What Do You Do With Your Dogs

[Danois]

Padlocking the gate is a good idea - at my last place I came home one day to find my back gate open - no idea why (i.e. someone opened it or it blew open in the wind) but thankfully the dog chose not to go anywhere.

This place the dog has the run of the house and outside when I am not here - the back door is left open. Mind you I have neighbours on both sides and behind and fences which are at least 8 foot tall. The side gate is bolted from the inside and my front gate is locked (dog does not have access between these 2 gates). I also live in a quiet street and right opposite the retired guy who potters around outside, does everyone's gardens and acts as community watch.

[Baileys mum]

Espinay and Baileys mum, how big are your dog runs. Just out of interest?

OH and I will be building in a year or two on our rural block. We are keen to make a dog friendly back yard that is fenced off from the rest of the property only because the rural fencing wouldn't keep a dog in.

Our dog runs are approx 2m wide & 4m long each, big enough for 2 Aussie terrier size dogs.

Thought I would add that these runs are built inside a larger dog yard that has snake proof mesh around it, something to think about if you are living rural.

Edited March 6, 2011 by Baileys mum

[juice]

Mine are outside all the time, but i am here most of the time.Back gate is padlocked, fences are 6ft ontop of 3ft retaining walls, and trellis on the top with jasmine growing wildly over the top!

However since having my BT i am very paranoid about her being stolen, if anyone stops to ask i tell them she is desexed( she is). The other day i was walking home and some guys were delivering yellow pages, they got into a car to go in my street, then saw her, and were staring, turned around and drove slowly up the road, came back again.

I ended up walking way past my house till they had gone, i also took the number plate, car ,date etc.

[espinay2]

Mine are each about 2.5m wide and about 7.5m long (one panel wide by three panels long - panels from Metalmart in Fyshwick ACT). They also each have an inside shed area about 2.5 x 1.5.

Our houseyard (about 2 acres) and orchard (about 1.5 acres) are fenced with rural style 'rabbit' mesh to a height of 1.5 metres (5 feet) with a 30 cm lap at the bottom (we used 1.8m mesh). We had rural gates made to 5m as well. My dogs are not jumpers (more likely to push under) so this works well to contain them when we are home. We have another 'dog yard' area of about 1.5 acres that will eventually be done the same way. This fencing is not cheap! (no fencing is cheap) but is cheaper than some in a rural setting where you have a big area to fence.

[wagsalot]

Riley is either in the laundry, or inside - both have access to the dog door to go outside.

He'd go mental if I put him in crate while Id work.

I won't padlock our side gate, as I'd like to think if anyone need to get him out in a hurry (Fire etc) they could.

[mita]

We have a secure, weather-proof verandah deck along the back of the house. The Tibbies are there when no one else is at home. They have a doggie door into the house, too.

I'm lucky to have neighbours who also own a Tibbie. And we have an arrangement. If my neighbour is to be out for longer than 4 hours, then her Tibbie, Lily, comes in to be with my girls. If I'm out, then my neighbour, gives my girls a toilet break, a treat & a cuddle, every 4 hrs.

When we had shelties, they could go down from the verandah deck to a small courtyard to go to the toilet. But our Tibbies' legs are too short to get back up the set of steep stairs.

Edited March 6, 2011 by mita

[corvus]

My boys have the kitchen and usually the lounge room when we go out. We have a semi-fenced pool in the backyard. When we moved in we erected a fence so we could keep the dogs away from the pool, but it also put them a good distance from the doors into the house. One dog barked all day trying to get out, and a few months later the other dog started doing the same thing. More than 2 years later he still freaks out if someone pulls the gate shut on him when he's in that yard. Sheer panic. I do not know what happened, but he is truly afraid of getting trapped in there. He is perfectly happy to stay in there with the gate open, but every hour or so "calls" for me to come and check in with him. I am suspicious that one of the neighbours did something to terrify him one day. He was fine out there for 9 months and then one day he just snapped and started barking hysterically and that's how it's been ever since. Rather than try to counter-condition an unknown stimuli, we just put them inside. Neither barks much when they are inside. I am more worried about someone messing with my dogs than them being stolen.

[poodlefan]

My boys have the kitchen and usually the lounge room when we go out. We have a semi-fenced pool in the backyard. When we moved in we erected a fence so we could keep the dogs away from the pool, but it also put them a good distance from the doors into the house. One dog barked all day trying to get out, and a few months later the other dog started doing the same thing. More than 2 years later he still freaks out if someone pulls the gate shut on him when he's in that yard. Sheer panic. I do not know what happened, but he is truly afraid of getting trapped in there. He is perfectly happy to stay in there with the gate open, but every hour or so "calls" for me to come and check in with him. I am suspicious that one of the neighbours did something to terrify him one day. He was fine out there for 9 months and then one day he just snapped and started barking hysterically and that's how it's been ever since. Rather than try to counter-condition an unknown stimuli, we just put them inside. Neither barks much when they are inside. I am more worried about someone messing with my dogs than them being stolen.

I'd be looking more towards separation/isolation anxiety than a neighbour's actions. Clearly separation from the house was traumatic.

[wuffles]

Mine are in the backyard when we're out. No access to inside because Ava isn't trustworthy and the dog door would have to be so big for Satch We have 5ft paling fences. Both gates are padlocked as we don't trust people (neighbours) and Ava can open gate latches. It would be pretty hard to steal a dog from our yard, although I did worry a bit about Ava as a puppy as she was very cute.

My dogs wouldn't do well if they could see through the fences, especially if there were dogs next door. I'd either have to fence them off completely or change the fences if that were the case.

[fuzzy82]

My puppy is crated when we are out, he has been crated when we are out and at night since day one, so it doesn't bother him. He's crated 8-10 hours overnight, and usually 4 hours during the day, 2 hours in the early afternoon and 2-3 hours in the evening, then he's up for a few hours before he's put away for the night.

When we occasionally have to go out and are gone 5-6 hours, he's perfectly happy to sleep in his crate.

Our other dog is loose in the house when we are out, she usually just sleeps on her bed in our bedroom.

[Perry's Mum]

Perry is inside the house all the time if I am out. She can be outside as much as she likes when I am home but I want to keep an eye on her.

[Sydoo]

When we are out, Billie is usually outside during the day and inside at night (with run of the house excluding bedrooms). Sometimes we leave her inside during the day (poor weather etc).

My family had a dog stolen from our yard once. No idea why and unfortunately we never found a trace of her. We had two dogs at the time and the remaining dog was quiet unsettled but otherwise unharmed.

[TangerineDream]

Tango normally has a day yard (6' deer fencing) off the back of the house which is 550sq m but because the house is on the market, he's got a 12 x 12' pen down the back of the block as we only have 1.5m fences and rabbits and kangaroos...he's only in the pen during part of weekends because the weather's warm, but during the week and the rest of the time he's with me wherever I am...when the next house is built he'll have another day run but not as big as 550sqm because he probably won't spend too much time in it.....if I used to go out in the mornings to mates for breakfast or in the evening I'd crate him, but the crate's not up because of the house on the market (sigh - can anyone hear that I'm sick of having the house on the market? <g>)

[corvus]

I'd be looking more towards separation/isolation anxiety than a neighbour's actions. Clearly separation from the house was traumatic.

He doesn't have any general symptoms. Separation from the house was not in the slightest traumatic for the first 9 months of his life. It just spontaneously became traumatic one day out of the blue. No indication whatsoever that something was developing. He doesn't care if he's left or locked away anywhere else as long as it's not that yard.

[OSoSwift]

Mine are in their dogs runs. They are 2 m X 5m each. They have brick houses, concrete floor, chainmesh adn a zincalume roof - no eacape!

ALos in summer I have a huge fear of the dogs being locked inside and a fire coming. They are mcuh safer in their runs surrounded by green grass than in the house. Also our house gets very hot when locked down and they are not outside without us due to livestock fences adn snakes.

I have now built a yard off the front of the dog runs that is around 6 m X 12 m and is grass with snake mesh buried into bluemetal rocks to help deter snakes. When it is properly finished they will have access to that and the dog runs when I am out.

I do not like to leave my dogs locked in the house, but on the odd occasion I have they are usually fast asleep on their bed and don't even seem to have noticed I have gone.

[dandybrush]

thanx guys, the run does sound the best bet, though I think if i talk to OH about it he would say we dont need to bother, raz is fine... which he is, i just dont like the pacing up the fence/barking when the neighbours dog it out. we do have hedges growing, so maybe they will stop it to some degree, and eventually hopefully ill get my colourbond

[cointreau]

My girl can come and go as she likes when I am out, I work long shifst so locking her inside isn't an option. I also have a fear of house fire not paranoid but having lost a family member in a house fire and a year later having a house I could see from my backdoor destroyed by fire killing some children while I was at work one night I always have an escape route available for my animals when I am not home. The back yard is secure with locked side fence and many people don't realise you can walk in my front gates. I also have very good neighbours around me who keep an eye on my place and animals, its a great place to live!

For the barking I would put up some screen so Raz cannot see the neighbours dog. I would try to remedy the problem now rather than ignore it my neighbours dog barks at me anytime I walk out my front door, annoying me and any other neighbours. I just ignore it, the neighbours do know it is annoying and appologise I don't want to compain becasue it isn't worth it in all other respects my neighbours are very good and considerate.

[Clastic]

When we are at work they are in the backyard, during the weekends when we're out for short periods of time they are left inside.

[Kaffy Magee]

Ihave just moved from acreage to suburbia. Prior to moving my dogs were kept in runs when we went out. I hope to have a couple of runs set up very soon at my ne house but dont at this stage. my older girls are out during the day, as they are really sedate and just lay under the back patio sleeping all day. When my runs are built and snake proofed they will be put in there when we go out. They sleep indoors at night. My young male is 9 months old and he is inside(in a crate, otherwise he would be into everything) whenever we are not home and also sleeps inside of a night. He nearly died back in November and I am extremely paranoid I will lose him one day, I just have a strong feeling I will and so I am extra careful with him. We have been told we get alot of snakes in our yard too which is an extra worry.

Edited March 6, 2011 by Kaffy Magee

[dogfan]

Abbey gets left in her crate if out for ages, and for short periods of time she stays outside