Is Vincenzo the Reincarnated Houdini?
I have to sometimes wonder if he is as we can’t keep this dog confined. Vincenzo easily weighs 90 to 100 lbs; however, he is very sleek and slender. If he can get his shoulders through the obstacle then it is no problem for him to get the rest of his body through. Vincenzo is a master contorsionist at 3 yrs of age. Vincenzo is my Maremma lgd.
We have placed Vincenzo behind 8 bar goat panels only to watch him find an opening just large enough for him to put his head through. After that he gets in one leg and begins to wiggle one of his shoulder through. Once the first shoulder is through he then starts with the second shoulder. After both shoulders are through he has no issue in getting his small waist and legs through the fence. This takes him less than 20 minutes to figure out and be free.
We then went out and purchased a four sided wire dog kennel sized 10 X 10. This should have kept Vincenzo at bay for a while but to our surprise it did not. Vincenzo started to bite the wire at the bottom of the kennel door. As soon as he managed to tear open a little hole it wan’t too much longer before he made that small hole into a hole large enough for him to wiggle his body through. His girlfriend, Donatella, who is much smaller in size than he didn’t even attempt to go through the hole that Vincenzo made. It certainly didn’t look large enough for Donatella to go through much less Vincenzo but he did.
In our latest attempts to keep Vincenzo from roaming into the neighbor’s yard until we get up proper fencing we placed him in one of the stalls in the barn. We then strapped the door closed. In the morning when I went to the barn I found Vincenzo in the aisle. What he did was bite at the wood around the frame of the door and then on the door itself. When it gave some way he continued to push on the door until the bolt came out of the hinge. At that point he was able to squeeze through and push the door open.
I have given up on trying to keep Vincenzo confined. At least his interest in going to the neighbor’s yard has lessened. He’s much more content laying behind the bushes trying to stay cool from the heat and humidity.
I am not upset with Vincenzo. Just the opposite as I am very impressed by him. I do believe he will protect the alpacas by doing anything possible to get to the intruder and making sure it knows that this is his domain.
Vincenzo had his first litter last year and will be siring another litter in the spring of 2011. I wonder if he passes this trait onto his offspring.
