be missed.
wobbly
Homage to Catalonia….jeez, you’ve never read this???
Ken Loach did a nice film version of it, tiltled Land and Freedom, easily available from Blockbuster.
And if you really want to know what happened, well…try being Jewish back in those days. It was a serious problem, even in Brighton, New York.
Jewish parents, who had finally got themselves into a comfortable place, all of a sudden had to deal with a runaway son who tossed it all up, joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and died in Spain.
Or came back disabled.
There’s one of them still working out at the JCC on French Road in Brighton.
My husband sees him from time to time, and the last thing he’d like to ask is “what really happened in Spain?”
For a nice overview of what happened in Spain, Guernica by Picasso works for me.
Michael
The dog sounds like one of those hardheaded escape artists (I had one of those). The electric fence will not keep him in.
The escape artist I had was a rescue dog and a real nasty piece of work – she’d attack dogs, people and cats with zero provocation, and wasn’t even nice within her family and deliberately not housebroken. We were her third chance family, as well.
She would lurk by doorways and fence gates, waiting for the tiniest crack. She’d then dash out and wouldn’t voluntarily come back. Many was the night that I’d be out hunting that dog till 3 AM. Later, some neighbor girls taught her how to climb a chain link fence, so you couldn’t keep her in.
She was a young adult when we got her, she hadn’t been socialized for squat. Once the neighbor kids taught her how to jump the fence, I could either leave her out on a run line or walk her to do her business. Rather than cooperate, she’d wait until she got into the house – one night, I’d literally walked her for about 3 miles – she waited until she got in to do a giant dump behind the couch.
Eventually, I had to have her put down. We gave her 18 months – her last weekend, she managed to scratch the crap out of our (then) 5 year old, escape, and attacked a neighbor and her dog on their porch.
Michael
I forgot about what she did to the yard – she turned it into a moonscape. She was a terrier, and was obsessed with digging. She also chewed a 50 ft length of garden hose into about 100 separate segments.
pcbedamned
@JenJen:
Actually, my dogs dig up the yard to make holes to lie in. It is a natural husky behaviour.
As to the statement about altering, I can second that question. My uncle has an unaltered lab and even with the invisible fence, when the bitch down the road from him went into heat, he ran right over it. Suffered for it later, but I guess it was worth it because the pups sure were cute!
(All four of my boys are neutered – they used to run down the road a km away to go swimming in the lake :)
Ben
Invisible fence was plenty to hold back our senile retriever with substantial neck ruff and our rambunctious young newfie.
Jay McDonough
Years ago I read “Or I’ll Dress You In Mourning”. It was the biography of the great Spanish bullfighter, El Cordobes, interwoven with the story of the Spanish Civil War.
Not sure if it’s still in print, but highly recommended.
Patrick
If you have a lot of fence to cover, I would go with the invisible fence. You can even put it near the present fence, which would make it impossible for the dog to run through it.
Instead of trenching and burying fence (which is a lot of work and the fence corrodes over time), you can lay fencing along perpendicular. Get some 24″ chicken wire, and lay that perpendicular to the fence. Animals know to dig, but don’t seem smart enough to back up and dig.
That won’t prevent jumping, you will need to raise the fence. If the dog jumps the fence now, it would probably jump an electric fence. Or you are going to need multiple strands of electric fencing at different heights.
BH
I second what JenJen indicated above. This is a behavioral issue, not a fencing issue. If they were getting a good long walk once or twice a day, they would lose both their desire to escape and the energy to be digging all the time.
Cesar Milan’s formula of exercise, discipline, and affection is the answer.
PTirebiter
A minor caution for the invisible fence. It’s a bit pricey, requires some training and it’s not fool proof. I had a Houdini mutt that seemed to get-off on the jolt as he jumped it. Rebar works for the tunneling but I would really discourage electrifying the fence. If the dog’s escape is anxiety driven, you could end up just torturing it. A smaller tall pen or even a crate would be preferable to that.
pcbedamned
@Michael:
Been there, done that. Before we got the invisible fencing, we left the dogs inside with a gate put across the stairs so they could not go into the basement. (It was one of those wooden accordion style gates). When we got home one day, the husky, who was about a teen then, had chewed apart the gate, went downstairs, and ATE MY COUCH!!! Nothing like coming home to green fluff strewn about, not to mention what his crap looked like for the next week…
valdivia
totally OT but I need your help BJ community. I just threw my back up and I am in bed and cant move! sitting hurts like hell, standing hurts like hell, getting from one position to another brings out the tears. so I am basically stuck in bed. will this last long? what can I do–aside from high doses of pain killers which I already took to make this go away?
valdivia
sorry threw my back *out*.
Chad N Freude
@wobbly:
I’ve been fortunate enough to see the real Guernica in Madrid (at the Queen Sofia Museum). The atmosphere in the gallery where it is displayed is a lot like that at the Vietnam Memorial wall — sober contemplative silence.
Michael
Good morning-
Sorry to hear about the challenge with the dog. We use an electric hot wire that runs on low voltage and it works like a charm. The dogs will bump it once, twice at most and then will stay away.
It is relatively inexpensive and you can use good old baling wire (found it worked just as well and was cheaper) and the sticks you can buy at the store where you get the unit (Feed type stores/Pets Mart).
We had to do it along our fence when the next door neighbor rescued a dog and brought her home. Our dog and hers would run up and down the fence barking and carrying on with each other and digging to try and get out.
And once the dog starts being trained to avoid the wire we unplugged it and they still stay away. Just keep the wire in place and we have even put up just the wire around planter beds and they stay out of those as well.
Good luck!
We had similar issue as well with our dogs when the neighbor rescued a sweet dog.
Demo Woman
@valdivia: If you have a heating pad, that helps. There are also medicated pads that you can buy now but these options only help if you have someone that can go to the store for you.
The best advice is stay in bed.
valdivia
@Demo Woman:
thanks! since i live in nyc i can call and get things delivered so i will order those. just hope i can move again sometime soon….this is exasperating aside from the pain.
pcbedamned
@valdivia:
Heating pad. That, and if you can find someone to go the store and get you some Robaxacil. (In Canada, Wal-mart has a generic that works just as well). I have back probs too, and when I run out of Flexeril (which is prescription), I use the Robaxacil. Couple of those with some codeine and a heating pad seems to help. Prop yourself up with some pillows, find something good on the tv, and just relax. When you feel well enough, a bath in epsom salts will help even more. Good luck and hope you feel better soon!!!
Gina
Dog fence issue: don’t leave the dog outside unattended and bored, plan a trench with buried fence as suggested by RedKitten.
Spanish Civil War: get out of my head DougJ!! I’ve been getting hooked on Spanish psychological horror films (Pan’s Labyrinth, Devil’s Backbone, The Orphanage, Shiver, Timecrimes) and have found that more knowledge of the specifics of the Spanish Civil War would be very useful for context. I was just wondering what to read, besides Wikipedia :-)
My son was asking who the “good guys” were in that war, talk about loaded questions…His favorite Clash song is ‘Spanish Bombs’, so I must be doing something right.
JenJen
@pcbedamned: Sorry… I meant to write “dig up yards to go under fences,” not “dig up yards” which is something different entirely. You’re absolutely right about that. I’ve never had a dog with that behavior, but my mom’s new shelter mutt does, much to her chagrin, because she’s a champion gardener. Is there anything you can do about that?
Ed in NJ
As some have mentioned, the invisible fence is not fool-proof. My shepherd/chow mix has some nervous habits that came with him when we rescued him. He was somewhat skittish, and perhaps was abused in an earlier home. Upon installing the fence, and placing the collar on him at the lowest setting, he totally freaked out the first time he tried to pass the barrier. It was a month before we could coax him back outside. We had to walk him and go out the front door and slowly assure him that he could return to the back yard.
We reinforced the bottom of our fence and put him on a long lead. That was about 8 years ago. Works for us. Some dogs just aren’t going to be contained.
Sharon
Homage to Catalonia
The best!
And Gina’s right about the dog.
Gus
@valdivia:
My wife also threw her back out today. She had some muscle relaxers from the last time she did that, so she’s now sleeping one of those off. I got a flexible back brace when I threw mine out that was helpful, basically a length of elastic material with velcro. I second the Homage to Catalonia rec, though only in the context of a more comprehensive study. Looks like I have some books to look into.
JenJen
@Michael: That story is just a nightmare. :-(
Did you ever try having another dog, or did that experience do the trick for you? That’s truly one of the most awful tales I’ve ever heard about adopting a dog.
pcbedamned
@JenJen:
I had to laugh when I read that.
Aside from having a lot of extra dirt around to fill in the holes, we have yet to find a way to combat the minefield that is my yard. We even built our boys their own sandbox (seriously), but I guess it just didn’t have the same appeal as the dirt over the septic tank. One good thing about living this far up north is that very soon we should be getting snow and that in turn saves the ground as they just dig themselves little snow houses. (Hubby had just better get out there soon to fill up said holes or we could be in for some stinky trouble…)
wrb
We have a lot of electric fencing for sheep and horses. It works very well as long as weeds don’t short it out. Most animals (except goats, who don’t give a damn about anything) get zapped once or twice and thenceforth avoid anything that looks like an electric fence.
It works fine with dogs.
The horses won’t even cross places where an electric fence once was.
Only once did the lesson go a bit wrong. Daisy (who is the spitting image of the Cole dog) was enthralled with Iko, a new colt. They were tentatively stretching to kiss each other but there was a new fence wire between then and Daisy touched it first.
She still avoids Iko. She thinks he’s an electric horse.
Anyway I don’t think it is particularly inhumane, at least if you don’t consider slapping a bad dog inhumane. I shock myself all the time. Most of its power is from the suddenness & the surprise.
And a dog that is escaping can have really inhumane things happen to it on the outside.
This is the best place I’ve found for supplies:
http://www.kencove.com/
The rope and tape “wires” work fine. Ignore the pitch for high tensile- way too much hassle for a small installation. The electric netting might be the thing if the dog is really incorrigible, but I doubt that it will be needed.
The Stafix chargers are the best.
I’ve not had good luck with solar chargers. The plug -in types are way more powerful and less hassle.
This place has exceptionally nice looking electric rope.
http://www.electrobraid.com/product.html
“ElectroBraid™ looks like high quality braided yachting rope. A double helix of copper wire conductors is braided into the outer jacket of the rope. 3 or 4 strands of Braid™ of ¼ inch diameter are mounted on electrical insulators on fence posts. Fence posts can be wood, vinyl, steel or fiberglass, spaced 30 to 50 feet apart. The Braid™ comes in white, black or speckled.”
halliga8
2) I did my graduate under study with Professor Paul Preston, London School of Economics, who is a Franco Expert. His Book Franco or the Spanish Civil War are excellent accounts. His overall take is that Franco was pretty incompetent and not very intelligent and that his fortune and longevity was made possible by as much as his opponents error or the serrendipitous events around him. He is writes about the war as a modern day tragedy.
Hope that helps
Desert Rat
@hwickline:
I second this recommendation.
<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Spain-Spanish-Civil-1936-1939/dp/014303765X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252776270&sr=8-2″Antony Beevor’s The Battle For Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.
FearItself
Invisible fencing is worth a try. The collar gives the dog an audible warning first, then a small electric shock when it comes closer. You have to train the dog to understand those warnings and respect the boundary when you first install the fence. Most fences are sold with instructions on how to conduct this training. You don’t have to bury the wire; you can run it around the perimeter inside a garden hose instead, at least until you know it works for your dog.
As should be obvious from other comments, whether it works or not really depends on the dog. I’ve known dogs that were happy and safe in a yard surrounded only by such fencing, but I knew one dog that was strong-willed enough (and had a high enough tolerance for pain) that he would just take the hit and run through if whatever was on the other side was interesting enough. Then the fence would keep him from coming back inside the yard. So your mileage may vary.
If the invisible fence was planted along the bottom of a physical fence, I have to think that would work for almost any dog, since I doubt the dog would be willing to take the continuous shock for as long as it took to dig under the fence. But jumping over could still be a problem.
beltane
@valdivia: Try a heat pad or hot water bottle, as hot as you can tolerate. It may loosen you up to the point where you can slowly stretch the affected muscles. Lying flat on the floor sometimes helps, but only if someone is there to help you up.
Postlethwaite Windschitl
Probably the best single-volume scholarly account of the Spanish Civil War is by Dr. Paul Preston, who teaches at the LSE. He is probably the premier historian of modern Spain in the Anglo-American world. His massive biography of Gen. Franco is pretty amazing, too.
eemom
Let me add my vote for Invisible Fence — and yes, it is very important that the dog be properly trained about where the boundaries are so as not to be terrified of going out at all. I believe there are now systems you can buy and install on your own, but if you use the actual Invisible Fence company, they help with the training……at least they did when we had ours installed, which was a long time ago.
It is really great when the dog gets used to it…….he/she has the freedom to run around, and the human has peace of mind, as others have noted.
Tom_23
We had a dog that was doing the same thing. Once I dealt with one section of fence she would find a weakness somewhere else. At one point, my kids and I went on a bike ride, she heard us. She got out ran through a neighbors back yard and then in a fit of glee saw their front door opened and ran right into their house! Luckily she is very friendly.
It pained me to do but we installed the invisible fence for a fenced yard. That stopped her from escaping.
wrb
A couple more points, now having read the comments.
A electric fence can prevent digging. They;ll bump into a low strand set out a few inches from the fence.
I know people who have had luck with the invisible fence system. The main advantage of conventional fencing is that you can plug it in and forget it.
With the invisible fence the dog carries the battery around with it and you’ve got to make sure it is charged.
With all form of electric fencing you need to make sure it is always working because many animals, once they discover that it is sometimes off, will risk a brief shock to test. And will start testing constantly.
valdivia
@Gus:
@pcbedamned:
@beltane:
thank you guys. will follow recs. sorry this is short, hard to type!
Danton
The revised and expanded edition of Paul Preston’s book is a good study to read to orient yourself to the war. I’d suggest reading it before the Thomas volume. I’ve read Beevor on Stalingrad and Berlin, but not the book on the Spanish war. I suspect it’s pretty good. My son read Orwell’s “Homage” two years ago when he was 16. He loved it.
We have a self-installed invisible fence and our headstrong black Lab is now used to the boundaries we established to such an extent that we put the collar on her but don’t turn the thing on. But for six months or so after we installed the system, she’d bolt through, get shocked, and the she’d be scared of coming back, so figure that into the solution.
JenJen
@wrb: I had to laugh out loud at your line about goats! We had goats galore as a kid, and you’re right, they don’t give a damn about anything. Still, I loved our goats, because they would just crack me up, and it was usually my job to tend to them since everyone else thought they were assholes and could never see the humor in them. :-)
Anyhow, from time to time I love to dig up this old column from The Onion, written by a goat himself. Everything you ever needed to know about goats? It’s right here.
I also think it’s cute that Daisy thinks Iko is an electric horse!! Oh, I thoroughly enjoyed that post, wrb.
dad23g
From personal experience, it may be that the dog does not feel part of the family.
We had four fenced acres and two dogs, so both dogs got plenty of exercise and playtime with each other. We used an invisible fence (which consisted of wire attached to the fence around the entire four acres, and collars that beeped and then gave an electric shock as the dogs approached the fence; relatively inexpensive purchase at any Lowe’s or Home Depot). One dog (a male) learned immediately not to approach the fence and we took off his collar; he never left the property. The other (a female) tested the fence every day; she would approach until she heard the beep and then would remain inside the rest of the day; but if the battery was low or the wire broken and she did not hear the beep, she took off. (She showed intelligence in other ways; she could open a pop-top can of dog food and also learned to open a zipper to gain access to a tent.)
A professional dog trainer told us that the female did not feel part of our family and so ran off. That may be true; the male dog was older and when we got him as a puppy our lifestyle was conducive to having a dog in the house; but when we got the female we were living in a trailer during construction of a new house and the female spent her puppy year outside. So maybe the male bonded with us and the female did not.
We eventually had to give her away. We eventually got another male dog (I do not know if gender is relevant to this issue); this was after we moved into the newly built house and from puppyhood he has been with us in the house; when we leave him outside, he has no inclination to run away.
All three dogs were mutts – rescue dogs – so I do not think breeding is the issue.
JD Rhoades
We had an “invisible fence” in our yard for our wandering Golden Retriever. Didn’t work worth a damn. He actually seemed to like getting shocked. He also learned that if he blasted right past it at maximum speed, the pain would go away. The only thing that stopped him wandering was age (and being neutered).
However, a medium sized mutt without the thick neck ruff our Golden had might not be so resistant to it.
Michael
@JenJen
About two months prior to having to have her put down, we had a very small shepherd mix puppy wander up to the house, newly weaned, interested in her. I guess there were still a couple of maternal sparks left from her litter that she’d borne when she was a neglected puppy – she barely tolerated him – but he worshipped the ground she walked on and stayed as close as she’d let him, constantly. We couldn’t find anybody to claim him, and he turned into a 120 pound gentle giant, and we’ve had him now for 10 years. He’s genuinely part of the family, well behaved, polite, sociable, completely trustworthy in every respect, even with small animals. He’s great to have around, so I guess that at least some good came from that – he’s the best dog I’ve ever had.
James E. Powell
For a quick overview of the Spanish Civil War, go to google videos and search “Spanish Civil War.” There is a pretty good documentary, in parts, that will set up your reading.
Russ
If the dog is male, getting it fixed might help. Caesar Millan works his dogs out a hour a day, and it takes off the edge.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Along with Beevor’s book rec’d by others above, I’d suggest some reading on the broader ideological battle between the extreme right and the extreme left during that period. From the reading I’ve done it came across to me that the Spanish Civil War was a mess of contradictions in terms of being on the one hand extremely local and particular in character and simultaneously a playground for much larger and more powerful forces.
If you reading about the SCW then it is a good time to review what was happening across Europe in terms of ideology and politics, because it is all tied together. Maybe something like Ian Kershaw’s bio of A.H., parts of Solzhenitzyn’s Gulag series regarding the internal politics of late 1920s – early 1930s USSR and how that impacted the Comintern membership (the behavior of the Communists in Spain makes no sense at all until you understand the political currents flowing from Moscow which had nothing to do with the outside world and everything to do with what was going on in Russia), or perhaps Dark Continent by Mark Mazower.
Smokescreen
Consider “Blood of Spain: An oral history of the Spanish Civil War” by Ronald Fraser for a more bottom-up account of the conflict.
For more soundtrack suggestions, check out “Letter from Bilbao” and “For the Hand of Magdalena” by early-90s Toronto indie band Lowest of the Low, from their debut album “Shakespeare my Butt” — one of the best albums ever released by a Canadian band.
Also check out “If You Can Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next” by the Manic Street Preachers, from the album “This is my Truth Tell me Yours.”
Nora Carrington
George Orwell was a journalist. A fabulous journalist, but a journalist all the same. Homage to Catalonia can be a frustrating read if you’re not already pretty conversant in European political history. It’s a must read book, but I highly recommend you read something else first, to give you the overall lay of the land.
wrb
@JenJen:
That is great. Superb goat voice. Thanks.
I accepted the gift of goats (does anyone ever pay for a goat?) because I’d heard they would eat the brush down.
They will, but not until they’ve finish with the bok choy, the raspberries and every other thing I was counting on eating.
However nothing is more entertaining in the Spring that baby goats discovering the world.
And goats are so amazingly sentient I can’t bring myself to slaughter any. So they just multiply
I guess soon I’ll need to be looking for some sucker willing to receive the gift of goats.
LoveMonkey
Food, water, and attention.
OriGuy
Viva la Quinta Brigada by Christy Moore. Some great photos set to a song about Irish soc…lists who fought in Spain.
It was inspired by Connolly Column by Micheal O’Riordan.
SiubhanDuinne
@valdivia
My sympathies, I’ve thrown my back out in þhe past and it’s really grim.
If you can move at all, try this. It’s worked for me.
Take a bath towel, lay it flat. Fold one lnge edge toward the middle. Do the same with the other long edge. You don’t want the edges to touch — there should be about 4-6 inches of space between them. Now startingat the short end of the towel, start rolling it up very tightly, jelly roll fashion. Because you have double layers of towel fabric on the two sides, and a single layer in the middle, you will end up with a kind of barbell or hourglass shaped thing. You have rolled it tightly, so it should be pretty firm and solid.
Put it on the floor. Put yourself on the floor (this could take a while depending on your individual pain tolerance level). Get into a position where the rolled towel is positioned between your lower back and the top of your buttocks, with the base of your spine resting in the narrow waist of the rolled towel.
Now with legs together on the floor, point one toe and hold for 5-10 seconds. Relax. Do the same with the other toe. Alternate for as many cycles as you can comfortably manage, 25 or 30 at least if you’re up to it.
The fat parts of the towel will provide a kind of massage to any muscles that may have knotted up on you, and the whole arrangement tends to align things — which you want.
I got this from a chiropractor. It has helped me on more than one occasion and I hope it brings you some relief.
andy
The Nation had a review of a book called War Is Beautiful: An American Ambulance Driver in the Spanish Civil War that sounded pretty good.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/kaufman
ericblair
I feel duty-bound to twentieth Homage to Catalonia. Like someone upstream said, it’s a boots-on-the-ground book and doesn’t give you the whole strategic and political story, but sticks to what he saw and did. Orwell gives a good feel for the absurdities that the people were constantly subjected to, and it’s very readable.
Chris
It’s fiction, but Leonardo Sciascia’s “Sicilian Uncles” contains a novella called Antimony that takes place during the Spanish Civil War. The protagonist is a Sicilian peasant sent by the Mussolini regime to fight alongside the Spanish fascists. There are various factions which without the text in front of me I can’t keep straight, but they include the fascists, the Falangists, communists (I think), maybe more. The point is that the protagonist comes to realize the absurdity of his situation, in which he and other Sicilian peasants are essentially sent to kill Spanish peasants, among others. It’s obviously unreliable as an historical document, but a deeply affecting story by a profoundly good writer.
mai naem
I had a a dog who was an escape artiste extraordinaire. And trust me, this dog got a lot of attention. Anyway, we used the invisible fence on him. It worked great. It took about a month to train him with it. After that we would have it on him but half the time the battery was gone or at times we would just plain forget to put it back on after a bath or whatever. We used it again when we moved house. Same routine again. It worked again.
Don
As others said, the invisible fence works but a speedy/determined dog can be through it before they notice. It would probably work well with dogs that need to dig, but if they’re borderline airborne like our retriever/lab mix it might not help.
In her case the only solution was more room to roam, which after years of her getting loose and on neighborhood adventures – which terrified us she’d get hit by a car – she went to live with some folks we knew with a lot more land.
She was just born to run; we’d spend an hour running her around playing and she’d still be on the road the moment we turned our backs. Perhaps other dogs just need more attention & activity, though. I’d certainly say that just going for the tech solution w/o trying to deal with the underlying issue is a bad idea.
Midwest Meg
Another vote in for the Invisible Fencing system. I’ve had one for 20 years and have trained three different dogs on it successfully. If you move, you can take the fence with you—the main expense is the transmitter and the collar. So just pack the transmitter and collar with you and buy new wire at your next location. It’s usually pretty easy to install. All you need is a power-edger. And if you stay put……well, my Invisible Fence cost $1,200 twenty years ago and it’s still going strong.
You can buy other generic brands at pet stores. But my experience over the years is that people who go with Invisible Fence are usually very happy and people who tell me that their system “doesn’t work” are always the ones who bought a generic system.
The other good thing about Invisible Fence franchises it that they’re local. So if the fence for some reason fails and it’s zero degrees with three feet of snow on the ground, they’ll show up and find the problem. Which is much better than having to call a 1-800 number somewhere in the country and listening to a recorded message.
You can also buy generic brands at a pet store for less, but
NickM
A author named Rebecca Pawel has written a great series of novels on the Spanish Civil War centering on a Falangist Guarda Civil detective. You can often find it in the “Mystery” genre section, but the books are not genre exercises. The first and best, called “Death of a Nationalist,” takes place in Madrid months after the fall, while the Falangists are settling scores.
Neddie Jingo
Our invisible fence has kept in our not-particularly-prone-to-wandering pointer/labs very well. I accidentally mowed a cut in the fence two years ago, never bothered to fix it, and even with the fence permanently off they don’t run. They know their boundaries.
There was one very unexpected side-effect: Any kind of electronic beeping freaks them both right out — which stands to reason. We have to be very careful, for example, about setting off the smoke alarm; burn just a little hamburger in the broiler, and we’ll have two extremely frightened pooches trying to dig a hole in the dining-room floor to get away. It’s quite sad, the poor things.
Andrew
I’m not sure how historically accurate they are, but if you are a fan of the Spanish Civil War, definitely watch The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth.
Tom Fitz
It’s over 45 years old, but pretty definitive: The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas.
El Cid
For a comprehensive yet dramatic life story / autobiography from a Madrid childhood through the Civil War, you could do no better than Arturo Barea’s famed “The Forging of a Rebel”.
wrb
@Midwest Meg:
Hmmm. Too bad that the generic invisible fences have tended to be unreliable. I’d figured they would put to end the snickering that you at least used to hear among farm folks about the invisible fence.
It was commonly regarded as a magnificent scam that played on the foibles of suburbanites. For 10 times the money and small sacrifice of your pet’s relative security you could shock your pet without your neighbors knowing you were shocking your pet ! :-)
If cost is an issue- know that you should be able to electrify an existing fence for a couple of hundred dollars, more or less depending on your choice of the charger and wires.
Napoleon
Paul Preston’s “The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge” is the definitive Spanish Civil War book to read. I read it 3 or 4 years ago to compare what I thought was this nations slide to what occurred in Spain to send it into civil war, and the book scared the hell out of me.
bystander
FWIW, I’ve turned into the humane society no less than three dogs that I came upon wandering on the road with those collars one would associate with an underground fence. No identification tags, no rabies tags, just the damned shock collar. Obviously, the owners of said dogs were under the impression that the dogs would never leave the property.
My sister’s dog bolted through her fully operational underground fence and was hit by a car. The dog did not survive.
I have 7 dogs. I have had as many as ten. Border Collies and Aussies. There isn’t a fence for miles. They never leave the yard. They are bonded to person and to place. This is their territory. They are, however, working dogs and they are worked. The initial training for that level of constancy required a number of “unannounced” frisbee/throw games for some of them when they were young. In one or two cases, young dogs bonded to the pack before they bonded to the people or the place.
I’m with JenJen and Red Kitten. There is a behavioral issue here, but it didn’t necessarily originate with the escaping dog. That said, there are some breeds that are more prone to wander than others. Sight hounds and scent hounds will make every attempt to follow their instincts. And, sight hounds and scent hounds that learn to jump/escape as puppies are notoriously hard to fence as they get older. I only know of one person who has Northerns (Huskies, Malamutes, etc). She is forever retrieving her dogs from someplace that is not her yard. Neutering an older dog can help. While the escape artist is described as a mutt, the breeds (genetic history) that went in to creating that mutt will still exert an influence.
Dayv
Homage to Catalonia is not only a great book on the Spanish civil war, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read on any topic.
RandyH
I used to have a dog who would dig at the fence-line, trying to get to the other side where the neighbor’s dog was. I bought a bunch of square concrete pavers and ran them along the base of the fence and she stopped. I have also used “invisible fence” for other purposes. It works well. You bury a cable at the boundaries you set for the dog and they wear a shock collar that zaps them if they get too close to it. After a while you can turn the collar off and ultimately stop using it. Available at Petco, Petsmart, etc.
You suggested “electric fence,” an electric wire that attaches to the fence and shocks the animal if they touch the wire. That is for grazing animals who push against the fence and damage it trying to get the grass on the other side (horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) It won’t stop them from digging or jumping.
Shinobi
I have to agree with a lot of the behavioral stuff being mentioned. Personally, the way we keep my dog inside our short fence in our tiny yard, is to not leave him alone outside for very long, 15 minutes usually tops. (He was a known escape artist when we got him, he escaped from his rescue group twice.) We go for long walks and go to the dog park, but dogs get stolen in our neighborhood as well and if our dog did get out, being half blind, he would probably get hit by a car. So we just avoid the problem by not using the yard as the place where the dog goes when we don’t want him around.
What kind of toys and stuff does the dog have in the yard for when it is outside? Maybe some stuffed kongs in the yard or treats around or something to do IN the yard would keep it from looking for a reason to get out. (there are some great balls that dispense treats as the dog pushes them around.)
It being a mutt it is hard to say why it wanders, some breeds have very large territories that they like to explore, some are easily bored, some have high prey drives and want to chase things. So there are lots of reasons it could be trying to leave. I definitely think more and longer walks, interactive playtime in the yard, interactive games in the yard for when people aren’t there will help.
Of course the electric (or invisible , essentially the same thing, electro shock boundary) fencing will help, and probably work faster. It will prevent the dog from leaving with pain. This will work as long as the thing outside the yard is less exciting than the fence is painful.
@JenJen: I saw an episode of it’s me or the dog where the trainer trained a dog to dig only in a sandbox, by rewarding digging in that area and burying treats and stuff for it to find and making a fun game out of it. This way the dog still gets to get its dig on, but doesn’t destroy flower and vegetable beds.
Gus
Since we’re talking history book recommendations, can someone recommend good books on the French Revolution and the English Civil War?
Anne Laurie
Standard recommendation is HEAT during the first 24 hours, and COLD after that. If you can’t access a heating pad right now, fill the corner of a dampened pillowcase with uncooked rice or dried beans, microwave it until it’s almost too hot to bear, and use that. Stick a few wet washclothes in the freezer for tomorrow, unless you’ve got a bag of frozen peas or similar that you’re ready to sacrifice to your abused back muscles.
Flat on your back is probably the only comfortable position right now, but try sticking a pillow (or several pillows) under your knees to flex your spine. I’ve had chronic back problems for many years, and always sleep with at least one pillow under my knees. Or between my knees, if I’m sleeping on my side.
Once the pain has receded to the point that you can put shoes on, or shuffle across the floor, I am a big fan of chiropractors. Chiropractic doesn’t work for everybody, and finding one that works for you can be as hard as finding a GP or a gynecologist that works, but discovering Dr. Krohn made an enormous difference in my quality of life.
P.S. If you are a fan of high-heeled footwear, plan on not wearing those fashionable stillettos for at least the next month! Spike heels make your legs look great by exaggerating the curvature of your spine, and even if the instant agony doesn’t remind you, your stressed back muscles need a chance to recuperate fully.
Terri
@valdivia
Sorry guys, but the absolute worse thing you can do for acute back pain is heat. Although it feels good while the heat is on, you are in essence bringing more blood into an already inflamed area. The extra heat will make you hurt worse 45 to 60 minutes after you take it off. Heat is a vasodilator. You want to take the blood away from the inflammation. Ice, ice, ice. Pain pills are okay, but are just masking the symptoms. Anti inflammatories, like advil or naprosyn will help calm it down. Muscle relaxers are fine, but are most effective while you sleep because you’re still. Maybe a massage in a day or two, and a chiropractor, if you’re so inclined. Moist heat in the morning, such as a hot shower is okay for breaking up stiffness, but no more than 15-20 mins.
In almost 20 years of being a licensed massage therapist, and certified rolfer with a strong background in physical therapy, I’ve made a lot of money from people putting heat, especially a dry heating pad, on a hurting back.
Anne Laurie
@Neddie Jingo:
This is important. Our “perfect” rescue Zevon turned out to be a chronic runaway — and his unknown original owners must’ve tried the invisible fence solution, unsuccessfully, because Zeev freaks out when we turn on the Oreck air filtration units that make an almost inaudible (to us) ‘zapping’ noise as dust particles hit it. He really panics, and it’s painful to see, not to mention hard on the soft goods as he frantically attempts to dig his way to “safety”.
Some dogs escape because they’re bored, or underexercised, or need to be neutered (for whatever reason, Zevon’s people didn’t bother trying that, which is the first thing most veterinarians will suggest). Some dogs have a ‘Houdini glitch’ in their brain wiring, and will pull amazingly acrobatic & stupid stunts in their attempts to follow the runrunrunrun wolf-impulse. Less than a day after coming to live with us (only a few weeks after he’d been neutered, at the age of five), Zevon jumped out an open window, dropped 6 feet onto gravel, and took off across a busy road into a cold, drizzly November night before I could get out the door after him. He discovered he could escape from his padded car safety harness by throwing himself over the back of the seat and half-strangling as his weight pulled the harness over his head. Outside a motel in a strange city in a strange state, he took advantage of a fumbled d-clasp to escape from the car and spend 20 minutes leading me on a chase through the snow just feet from an interstate (letting me catch him only after a bunch of teenagers spilled out of another car, because he was even more chary of strangers than of confinement). He’s been with us for almost three years now, and he has calmed down some, but he still finds opportunities to remind us that whenever we let our guard down he WILL give us an accelerated cardiac workout…
phein
Two books no one else has mentioned that you may find interesting:
The Passionate War — Peter Wyden. A narrative history of the Spanish Civil War. Focuses more on the loyalists, but very good at getting the voices of the participants into print. La Pasionaria was a woman who was one of the leading spirits on the left.
Prisoners of the Good Fight — Story of members of the Lincoln Brigade taken prisoner (one of my uncles is in it). Oral histories of their motivations combined with details of their war experiences.
wrb
A note on the humanity if the invisible fence v. the traditional electric fence.
Since the invisible fence is invisible, the animal needs to be shocked hundreds or thousands of times to learn where the fence is.
With a visible electric fence, after a couple of shocks it will avoid anything that looks like an electric fence.
The choice of an invisible fence over a visible one seems to me to be a choice of the human’s social comfort over the animal’s physical comfort.
Robert
Noam Chomksy wrote an interesting essay about the Spanish Civil war. It largely deals with the collectives and their struggle against both the Communists and Franco. It is titled “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship”. http://question-everything.mahost.org/Archive/chomskyspain.html
El Cid
@Robert: Thanks Robert. I was going to mention the essay if no one else had. (Chomsky’s “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” appears in American Power and the New Mandarins, arguably Chomsky’s best written work.)
sheiler
@Robert and El Cid…
Andrew Sullivan’s head will explode if he reads your recommendations for anything having to do with Noam Chomsky.
Ka-bloom!
BillCinSD
I would also add the movie
“The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca” with Andy Garcia, Esai Morales and Edward James Olmos
and Studs Terkel’s documentary “The Good Fight”, about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
Anacreon
Hugh Thomas’ “The Spanish Civil War”
Cesar Milan
Try watching “The Dog Whisperer” for a few episodes, and then take the dog(s) on a walk/run every day. They get bored, just like people do.
Steeplejack
@Chris:
Late to the thread, but I just wanted to say that I really like Leonardo Sciascia. I think you’re the only other person I’ve ever seen mention him. I liked Equal Danger and another book whose name I can’t remember now. It’s been years since I read them. Will have to check and see what’s available now.
Steeplejack
@bystander:
That said, there are some breeds that are more prone to wander than others. Sight hounds and scent hounds will make every attempt to follow their instincts.
Amen to that. My brother has a retired racing greyhound and an Italian greyhound (much smaller), which I have had responsibility for on occasion. Both are total wusses and basically spoiled house hounds, but when they’re out on a walk and they catch sight of “prey”–usually a fat squirrel flipping them off at what he thinks is a safe distance–they go nuts. God help you if they’re off leash when that happens.
Steeplejack
I haven’t had a chance to read it, but this is just out and looks interesting: We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War, by Paul Preston.
Shinobi
@wrb: Just, y’know for the record they usually put up flags and visual markers when training the dogs on the invisible fence so they can visually see the line. It is not QUITE as cruel as you make it sound.
I still would not advocate any kind of shock fencing for dogs as negative reinforcement, while fast, is not as reliable as working with a dogs natrual wants/needs/drives etc.
Another downside to the invisble fence is the collars, I have known of several dogs who learned to get the collar off and would then escape. (Contrasted with another dog who stays in the yard even without the collar.)
El Cid
I don’t care about Andrew Sullivan. He’s a nitwit ideologue. I’m assuming DougJ is interested in intellectual content, not vain posing from a pseudo-intellectual like Sullivan.
If anyone takes their intellectual development cues from hyper-ventilating, arrogant, foolish war-mongering fuzzheads like Andrew Sullivan, then they deserve whatever blinkered, hippie-protected views they end up with, and then wondering 10 or 20 years later why they were so ignorant and foolish about whatever topic was under consideration.
Rickles
I had the same problem. Tried pouring concrete footers, putting wire fencing under the sod when I resodded, burying large rocks, etc. Ran the Invisible Fence on the stringer of the wooden fence and have not had a problem since. I highly recommend the combination.