My yard is about 3/4 of an acre and fenced, but my dogs spend their days trying to go over, under and through the fence. They never go anywhere, and I don’t have any close neighbors (the closest is about 1/3 mile away, and they like the dogs. There’s no one else in sight) however, I do sometimes get hoards of cyclists who come out to the country to bike. The dogs will chase them, but they don’t nip or bite, they just bark, and they turn around at the property line. (not the yard line, but I have 13 acres and they turn around about 100 yards from the house).
How can I train them to the yard when I’m not there? While I’m home, they usually stick pretty close to me.
I have 2 German Shepherds, a Doberman, a Standard Poodle and a Giant Schnauzer. I also have an English Setter, but he never goes anywhere.
I had the same problem with my dog when I first got her. She found escape routes under the fence a couple times and after I blocked those areas I noticed she would walk the perimeter of the fence in search of another path to freedom and she was obsessed with escape. My greatest concern was that she would eventually learn to climb the 3’ chain link fence after which I would never feel safe when letting her out in the backyard.
The solution, at least for me was simple when you analyze the dog’s thought process or instincts. The animal finds itself enclosed in an area but realizes there is a vast and possibly more interesting area just beyond the fence and due to its nature and curiosity, feels the compelling need to explore it. Because of this, each time they go out into this area and come face to face with the fence, their single goal is to go beyond this barrier.
My solution was to take her for a walk every morning for about 40 minutes. This satisfied her curiosity by allowing her to experience (smell) what she could only visualize before. Now when she’s in the yard, she’s content with remaining there because I maintain the daily walk routine and I believe if I stopped it, she may return to her old ways.
This was going to be my advice, as well. No matter the size of the yard, if a dog is fenced in he will want to get out. He will need to take a nice long walk at least once a day for exploring purposes.
Every day after work when I come home, I open the gates, The dogs run in the woods across the road, go back and check out my pastures, and check the neighbor’s front pasture. They chase bunnies, bark at big birds (I don’t know why they hate the hawks and vultures!) and sniff at interesting things. They walk with me while I feed the horses. When it’s hot we walk to the pond to see if they want to swim. After about an hour, it’s time for their dinner, so we all go in and eat, and I close the gates.
When you open the gate and allow them to run and play freely, this creates excitement and naturally, they enjoy it. I suspect that during the times they are confined behind the closed gates, they think only of the good times they could be having if only that gate were open so they could run and chase things like the rabbits or birds they now can only see or sense. I know your intentions are good in allowing them the daily freedom to go beyond the gate but you may have created a dog park scenario in doing this.
By that I mean, imagine you’re living next to a dog park separated by your fence. Dog parks are usually fun places for dogs where they are allowed to do anything that’s socially acceptable in the dog world including chasing small animals, birds or each other. How content do you believe your dogs would be confined behind a fence when they know the fun dog park place is next door just beyond the fence? They can even see and/or smell it and this gets them excited because their usual experience with the world over the fence involves freedom, fun and frolic and their brain says, “I want that now!”
The walks with my dog are more disciplined and organized and the purpose is exercise and bonding. If a squirrel runs across the sidewalk a few feet ahead of us, my dogs knows she’s not allowed to start chasing it because I taught her early on that we’re not out here now for that. She knows that if she wants to chase squirrels, she’s free to do so in the backyard and this is also the area we use for playtime or rough housing making it less of a confinement area only.
I see you have six dogs so an organized pack walk would be a challenge. If you start with all the dogs at once, there would probably be mayhem so if you decide to try it, I’d begin with one dog and work with it until it’s calm and then add another, etc. Like I said, this is a challenge and may require more time than you have available.
Another alternative involves an electric fence and e-collar worn by each dog. The e-collar can either vibrate or shock (both with different intensity settings) the dog as it nears nears the fence and the setting depends on how each animal reacts and responds to the stimuli. Obviously, an electric fence involves less of a time investment on your part but much more of an expense.
A third alternative is to spend more time with them in the yard but your goal is to discipline them when they get close to the fence making them understand that the fence is off limits. I won’t go into how to apply discipline because you know what works for your dogs but you should be consistent in applying it to all of the dogs. Since you have a pack of dogs and you have to establish yourself as the pack leader so that they do what you want them to do when you want it.