This may be MPSIMS but since I’d welcome any opinions or advice you may have I thought I’d post it here.
We got a new dog on Saturday. Not really new because he lived for the last 3yrs with my mom and stepdad but new to us. He’s been an outside city dog for all this time. Happily content in his back yard with a nice little dog house and no training WHATSOEVER!!!
Anyway, my brother in law brought him over in the back of his truck after getting bit twice 'cause the pup was terrified. OK. No problem, I’ll get the dog out of the truck and into the backyard with no collar or leash. No problem. An hour later… The dog is safely in the pen in my back yard. It’s a very large pen with a nice bush for shade and a great doghouse in case anyone is worried. We set him up with food and water and headed in for dinner.
About half way through dinner my son wants to take the pup some scraps & heads outside. NO DOG! He’s dug a hole under the fence and is running around the yard. We call, he ignores us, we tempt him with tasty tid bits, he ignores us, finally we back him into the neighbors’ yard and close the fence. Eventually we corner him & get a rope fashioned into a collar/leash and start the long, LONG journey back to my yard.
At this point, I head to the pet store to get a harness and leash and chain to fasten him securely inside the pen. It took 4 adults to corner him in the pen and hold him down to get the harness on him. No more biting. Yeah! Success. We once again leave him successfully in the pen to finish our now ice cold dinner.
This story is getting really long so I’ll try to make the rest short… After dinner, the pup gets out again! Digs under the fence, pushes the concrete block out of the way that we used to cover the hole and gets out of the harness. Damn! We eventually catch him and this time he goes in the kennel. Sorry pup. I get a smaller harness and we let him out for a supervised meal and visit to the bushes. Sunday night, I decide to give him a brief amount of freedom on the chain in the pen and he escapes again. Digs a new hole under the fence and somehow escaped the new harness!
He almost got hit twice by passing cars before we caught him! My 9yr old says “Mom, We got the dog from H E double toothpicks…” He hit the nail on the head with that one! Pup is back in the kennel. It’s only a matter of time before he figures out an escape!
All due respect and everything…but this ain’t the dog’s fault, and the dog ain’t from hell, it’s the dog’s former owners, your mom and stepdad.
First of all, let me clue you: no dog is “happily content” to be left outside alone, untrained. It is not canine nature to live this way. If your dog was part of a wild pack, as his ancestors were, he would live in a group, a group with strict rules of behavior he would be expected to follow and would. And this would make him fell secure and happy. Having his companions around him, knowing his place and playing his part will make him happy. Being in the backyard, having no clue how to fit in, not being included, but having a “great doghouse” will never be a subsitute for this, don’t kid yourself.
I’m not going to take the time here to explain to you how to train your dog to tolerate the condition of being treated like a thing instead of an intelligent being, I’m just going to implore you to find a rescue organization to give this dog to. He needs love, care, and a proper education. It doesn’t sound like you are interested or qualified to give this to him. Please, please, please, give him a chance to be happy: give him to people who can find him the right home.
What’s the point of having a dog that you keep penned up in the backyard? Can they offer companionship stuck out there? Nope. Can they help guard the house from there? Nope, again. It’s a lose-lose situation. You get none of the many benefits of owning and loving a dog, and the poor animal is condemned to live a lonely, miserable life. If you just think the dog is “cute,” and only want to interact with it when it’s convenient for you, might I suggest you get a teddy bear.
Any dog without proper training doesn’t know what is expected of them and will stress out trying to figure it out. It will act out, nip or bite, dig, or whatever. It wants to fit into the pack, but if the pack isn’t around, it’s stumped.
If the former owners told you that this dog was content to live outside with no training, they were lying to you to get you to take the dog.
Either make him a real part of your family, which must include family time and training, or let him live with someone who will. Please.
Thanks for your responses! I agree 100% that it isn’t his fault but I also see that bringing him into the house isn’t going to work right now. He has NO training at all & I’ve been working with him for all of 3 days. While I don’t have any qualifications in pet care, I am VERY interested in this pup. He has been responding really well to the attention he’s been getting and we’ve been working with him every day on his basic skills. It’s like having a new puppy who is VERY, VERY strong.
We’re going to take him to the vet and get him neutered and up to date on his shots this week and then look at our options.
My biggest hope is that we can get him trained to the point that we can bring him in and make him a REAL member of the family but I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not sure I can do it.
If you train him outside, he will only be trained to live outside! You must train him how to live in the house if that’s where he’ll be.
It really doesn’t take much time, grab a good book or tape and go for it. You may have a couple of accidental piddles or some chewing, but that’s no big thing.
Bring him in and take it from there. If you want him to be an indoor, family dog, the time is now. Otherwise, he may never adapt.
Exactly right, EJ’s.
MissB, if you are serious and committed, that’s great. But you have to do what works. Keeping him tied up outside and going outside to “train” him will never work. He has to be inside and you have to deal with the problems that creates. He will be nuts at first. If he has lived his whole life outdoors there is no way you can “train” him to NOT be nuts BEFORE he comes inside.
Get a crate and a baby gate, and get an ** education ** pronto!
That re-said, I highly recommend crate training – inside the house. Gives the dog a “den”, i.e. a safe place to be. You can get one of those chew-proof steel cages at the pet store. They’re expensive, but totally worth it for your peace of mind while you’re all away at work/school all day. Then you can work on the dog’s training evenings and weekends. Takes a lot of commitment, consistency and cooperation from the entire family. And don’t forget the patience. You can teach an old dog new tricks … it just takes longer. I would also recommend doggie boot camp – some serious send-em-away-for-training training. When you go to the vet for booster shots, they can recommend some places for you that provide this sort of thing. There are also TONS of books available about training dogs, esp. dogs with behavioral issues, like yours.
Note: if you decide to crate train the dog in the house, remember you are leaving it alone for 8+ hours. If you can swing by the house on your lunch hour to let him visit the bushes, he’ll be much happier and his bladder will be too. I live close enough to work that I do this every single day. Dogzilla (IRL) gets a potty break on my lunch hour without fail. I figure, I can’t go 8-10 hours without peeing. How could I expect a little dog to be able to do the same?
Dogzilla. I don’t usually recommend away-training, only because that dog needs to obey me, not some instructor. It helps if the primary caregiver is the one who takes him to obedience school, and makes sure that everyone in the house uses the same commands with the dog. If one person says “come” and the other says “heel”, the dog may do neither! Consistency is the key!
Training a dog to live in the house and be a member of the family definitely takes some work and commitment, but it has enormous rewards. I don’t think there is anything that compare with the love and devotion of a good dog. It is truly unconditional. It’s up to you to show that dog how to be a good dog and live harmoniously with the humans, though, and there’s no way around bringing him in the house and showing him the ropes. If you take your dog to obedience training, talk to other people with experience in socializing a dog, and make that commitment, you’ll be surprised how far you’ll come in just a few months. It’ll be a PITA at the start, but once the pup learns what you want and what you don’t, things will smooth out real well. Just put away the good china, keep the electrical cords hidden, and be calm and even-tempered with your pup even if he’s getting on your last nerve. You won’t regret it!
You all have a lot more experience than I do so I have a question for you. What we’ve been doing is keeping him in the kennel/crate (not sure what it’s really called) while we’re gone and then keeping him on the leash while he’s with us. He runs if he’s turned loose at all. Anyway, he wouldn’t go back in the kennel last night. He fought hard. Before last night he went in with very little struggle at all. I finally got him in but just barely.
On our first trip into the house he thought the sofa was a tree that needed to be marked. The vet says that having him neutered will take care of that. I hope so! My kitties are not happy. He pretty much ignored them but every hair on their little bodies was standing on end.
MissB, one last tip on training. Many communities offer free, or low cost, obediance classes through their Parks and Recreation Depts., or through the local shelters. Some pet stores also offer them. This might be an option available for you. Good luck with your dog.
Every one of the posted responses has suggested that the dog
be kept inside the house. Why? I dont see why this is a necessity.
I do agree that the dog shouldn’t be left alone, but if you
have a big yard, and shelter, why on earth can’t you have 2 dogs living outside?
I ask this because I am about to drop a couple hundred dollars on an electronic containment system, and I’m a little pissed.
Quick explanation: My dog has basically grown up with another dog. When my roommate got engaged, I moved into a different house. We left the dogs, who had the garage to
themselves when we werent home, with a connecting door to the fenced in yard, at her house for a while, rather than separate them. Now, they’ve moved to my house, as the wedding is this weekend. They will spend a couple weeks here
before we have to separate them permanently. Anyway, they
have gone from happy dogs to dogs from HELL in 3 days.
They have a much bigger, nicer back yard, but when I leave
for work, they tunnel under the fence and are sitting outside it when I get home. They dont even go anywhere.
So why the need to get out? How can they be bored with a much nicer, bigger yard, a new dog to play with (roommates dog) that they get along well with. However, they spend all their time destroying the yard, and endangering roommates Great Dane, who now escapes through the hole they dig and roams the neighborhood.
What the hell? Can anyone enlighten me?
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff all at once! I’ll try to address a few things for you, and also suggest that after the 2nd dog leaves you might want to see what sort of behaviors come about and get someone in your area who knows about dog behavior to help you out if the same things keep happening. It’s easier to know what’s going on when you can see the dog in question and get a thorough accounting of what’s happening.
You asked:
Reasons why it is good to keep a dog in the house:
Dogs are pack animals. The humans are part of the pack too, and they want to be with you, even if they do have another dog companion. If they are in the house, they get more face time with you, which makes them happier and more well-adjusted. This is a good thing for everyone concerned.
You answered this question yourself, partially. It’s safer (in general terms) for a dog to be in the house than outside, particularly when you are not at home. They can’t tunnel out and get hit by a car, someone who does not like dogs cannot hurt or tease them.
In some of areas of the country it can get either very hot or very cold outside. Both of these situations can be dangerous for dogs, even with shelter. An uninsulated, non-temperature controlled structure can still get very hot or cold. Weather can change very quickly too, and if you aren’t home, this can be a problem.
As for your dogs’ problem, they do sound bored, even though they have each other and a nice yard. Dogs also really like routine and don’t like things to change, so they may be freaked out about the change too. You don’t mention what breeds they are, but different breeds tend to have different levels of tolerance for boredom and different exercise needs. A good dog is a tired dog, and even if they have each other to play with all day, that may not be enough of the right type of exercise and mental stimulation needed. Try taking your dog on some nice long walks, or jog with him (there’s lots of free advice on the Net about getting your dog into the proper physical shape to be a jogging companion, and what breeds/types of dogs are appropriate for this activity and which aren’t).
Lastly, about the electric fence - if I were you, I’d hold off on doing that. They really don’t work all that well. I was a part-time petsitter for 5 years, and had several occasions where my clients had these fences. Some dogs will ignore the shock and go right through them if they see something interesting enough. I’ve also seen them fail when the electricity goes off - the dog realizes the fence isn’t on, and then it’s escape time. Dogs can also develop neuroses about them and refuse to go out in the yard at all. Another problem - which doesn’t sound like it will effect you, since you do have a fence - is that it doesn’t keep other animals out.