Generally speaking, if someone has a dog that they’re trying to keep in the yard, they’ll build a fence. The larger the dog, the larger the fence needed, but since dogs can’t climb and aren’t particularly adept jumpers, dog fences don’t usually need to be taller than a human.
When a dog is tiny, they definitely don’t need to be that high. Unless that dog is Splodge, the teeny, cheeky little doggo who inexplicably kept escaping his owner’s backyard, despite a brick wall as tall as his owner.
Splodge’s owner figured out that he was using certain objects to climb out, so the owner removed them. But the little guy still kept ending up on the neighbor’s roofs somehow, so his owner called in Dr. Chris from Australia’s “Bondi Vet” television show to help him.
Dr. Chris set up cameras all over the backyard so they could see what Splodge was doing to escape. Having such a tiny dog up on rooftops isn’t exactly safe for him and his owner wanted to make sure he wasn’t able to get out onto the busy roads nearby.
It turns out Splodge is a bit of an escape artist. The way he maneuvers his way up the wall really has to be seen to be believed. It’s very impressive.
Once Splodge gets up on top of the fence, he surveys his surroundings with calm confidence. Clearly he’s not actually trying to run away. So Dr. Chris gets an idea.
Watch how Splodge scales the 2-meter wall and how Dr. Chris comes up with a solution that gives everyone what they want, including little Splodge.
Splodge simply wanted to see what was happening in the neighborhood, rather than hearing all kinds of sounds around him and having no idea what they are. Being up high meant security for the little guy. As Dr. Chris said, “Everything he does is with purpose.”
Giving Splodge a way to fulfill his desire to get a birds-eye view without endangering himself or freaking out his owner’s neighbors, was a lovely way to solve the problem.
It’s an approach that can actually be used with children as well—figuring out a safe or less destructive way to let them do what they’re trying to do rather than just telling them no. In parenting, that might mean putting up a big roll of paper on the wall for kids to draw on so they don’t color on the walls themselves or putting a mini-trampoline in a designated spot for them to get their energy out instead of just telling them to stop jumping on the furniture.
Often what appears to be “naughty” behavior has some motivating force behind it that might not be problematic in and of itself. But it can take time, patience and careful observation to figure out what that motivation is, which Dr. Chris and Splodge’s owner demonstrate beautifully here.
Yay for Dr. Chris for figuring out the real desire in Splodge’s heart, and yay for Splodge for getting a safer outlet for his surveillance instincts.