Pepper's Progress

Thank the Gummi Mary, Pepper seems to have suffered no ill effects from being run over by Farmer H and The Pony in SilverRedo on Monday. He's been his usual bouncy, energetic self since Wednesday. As for adjusting to the confines of the GPS collar, Pepper is learning quickly.

Tuesday, Pepper stayed pretty close to the Mansion. There were two attempts to go under the barbed wire fence that separates our property from the next door guy Farmer H went to high school with. Both times, Pepper turned back at the warning. 

This was at the very beginning of our driveway. I'm not surprised. There must be a rabbit trail there. All our dogs (Grizzly the lab/beagle, Tank the purebred beagle, Poor Dumb Ann the black German shepherd, and my Sweet, Sweet Juno the border collie/lab, and little dachshund/heeler Jack) have run under the fence there, and chased rabbits through the brush and across the road. Scarlett the adopted purebred Australian shepherd was not big on rabbit-chasing.

Anyhoo... when I came home from town on Tuesday afternoon, the team of Pepper/Jack jumped off the back of the carport and took to chasing another trail they have down into the woods behind the house. I think it's the scampering squirrels they're after there. This time, Jack went first. Pepper hesitated, then followed. While I was waiting for the garage door to raise, Pepper came back! Sat in front of me on the carport, looking dejected, ears down.

The Pony called, saying he got a notice on his phone that there was a breach. Yes! I got it on my phone as I went in the house. Pepper had crossed the boundary, and got a shock.

Wednesday, midmorning, there was another breach notice, following a notice that Pepper had turned back. This was way down by the creek, on the opposite end of our other 10 acres. The Pony also texted me about that one. I know why it happened. Farmer H's squirrel-hunting buddy was out here. I'm sure Pepper followed him down into the woods, and was going after a squirrel.

Thursday, there was one turn-back at the end of our driveway, where Pepper would cross over to go to the neighbors who complained about night visits making their penned dogs bark.

Farmer H goes to the part of the Halo 5 Collar app that tells how the dog is responding to training. For example, after the first day, including the multiple shocks just before Pepper got run over (!), it showed compliance (or whatever the term is) of 5%. On Thursday evening, it was 33%. I'm sure that will get better each time an incident happens where Pepper turns back at the warning.

Anyhoo... here are the kind of notifications we get, along with a time stamp.

FENCE BREACH AVOIDED

Pepper entered the warning zone and returned to the safe zone.

(On the map, the area is marked with a ! for turning back at the warning sound, and !! for turning back after the mild shock.)

FENCE BREACH DETECTED

Pepper left the fence.

(On the map, the area is marked with !!! for getting the full shock.)

RETURNED TO SAFETY

Pepper re-entered the fence.

(No marking on the map, since it is where the breach occurred.)

We can open the app on our phones any time, and see the map. It will show the latest five fence breaches/avoidances, and the current location of Pepper.

Every evening, Farmer H takes off Pepper's collar to charge it for 1 hour. It supposedly will last for 48 hours, but we're not sure how accurate that is. Thus the daily routine, rather than doing it every 36 hours and alternating morning and evening.

After a bumpy start, this Halo 5 Collar seems to be serving our purposes.