But Mexico won't pay for it.

My wife has had enough of the dogs being a menace.

Not that they are a menace. They're dogs. They like people. They want to see other dogs. The big one, Tralfaz, wants to inspect anyone crossing in front of the property to make sure they are friendly. They are just doing dog things. They are exceptionally nice, except to animals they perceive as a threat (deer, skunks, and that one particular bird-torturing cat). But they cannot be trusted to roam around free. The little one, Nipper, wants to expand his horizons by going into the neighbor's yard. Not the neighbor that will be brought out of the house with a raincoat on his head one day; the other one. The big one, Tralfaz, friendliest pup ever, still scares people when he barks and because he is a big dog.

Long story short, after all these years Mrs. K has demanded we use our Chinese Death Virus Payout to have an electronic fence installed. And so I have relented.

Invisible Fence is probably the best-known purveyor of these, but this is a different outfit, an older one called DogWatch. The principle is the same, to install a warning system and train the dog(s) not to cross outside the property when the system is on. I've seen it work for other families around here. If it helps me and my wife to stop yelling at the dogs so much, then I guess it's a plus.

I can't help but feel this will seem like a dirty trick, though. Heck, Fazzy has had free run of the place off-leash for more than six years. He's an independent farm-type dog, always wants to look and sniff around and keep an eye (and nose) on things. Now suddenly he's going to get an unpleasant warning based on something he can neither see nor smell that will stop him in his tracks. I know dogs aren't human... but what would you think?

We've also been told that really hairy dogs like ours sometimes don't respond to these warning systems because the shock or sound or however the device works can't get through all the hair. If so, this whole thing could be a bust. But we'll see.

The people we've spoken with at the local company have been nothing but nice, and I'm sure they've done this a thousand times. We're taking the install day off work to be trained ourselves, because as always with dog training, it's the training of the humans that's most important. This all goes down at the end of June.

So I'll let you know what happens. It will be a great relief if the whole thing works as advertised. But I feel guilty already. You can't explain things to dogs. They always act like they're being punished.