Roxy the Great Dane

Jumping escapes are common enough and I’ve heard many other stories from different vet offices that have these stories; it’s a hazard of kennels everywhere. There have been some creative breakouts though. Another dog that escaped the kennel was Roxy the Great Dane. Roxy thankfully had a home and was just there for routine work. There was no problems taking her to the kennel and she promptly lay down and relaxed on the blanket provided. There was another dog in the kennel beside her that contained a dog at the time that was having some back problems and the animal had to be hospitalized for a time. The owner of this dog came that day to visit and I showed her in. I had to do something up front and was gone out of the kennel for about 2 minutes, in this time frame Roxy decided she’d had enough of the cramped quarters and it was time to go. When I walked back into the kennel she was sitting quietly in a far corner looking extremely pleased with herself and for the entire world like she was saying “think camouflage”. Needless to say, it’s not difficult to spot a 175 lb Great Dane relaxing where there isn’t any kennels. Taking her collar in hand I walked around the corner. The visiting woman was petting her dog and she looked up at me with an amused expression. Lying between the runs and the wall was the door of the kennel. The latch and clip hung mockingly, securing nothing. The client had been petting her dog and talking with him, when all of a sudden there was a crash and Roxy came trotting on past. She had simply pried her paws under the kennel door and used them as levers to lift the entire gate off its hinges. We had to bring in the tools and reverse one of the hinges to keep her in.