Hello all, New to forum and looking forward to participating. Max is my 16 month old fox red lab who keeps us on our toes. He is the exuberant side of the boisterous scale all of which we've tried to take in our stride but his latest adventures are leaving me open mouthed and exasperated. He has discovered that our neighbour not only keeps chickens and rabbits in the garden b that he feeds them on kitchen leftovers which are put in the garden. Now he is doing anything within his power to get into their garden, including chewing through and pulling open the fence to another neighbour through whose garden he can pass to get to chicken man. We've closed all the gaps and put breeze blocks in front of his favourite place. Over the weekend with telling him no every time he approached the fence I thought we'd cracked it - but no, I let him out in the garden this morning, got caught on a phone call and when I went looking.........vanished. Is there any hope of a training solution of are we going to have to replace a very long length of fence with something more substantial? Thanks
Re: Persistent escaper Hmm.....not my forte, but have you got a good recall? Maybe that could be worth looking at - if he looks like he is snuffling around the fence, do a recall with a good reward for coming to you? I guess that is a positive reward based answer rather than a negative one? (someone correct me if I am wrong). Have you see Pippa's book Total Recall? Not sure if that could help. My other thought was working on a "leave it" command, but I'm not sure that would work so well. jac
Re: Persistent escaper Hello, welcome to the forum. A new, anti-dig, fence sounds like the thing. Or constant supervision.
Re: Persistent escaper My previous lab was a devil for escaping at that age. I used to joke that it was £300 for the puppy (a long time ago!) and £1500 to fence the garden.....After the garden was fenced off though, she turned into the nicest, quietest, most gentle and obedient dog imaginable and we all loved her dearly.
Re: Persistent escaper We had an escapee lab when I was a teenager. Life was one long, embarrassing round of retrieving him from other people's gardens or dustbins... Finally we had really good fencing put all the way around, and as Lochan said, things became much easier for everyone.
Re: Persistent escaper Thanks for all your replies - I guess we'll need to accept the inevitable and get really good fencing. As we have a big garden I guess I was just hoping to be able to avoid it (the current fence is between 2 hedges and I thought it would do the job!). As for recall, we have that fairly sussed - the escaping happens when he is left unsupervised (I work from home so like to leave the back door open for him to potter. So it's looking like fence, fence and more fence
Re: Persistent escaper Or don't let him potter in the garden? I go out with Charlie if he needs a pee or we are doing a bit of training, but he neither needs nor wants to spend time outside alone. He gets loads of walks...
Re: Persistent escaper Mine never want to go and mooch in the garden either So to fence or not to fence, that is the question or whether it is nobler to keep the dog under supervision Though I guess the lure of chickens and chicken food might need a fence!
Re: Persistent escaper Hmmmm......guess it might be a fence then. Mine isn't a moocher either, doesn't spend much time outside unless there is a tasty bone or treat to be scoffed. Its difficult to break your habits as much as the dogs :-\
Re: Persistent escaper We live in the South of France so it's kind of criminal not to have the door open! 8)
Re: Persistent escaper [quote author=Lifeisacabaret link=topic=8590.msg121364#msg121364 date=1415043515] We live in the South of France so it's kind of criminal not to have the door open! 8) [/quote] Whereabouts do you live?
Re: Persistent escaper You could try a line of electric wire at the base of your fence, or even just part of it, fixed to a cheap energiser. I know this is an expensive option but it will work. We have a lot of poultry, and have an electric fencing system installed. Although Benson (1 year old choc lab...) adores eggs, and chicken feed, he will not go near the runs unless I leave the gate open. Then he is in like a flash with mouth crammed full of eggs racing back into the garden with his stash! ;D ;D
Re: Persistent escaper A good fence is worth it's weight in gold, for sure. I had an Escaper, but fortunately in our case it involved a fairly cheap solution. But not having that worry every time he goes outside is wonderful.
Re: Persistent escaper [quote author=Karen link=topic=8590.msg121433#msg121433 date=1415090660] [quote author=Lifeisacabaret link=topic=8590.msg121364#msg121364 date=1415043515] We live in the South of France so it's kind of criminal not to have the door open! 8) [/quote] Whereabouts do you live? [/quote] Hello Karen, We are on outskirts of Toulouse. Thanks for all suggestions - we have considered electric fence but saw that as a last resort. Hubby has spent the weekend attaching more solid grille fencing to the existing pols and mesh fencing. This has worked beautifully but unfortunately he ran out of panels so Max has just gone further down the slope and munched / pulled his way through there.
