Ledg

thanks for all your replies it has already helped with the ideas process. We are actually talking with our dog trainer tommorrow to see what she can reccommend also. We were thinking that another dog will also help keep her occupied and happy. I just dont think its fair her to be by herself when we have to work. I will be getting up early from now on to take her for walks too. Anything that will help. We cant put a doggy door in as we have french doors on our back veranda and she isnt allowed out the front yard. Our neighbours i am sure exaggerate. We had her 2 days and they put a letter in our mail box about her crying at night. So we already knew that they would be difficult. We have had our car egged and a complaint put into the council about my car being parked on the wrong side of the road. So i just dont want to take any chances. thanks again for all your suggestions at this stage i am open to anything.

Yes she does bark when we are home and she is outside. i think that to avoid the neighbours complaining we gave her attention when she started it, so we only really have ourselves to blame. We give her bones every morning too. I will try and get her some more toys and rotate them. i didnt really think of that actually. Also i just went and bought some pigs ears so i will hide them around the yard tomorrow to see if that helps.

she has about 150m2 to gaurd. And she also has a big deck to lie on with her bed and under that aswell. She only barks when outside.

hi all, I am writting this in an attempt to get help about my barking puppy. She is 7months old and apparently barks from the moment we leave for work in the morning to the moment we get home. There is always one person home with her most days but she is by herself 2 - 3 days per week. She has had obeidience training and hasnt always barked, this is only started to happen in the last month or so. She has plenty of toys and bones to play with and keep her occupied. Its only if she is not in the house does she bark. I wouldnt mind so much, as dogs are dogs and they bark right, but our neighbours are not nice people and i feel that they may do something to her when we arnt there. We have gone so far as to get a bark collar, which i am against, but that hasnt worked either. Please help!!!! Rashelle

You have the cutest little pup there!!!! We actually looked at getting a beagle then decided on a lab. Anyways we let Portia sleep in our room when we first bought her home to let her settle in. THen when we tried to teach her to sleep outside (when i say sleep outside i mean we go to bed at 11pm and are up by 6pm everyday) she winged and barked to be let in. We tried everything to get her to settle, toys, ignoring, ect but nothing works. We have extremly nasty neighbours so now we have to let her sleep in our room and she now thinks that everytime she barks she will be let in the house. She is in the house 90% of the time and i love it, but it makes it hard when she sheds consinuosly and i have to vaccum 3 - 4 times a week. I do this because i lover her but If you choose to have an outside dog then i think you should start it from day one and dont give in. Also talk to your neighbours and ask them to bear with you while you do this as it may take some time. Thanks hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your suggestions Miranda and sparky tansy, my fiance and i liked the electric fence idea and its within the relms of possibility. Also the sand pit idea i think is great and i will get one tomorrow. The kong stuff is unfortunatly at a loss to our little portia. She sniffed it and then walked away. But we buy new toys for her all the time so hopefully she wont get too bored. Thanks again for your advice i really appreciate it.

Hi there, i can understand your frustrations we are having quite a few ourselves with our little lab. With the poo eating thing there is a specific word for this and our vet told us that its a behaviour and if our dog started doing it then to tell them and they will give us the relevant advice. I think you need to ask your vet or trainer about this one. the biting thing is something i can hopefully help with. Our lab loved to bite so much and even when i had my boss over one day she left marks on his hand. When your pup does it you need to do a loud OWE and then ignore the pup so that they know that its not ok. Dogs rarely listen to no commands as its a human word, so if you do a yelp like what another dog would do if they were playing rough then they should respond to that. By ignoring them after they know that thats not the kind of behaviour that will get your attention. If your pup is still biting and you do the yelp give them a toy that they like and then praise them when they are playing with it. They respond much better to positives. Hope this helps a little. Good luck and i cant wait to see pics.

Hi chubz, Our pup used to do the same and it got to the point where when my boss came over that she left teeth marks on his hand. Our vet advised us to do a few things. One. A loud owe whenever she did it to let her know that she hurt us and that its not ok. She told us to not say no to the dog as they dont understand words and if you were having an argument with someone and saying no to them the dog will get confused. So use language that dogs understand. Two. If it continued we could use a spray bottle to squirt at her to distract her from the bad behaviour and then focus on the good behaviour like chewing a toy instead of your hand. Hope this helps. Good luck. Cant wait to see pics too.

Hi all, We have a 6month old labrador pup and she is extremly testing our patience at the moment. When we bought our house and then our little baby the fence we thought would do for at least a year or so as its about 1.5mt chain fence. Yesterday when my finace got home and i was out unpacking the car she figured out how to scale and then throw herself over the fence. My fiance tired to grab her and then she ran out onto the road and was bumped by a car. We took her to the vet immediatly and she is fine. Now the problem is will she continue to jump the fence now that she knows how to. We now have to keep her locked down stairs under the house when we are at work 2 days a week. What to do?? Am extremly stressed and have not the funds to build a new fence in the near future. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Shes my golden girl, so she can be gold if she wants... gold is yellow! French doors... hrm, yes well they already have some puppy love marks on them, but she has gotten much better! I am amazed at how quickly she has learnt. I did what was suggested on this forum, when I was at home I closed the house up and stayed inside with her outside, she cried but I just ignored her... when she stopped crying for a bit I went out and praised her and played with her for a bit and then repeated throughout the night. Now she doesn't seem so worried about staying outside. She is even taking herself outside to do her business after only two days!!! A very pleasant surprise, we only cleaned up three messes and thats it! While she has lots to learn I am glad she is getting used to us and the house... oh and the neighbours! (who do love her when she isnt crying) Second lot of needles this week then its off to pre-school! Edit: Yes, she is allowed in the house, just not on beds etc... she is good, but she has destroyed a rug already, she found a loose thread and took off with it, the damn thing half unraveled before our eyes!

Thanks for the replies. I am definately doing to have to speak to the neighbours, a bit of bribary can't hurt! She usually stays on the back deck all day, I know every time we come home thats where she is, its raised and secure. However we could keep her under the house... I was reluctant to do this because its, well... sounds lame but really boring and not very pretty (the back deck is much nicer). It is large though as it spans our whole house and has a concrete floor. I could also put a radio under the house, I read somewhere on this forum that it might to have noise/music etc? Would it be a good idea to put her under the house at night to then? Idealy I would like her to sleep on the deck... but I dont want her scratching at the doors as they are french doors and are very nice, I'm not keen on having them destroyed either!!

Hey everyone, We have a lovely new baby girl, her name is Portia and she is an 11 week old golden lab. Pics can be seen here: http://www.ledg.net We have made an effort to make sure we are home as often as possible, however there are times where she is home by herself for a few hours. Our neighbours (who are very nice) have left a letter telling us that when we are out she barks and cries the whole time! We do not tie her up, she has full run of the yard and our back deck (covered), has plenty of water, her own bed, toys and food. I realise she is lonely, probably misses mum, dad and her brothers and sisters. Also, at night her bed is just outside our bedroom door, on the back deck. We can not close the door as she just cries, and when we open the door she sleeps next to the bed and wakes us up periodicly to say hello and have a winge. We need to get this sorted quick, our neighbours are nice, but they are shift works and I dont want to get on their bad side!! Any suggestions? Cheers, Leslie & Portia