The Crosby Chronicles: How do you spell Noble? T-r-o-u-b-l-e.

And now for another episode of our fearless dog Noble, or as we call him lately, Trouble.

Unlike our previous dog who for 11 years never created a problem, Noble likes to poke his head through our hedge to look at our neighbor’s dog. We’re tried many ways to keep him from doing this, but to no avail.

Two solutions to the problem: build a higher fence or get an invisible fence.

For those of you unfamiliar with an invisible fence, it is a device that involves putting a special collar around the dog’s neck that has signals to a transformer which is set to specific parameters for the dog to roam. If the dog goes beyond the parameters, he feels a small electric shock.

While much less expensive than a physical fence, the invisible fence seems more science fiction to me. I’ve also heard less than successful stories from people who have actually used it.

So, I arranged for six different fence contractors to come out and give me estimates on a fence.

Wait until you hear those stories.

Brian Crosby is a teacher at Hoover High School and the author of Smart Kids, Bad Schools and The $100,000 Teacher. He can be reached at brian-crosby.com.