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Shila

We rescued
what we believed to be a Siberian Husky puppy from Pima Animal
Care Center June of 2004. When she was examined by a vet, we found
her to be a two year old who weighed only 28 pounds. We also learned
that her canine teeth had been either filed down or she had worn
them down trying to escape from some enclosure. After two weeks
at our house, she was eating well and starting to be more active.
One morning, Diego, one of my other dogs, started whining and
pacing. I went to see what was wrong and Shila was in the neighbor’s
yard. We thought that she had jumped on something in the yard
and had gotten over the 5 ½ foot concrete fence. I went
and got her, rearranged some of the things in the yard and went
to work. The next day, Diego started with the whining again. I
went out and Shila was next door again. I called her name and
up over the fence she came (6 foot from the outside). Without
a way of keeping her in the yard, we decided to put her in our
bathroom. She had plenty of room, blankets to lay on and food
and water was readily available.
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The
horror began. When we got home from work, she had torn through the
first layer of the bottom half of the door. We went to the hardware
store, bought a piece of masonite and attached it to the door. The
next day when we returned from work, we found her in the backyard.
She had gotten up on the sink, jumped to the window sill (5 foot
high), opened the sliding window and jumped out (5 ½ foot
on the outside). Making sure the window was shut, we went to work
the following day and upon returning, she had once again chewed
through the masonite. We contacted the vet and were told she was
suffering from separation anxiety. We even tried a crate, which
she bent the door on, got out of and then proceeded to chew the
door again. The last straw was when she started on the drywall next
to the door. We contacted Karyn Garvin at Invisible Fence and she
came to evaluate the situation. She believed Shila to be suffering
from containment phobia. We decided to have the Invisible Fence
system installed September 2004. It was a godsend! Shila has not
attempted to escape the yard since and she’s thriving on the
freedom. She now weighs about 40 pounds and is as active as my other
dogs. Karyn’s knowledge of containment phobia and her identifying
it in Shila turned a truly troubled dog into a wonderful member
of our family. We would like to thank Karyn and all her employees
who have helped us with this.
Pam and John Himmelmann
Tucson, AZ
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