Hello everybody, I'm new to this forum and to dogs as well. I've been wanting a dog for a while, and now when we moved from an apartment to a house I can finally get it. I am already gave the deposit for a puppy but now I m super anxious and not sure if I should get that puppy at all. One of the reasons is that me and my husband live in a woody area and we don't have any fencing. We do have wild animals roaming in our yard occasionally, that includes bears, elks, coyotes and pretty much every wild animal have access to our yard. I was going to potty train the puppy on a leash ( however I'm also terrified of thought to go out an night and meet a bear!) and not letting him go without a leash at all. However I'm concerned in further training. How can I train and exercise a puppy without getting him of leash? I am even more concerned in how I'm going to do this when he is older and needs more exercise. We also have a lot of squirrels and bunnies he would probably try to chase and the I could lose him. Fencing the yard is unfortunately is not an option for us now, because there are many trees on the way and removing them is very pricey. I was thinking of buying a huge outdoor kennel/ so he can hand out outside safely but that is surely not enough space for exercise. I'm also kind of concerned in whether I should even put him on the ground before he receives his vaccines, because all the wild animals can probably carry diseases. Previous house owners also had a dog and I guess there can be traces of her poop outside that can contain viruses ( although I hope she was healthy). We also have deer and elk droppings all over our yard and removing it seems pointless because they come nearly every night. Any ideas on how I can safely play with my pup and manage his potty training without risking him running away? I was thinking that probably getting a dog in this situation would be a bad idea, but I'm already refused the breeder once, then called her again and asked if the pup is still available and promised to pick him, because I wanted a dog so much ( totally behaving like a jerk). But I am so terrified. Thank you!
If you really want a dog you can make it work Don't worry!! There are people on here who have raised dogs from the puppy stage in bear country. I'm sure they'll have some specific advice. Since there are two of you maybe you can both go out together at night and one can look out for bears while the other manages the puppy. I'd say that you're in a similar situation to people who a raising a puppy in an apartment in a city. People in that situation don't have a yard, have to go outside on lead to toilet and also have few off lead areas. And they manage. So can you. Can you use star pickets (metal stakes) and some metal fencing mesh to create a fence that can contain your pup? It doesn't have to be in a straight line - you can zig zag around trees.
Thank you, Rachel. I am thinking of installing a pet playgrounds fence ( don't want to advertise them and providing a link, but one can google it to see what I mean) in spring. I'm curious does anyone of our US located lab fans ever used one? They claim it is escape-proof, because dog can't escape it and it sort of looks like a bendable net rather than sturdy chainlink fence. It is kind of expensive though. We have a pretty big yard with lots of trees and pretty big lawn in front, which is sadly located over a septic field, so we can't build on it. So I do have pretty big area for a dog, just afraid he will escape even while I'm supervising him. I do know that a young puppy will likely follow me everywhere, but when he gets older he probably won't. I do see a lot of people in our area that are playing with dogs in unfenced parks nearby, so it is certainly doable.
I would agree that some kind of outdoor kennel is a good solution. If your pooch gets walks and training, he doesn’t need to be roaming around unsupervised on your property (and likely on others). As for the bears, I wouldn’t worry too much about going outside for potty training at night. I don’t imagine you will be going too far from the house (I wouldn’t recommend it at any rate) and it’s likely that the bears won’t come close to the house, as long as you are careful with garbage, dog food, etc. Having bear spray handy is probably a good idea just in case.
I have some friends who used to live on national forestry land in Lake Tahoe. They have an older dog, but what they ended up doing was just fencing a small area directly around the area by their back stairs and would use that as a safe supervised evening potty area. They also had bears in their area. With smaller dogs and cats, you had to be very careful not to let them out unsupervised - it was a pretty sure thing they would get killed and sadly stories of this happening to people new to the area or tourists who didn't know any better were fairly common. The bears would pretty much steer clear of larger (barking) dogs and it was a good early warning system in the neighbourhood - you knew when a bear was around by the barking. However, the bears would come right up to the house on a regular basis. That was in a fairly populated area (lots of large single family homes), so I think they get used to being brave and coming close in. Having said that, in seven or so years living up there, they saw lots of bears but never had a close call with meeting one when out with their dog.
I googled your fence and I would never trust it. It's too flimsy. Plus I worry birds could get caught in it and deer if you have the higher one. Dogs could dig under it too. A real, solid fence for me please. That said, my Lab is now too big to get through the page wire that was here when we bought. We have the odd bear, moose, coyote and even if we didn't I never leave the dog out unsupervised. What about electric or radio fence? I still wouldn't leave the dog out alone but at least you could work outside, have him with you, and be able to get a few things done without keeping your eyes constantly on him. Maybe send him out for a pee on his own, once he's adult. Puppies tend to stay close to you when very young. So close that you can use that inclination to teach them their recall. I took my pups out to county forest land, unleashed, for short puppy walks. We had the above critters, which I never saw, and also ATVs and snowmobiles. Yes, Oban was a winter puppy and we still went out. I did watch UP as well, when he was very small, for hawks.
We have a fenced yard at our home in Portland, but no fence at our ski cabin. We get so much snow that a fence would have to be 15 to 20 ft tall to work in the winter, and we could not get up the bank to the yard anyway. We do fine there walking the dogs either on lead or off lead. Both of ours do fine off lead now. Puppies tend to do well off lead, because they want to stay close to you anyway. We put up a temporary wire fence at our home when we first got Tilly, because we had not finished the backyard fencing. A few 6' metal T posts and welded wire fencing will keep most dogs in with no problem. It is easy to put up and take down later if you don't need it. I am not a fan of radio fences, because they won't keep other animals or dogs out, but if your dog does go though it, he won't be able to come back in. They take quite a bit of training also. You don't just put one up and then turn the dog loose inside and expect him to figure it out.
I can't see where you live, but if you don't have traffic concerns or real close neighbors, you might be able to get by without a fence at all when your pup is grown. I have been several places where the dogs (particularly Labs) had free range and just stayed close to home. That really depends on your location and the dogs behavior.
We were in a similar situation, no fence, in upstate New York in black bear/coyote/porcupine/skunk country (countryside northwest of Albany). Shes about 8 months old now and things went well with no real concerns. For the first couple months I did not let her our without a leash except to do some highly supervised off leash training. We are on an acre and a half in a quiet area so we didn't have too much risk of her running out into a road, although a lot of wildlife. After a while she became very reliable at just running out to do her business 5-10 ft from the door and running back in, so I started to slowly stop using the leash. If I absolutely had to keep her outside without 100% attention (i.e. yard work), I used a long wire lead and a harness and kept her in sight. More recently we got an electric fence (Yardmax by petsafe) and its worked great, she honors it extremely well even with distractions. I just use it for minimal supervision time outside like yard work, sitting on the deck, etc. I wouldn't use it for keeping her outside alone though. A lot of people around me let there dogs out unsupervised with the electric fence, but I personally wouldn't (my childhood dog escaped too many times when I was a kid). I hope this helps and decreases your fears.
I'm not a moderator, but there is a rule about promoting training methods which involve using punishment to train dogs, and an electric fence would count as punishment. There's an article on the main site about keeping your dog in an unenclosed area, including a brief section on the dangers of electric fences: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-proofing-your-garden/ I would very much discourage you from using any sort of electric collar/fence to train or manage your dog. Not only might it not actually keep your dog safe, but there is a risk of your dog associating the electric shock with something else, and developing fears - which could require a long process of training to help them. Also, it's just not a nice thing to do! I would just not leave your dog unsupervised outside, and if you are worried about your dog running away when supervised, use a long line attached to a harness in the meantime, and train a strong recall. Pippa's book Total Recall is a fantastic step by step guide to training and proofing a recall.
Agree with the above. On this forum we don't endorse the use of electric shock devices for dogs. A physical fence, no shocks, is a safe approach as well as being a kind approach. So is keeping your dog on lead.
We have a large garden, and a large area out front. Recently we enclosed the front area ,and put up gates on the driveway. Before we did this though, we popped up temporary fencing to give us a smaller more controllable areas outside. I didn't really fancy chasing Benson in my PJ's, plus I was getting tired of him bombing out the front door and racing as far away from me as possible, grabbing pebbles...watering cans...or anything really... We used black flexible netting stapled onto wooden stakes, cheap and easy to instal.
Oops, sorry, forgot about that. I will add I agree they do not keep other animals out and may prevent your own dog from returning if he does get out. I have seen that behaviour myself with the dogs across the street from us. A dog near us disappeared two years ago and my theory is he got out (they let the battery run down in the collar) but then was afraid to go back in. However they did continually leave him out there all alone, at night, by himself.
