Hi We have a 1 year old black lab. We've owned him from 9 weeks and he so quickly became part of our family (we have 2 daughters, 6 and 8, too). We thought we knew what we were letting ourselves in for, but nothing could have really prepared us for his arrival! He's an incredibly friendly, lovable rogue, but his nose causes us our biggest problems, especially out in the garden. We have a good size garden, with plenty of room for him to run and play, but all he wants to do is go through to next door - they have chickens and to keep the foxes away from their chickens, they put fox food down the end of their garden, which is too enticing for him to resist. We are currently awaiting new timber fencing to be erected at the rear half of the garden, but we can't afford to have the whole garden re-fenced, which is what it will take to make it secure for him to be out there. Myself and my wife are both active and ensure he has good long walks to tire him out - he comes from working stock, so naturally has a lot of energy. This being said, part of the problem we have here is finding the time to sufficiently tire him out during the week when we both work - myself, office hours, my wife, sporadic hours throughout the day and evening. In the house he is so much better than we had prepared for - he's chewed a small corner of the skirting board and that's all, so it's not all bad!!! The garden is the biggest challenge, but short or spending a small fortune we're not sure what to do. He's currently causing us our biggest stresses and we can't work out how long to continue... do we suffer through and hope that he settles (he's on his second holiday home, for when we go away, as the first said he was too much for them) or do we look to re-home him, so we can all be happier again (I can't believe I'm writing this by the way!)? Your thoughts on this would be very much appreciated. Many thanks
Hello there, and a very warm welcome. Tell us a bit more about your dog's routine. And where do you live, by the way? UK etc? So does your dog get off lead or on lead walks and how long are you able to walk him during the week, for how long is he in the garden and when etc?
Yes, he will settle down a bit as he gets older, but for Labs "older" can often mean 2-3 years. So you will have to figure things out in order to manage your boy. That next door free food is going to be a problem that you will definitely have to get sorted, and if fencing is not an option it could be tricky. But not to say there isn't a solution! I'm sure if we put our heads together we can give you some ideas. But as Julie said, a little more information will be helpful. Many people work full time and have active and happy pups, but it will take some planning. Do you have any access to doggies day care facilities that you could utilize - even a couple days a week, to help tire pooch out? Or what about dog walkers, either paid services or helpful friends/neighbours/family that can pop round while you are working to help break up the day? And do you have a good relationship with the neighbour? Here we share fencing costs with neighbours, is there any way you could have a chat with them to see if you can work out a solution together? Does your dog bother the chickens at all?
Thanks both. We're in Surrey and due to the nature of my wife's work, there isn't so much of a regular routine, other than fed in morning evening (7am / 7pm) and school runs, which we can't take him on yet, as the girls still need to be walked into the school grounds. He will be walked (and sometimes a short run) at least twice a day, but the timings of these will vary from day to day. As we can't have him in the garden at present, we have a training lead that we have shortened to around 3m and close in the door, so he can toilet when required - we did let him have the full 10m length at first, but he just got tangled up and still ended up in the neighbour's garden. Off lead he's pretty good, his recall is very good, although would love him to be a little less bouncy when he meets other people (he's still just a pup really, but when people see his size - he's 30kg and all legs and muscle - they understandably don't like it so much). On the lead, as long as he's being constantly treated, he's not too bad (aside from that initial 10 minute of excess energy he needs to burn, when he tends to take us for a walk!) and we are constantly working on that to improve him. We have access to dog walkers / day care providers, but as with everything it comes back to cost. The relationship with the neighbour is ok - he understands, as he used to have 2 labs himself in the past, but she is really not keen on him and can come across quite short with us, where the dog is involved. The dog doesn't bother the chickens, but that's probably because the fox food has the same affect on him - it distracts him from them!
I'm still not really sure what kind of exercise / company your dog is getting - some lead walks with a little off lead time? How long are these walks? I take it that you are somehow now tying your dog up on a 3m or 10m line when you allow him into the garden to go to the toilet? How long are you leaving him tied up like that? My own adult dog gets plenty of walks and training in a day (probably between 2 to 3 hours, and most days at least an hour off lead, which is at the upper end of what a Labrador needs) and he does not go in the garden unsupervised. First because he doesn't like it, the garden is boring to him. And second because he'd chew up the water irrigation system (he is just that kind of dog). Depending on how long your dog is in the garden for, he may be getting into mischief because there is simply nothing else to do and he is bored. The same old garden everyday, is simply not interesting for dogs. But, if your dog is getting enough exercise, then you only need to take him out to the garden for toilet breaks in between walks. Or, is it the case that you are leaving him during the day in the garden? I'm not a big fan of this, I think dogs should be left in the house and should have company for a large part of the day (I understand that's not always possible but in which case you do need to bite the bullet and pay for dog walkers and/or day care). If it is the case that for some reason your dog need to be in the garden alone, and it is too expensive to re-fence the whole thing, then a smaller dog run would be ideal. How big it is, and how much shelter etc. depends on how you are using it.
Sorry, you're right, I've not been clear. The exercise will be at least 1 half hour off the lead and then 1 half hour+ on the lead. More often though, it will be a couple of off lead walks of half hour and hour. At the weekend, we spend family time, which usually involves 2-3 hours of off lead walking. We let him out simply to go to the toilet and nothing more. Tying him in the garden was simply an idea we had the other day - with the weather improving a little - we thought he'd appreciate the opportunity to spend a little more time in the garden snuffling around, but all it did was remind him of next door and now he spends all his time pining at the back door wanting to go out to try and get next door. This is our first winter with him, so in the summer months we found we'd leave the back door open and he would come and go as he pleased - until he found the fox food. He's incredibly persistent, so once he finds something he likes he will continue! We, of course, coupled the leaving the door open with giving him other exercise (but not too much of course, as he was just a pup). The garden problem is simply something that he craves now - he's not out there getting bored and so finding mischief, he's straight out there, toilet and then trying to get to the neighbours.
Neither of mine go in the garden unless I am with them, this solves all behaviour problems as they can be nipped in the bud .
Ah, ok. Then I would simply put a longish lead on him, go out to the garden with him, give him the opportunity to go to the loo (in between walks) then straight back in the house. So long as your dog gets enough walks, training, exercise, you do not need to give him free access to the garden.
Thanks to everyone for their responses. So, not letting him out on his own at this time of the year is fine, but come the warmer months, what can we do? We have 2 young daughters who are in and out all day long and we don't want to feel prisoners in our own house, keeping the outside doors closed.
Put a tall baby gate across the door to the garden and/or train him to stay with a human. If I have visitors round, for example, my dog stays at heel. If I go to the kitchen, he goes to the kitchen. And if you go to the garden, then train him to do whatever it is you want him to do apart from attacking the fence. The key to getting a dog to stop doing something is to ask him to do something else instead. Or physically prevent access.
It gets easier as your dog gets older and stops being so silly. That's when he is about 3, unfortunately. Or 4...
Hi Could you possibly get some wood pallets and use them as temporary fences? I work with families who have financial constraints (as well as other things), and several of them have got free pallets and screwed them together to make a fence. A lot of companies will happily give away pallets as it saves them having the first of getting them removed. Might be worth looking at to keep him out if next doors garden
Welcome to the forum, just a thought my dog groomer who also has young children fenced a portion of the garden nearest the house with a gate for her three dogs. This gave the dogs and children space of their own space. She soon trained the children to remember to close the gate although like myself she didn't let her dogs unsupervised in the garden. It was also a cheaper option than paying for expensive fencing to stop her dogs getting next door. Maybe that's an option for you. Regarding the holiday home, don't give up on that you just happen to have been unlucky enough to have found a place incompatible with your Labrador. I've used the doggie home boarding option a couple of times and I'm thrilled with them. Take a look and see what you think. http://www.holidays4dogs.co.uk/ Good luck X
As others have said, fencing doesn't have to be fancy Star pickets and a roll of strong wire mesh would do the job. Unfortunately, without a barrier it sounds like it will be tricky. Generally neighbours share the cost of fencing between properties - would the neighbours entertain this, do you think? It is a shame that the neighbour puts out the fox food. I have to say that this is the strangest thing I have heard of, when it comes to keeping foxes away! It will only attract them. Your neighbour should be putting effort into ensuring that the chickens have a fox-proof enclosure instead. But there is not much you can do about that, probably...
I used to keep chickens and there is no way I would ever put out food to encourage them, I don't think foxes are going to think they've had their dinner so won't touch the chickens . I used electric poultry fencing but even then I was very wary of foxes.
Hi, I would have thought fox food being put down would encourage foxes, seems a strange thing to do in my opinion. Is the fence that's missing, yours or your neighbours? Although we renewed all the fencing round our garden regardless but that was before we had a dog and we spoke to the nieghbours first. We did it to protect our children from their very large dog. It's difficult when finances are tighter but the using free pallet option could work. Our largish shed was built from reclaimed pallets and with looking is still going strong, 23 years now. We also made our decking from free pallets, that's gone now but lasted around 18 years. It is a lot of work taking the pallets apart and reconstructing them but that's the price of free . If you go down this route, plan how you want your fence, think about if your dog would climb it if the struts are horizontal. Personally I'd make it with no gaps apart from the unavoidable ones where the slats are bowed. You've probably thought of that already . Our 8 month old doesn't go in the garden unsupervised as he just gets into mischief . He's not one to play with toys on his own unless it's his Kong wobbler. I do hope you manage to find a solution soon.
I'm pleased it's not just is that finds it weird to put fox food down to "discourage" them! Thank you all for the ideas - it's certainly got me thinking.
@Longmeadow - I was thinking about this.....bad idea from me on several levels, but I would worry too about easily accessible food also attracting rats. I agree that a common boundary is a common responsibility.
