Went out to check on my pond today and just about died laughing...
Apparently my dog has either gotten really brave or lost her mind!! How could she have known there was solid ice under the snow? The pond is new this year and she has never tried this before (that I know of) The ice is about < 2" thick so I'm glad it held her up!
Here is the culprit with her tracks..LOL! Anyone else have brave/dumb pets like mine who like ponds?
I went to go show my koi the picture of your pond and the ice
They started shivering.
ROFL
Rich
Art, your dog is big, what breed is she?? If she fell in she'd be able to get out.
Last year one of my Westies fell into the pond and couldn't get out. I ran out there in my slippers, no coat and had to pull him out. This year there is a small fence around it. I don't know what makes them walk on the pond.
Lol Rich. I'm shivering too, and I'm inside!! I keep my house at a toasty 57 degrees. :) Heating bill is shocking when I keep it higher.
This one is about 50 lbs, a german shepherd/ chow mix. I'm so glad my other dog the 75 lb retriever/ aussie mix didn't try it!! I could tell by the size of the prints who it was.
That's so scary that your Westie got in! How did you know it was happening? I'm so glad you could get him out. Cute puppy :) The fence sounds like a good idea. I'm thinking if I have kids any time soon that would be a good idea here too.
You can also tell by the guilty look on his face as he sits there so nicely! Your ice must be pretty thick to hold his weight.
The fence around my pond is nothing but chicken wire and metal stakes. In spring I'll move the fence from around the pond to around the garden to keep the dogs from eating the veggies. They love green peppers.
I also had seen paw prints on the snow on the edges of the pond and knew the dogs were walking on it and that one time I looked out the window and saw them on the pond, I went to call them in and he didn't come. Thats when I realized he had to be in the water and couldn't get out. Don't know how long he would have lasted in the water.
That's so scary!! I'm so glad you knew something was "up" (or in)!! Wow that puppy must have a guardian doggie angel.
The ice has been really thick. If you look closely you can see where I pulled up a chunk of the ice (at the back of the pond) to make an air hole as my stinky de-icers are failing. It has gotten to about 2-3" + thick. I stepped on it a couple days ago with all of my weight...if it can hold me, I'm not too worried about my 50lb Zoey. We are getting to 60 this weekend though (!!!!) so I get to see how everyone is doing in there, my hopes are not up. :(
Just came across this thread. It's funny - sort of. Our Chihuahua Bentley walked across the ice on our 15x20 pond out to the hole where the deicer was. The ice was soft at the edges and yup. You guessed it. He fell in, in 3/12' of water in the center of the pond. This was about 10 days ago. He's fine. He got out himself. I don't know how. I thought I heard the water splashing but didn't see him until he was soaked and panicked and coming back across the ice. It was way, way too close. Now we go out with him if the pond is frozen. The ground is too frozen to put stakes in to hold fencing. Next year we will have to fence it. Absolutely.
Who knows what else is at the bottom of the pond as there are lots of animal tracks out to the deicer hole. Cat, squirrel and raccoon. We have a supersized raccoon that raids every bird feeder at night, tears off the suet feeders and generally makes a huge nuisance of himself. I hope he doesn't fall in. We have a love/hate relationship.
Lol, speaking of funny, sort of! I am laughing out loud about your raccoon. As a side note, what brand of de-icer do you use that works in 5b? I have 2 that have both frozen solid into my pond. Absolutely worthless.
I am glad your Bentley could get himself out of the pond!! I couldn't help but smile though at the thought of a very chilly chihuahua prancing back across the ice with a lesson learned, now that I know he's alright. Is he curious when the pond is thawed?
We are thinking about a fence in the near future too. Kids will come along and I'm sure new, less intelligent pets along the way. lol
The deicer is an Allied 1500 watt floating stock tank deicer with a guard. It does a good job, but obviously because of the high wattage it isn't cheap to run. Of all the deicers I've tried this one has been the most reliable too. Others have worked only to crap out when you need it the most. Melting a hole in the ice with a pan of hot water is not my idea of fun. Page down on this link.
http://www.aquatichouse.com/Pond%20Kits_files/deicers.asp
This one worked too, but would not last for more than 1 -1/2 seasons. Always quit in the middle of the second winter.
http://123ponds.com/fi418.html
This is the third year`for the Allied. You do have to de-scale it. At the end of the deicing season I haul it out and soak the element in LimeOut. It takes an entire bottle to get all the scale off, but no scrubbing/scraping is necessary. Just an occaisional swishing around as the LimeOut dissolves the scale.
None of our three dogs express any interest in going in the water when it is warm. Bently is three years old and doesn't even like wet feet! Frankly some of my animals on certain days were smarter than my kids! At least more predictable!
My cat has fallen in the pond a few times but he jumps right out. I only have a 60 gal preformed. He is always catching the frogs out of it.
Betty
Sounds like a good video! It must be hilarious. Has the cat ever actually cought a frog?
He catches them all the time. Then eats all but the legs. He leaves the legs on the front porch steps for me.LOL He has managed to catch a few small goldfish too.
Betty
