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Wow, I wouldn't dream of shutting up our dog inside all day while we're gone.
We got him for a guard dog but is also a part of our family. He's outside in the fenced yard all day until we get home. 1st one home lets him inside. He stays in until it's bedtime and then out he goes again. Now this being said, he has a constant source of fresh water and plenty of shade.
He's a rot/lab mix at top weight he was 96lbs. I don't think anyone would be dumb enough to try to get into the yard while he was there.
Leaving a maltese / chihuahua / cavalier loose in the house is very different from leaving a border collie / labrador / german shepherd loose in the house.
Well, it all depends on how well your dog is trained. I have 2 GSDs and they stay inside, no crates, no mess. Breed has really nothing to do with it, it's the traininng that matters.
Age too. A young dog (any breed) can go through a destructive period, but between training and generally outgrowing it, destruction should not be a lifelong issue for a dog.
I have to confine my younger dog when I'm not home, but my other dog has full run of the house and doesn't touch a thing, she's a pit-lab mix.
My dog has access to the yard through a dog door, so I'm assuming he is out there unsupervised when I'm gone. The fence is very high and solid, and we live in a row house - so the only way someone could steal him is to jump from another yard over, and therefore it would have to be a neighbor (or friend of a neighbor). I think it would be obvious if Rudy was suddenly barking at me from a nearby yard! Not to mention, the people in this neighborhood simply wouldn't do that... most of them have small fluffy dogs (if any), and are afraid of Rudy's size. Oh, and Rudy would RUN back into the house if someone jumped in the yard. Therefore I'm not really worried about him being dog-napped, as shy as he is. So yes, he is unsupervised outside and very safe.
I don't want to be an alarmist, but it's not usually going to be a neighbor that steals your dog.
My brother lives in a very nice neighborhood - this is not a neighborhood known for crime at all. He recently caught a guy climbing up onto a neighbor's 6 foot privacy fence. The neighbor was not at home and the dog was alone in the backyard, unsupervised and barking.
The guy said he was looking for his own dog, that his dog was stolen. Now I ask you, if your dog went missing, would you just wander through a neighborhood listening for barking and climbing over fences to look at the dog? Would you do it in the Deep South where I live - where nearly everyone is armed?
But if you're a criminal and someone was paying you for the bait dogs you stole, you might take a chance .
There is no dog breed more at risk than any other for these guys - they'll take little fluffy as easily as any other breed of dog. They'll take cats too.
My 3 left alone in the house are a 1 y/o Pittie mix, a 4 y/o GSD mix, and a 5 y/o GSP. They weigh 62,98, and 78 respectively. That's enough to do some serious damage but they have toys and they seem to sleep a lot. They are quite active when I'm home. A dog in the yard does not deter a burglar from breaking in a side window that's not behind the fence.
3) DOGS WILL FIGHT: My dogs adore each other, but in certain situations they will fight. It can get very serious, very fast and I need to be there to break it up. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it's bad. So far, no blood has been drawn between these 2, but if I wasn't there to stop them, they'd be drawing blood .
I suppose if you have a single dog this isn't a problem This is the one of the main reasons we don't leave our 7 unsupervised at all. Dogs really aren't that different than people. Everyone's getting along famously, then one walks by the other and gives the hairy eyeball or mutters "yo mama" and a scuffle can start. And dogs that have lived together all their lives, slept together, and played tug together - one morning they wake up and the other one is the Enemy Force.
There's another thread on dogs that can never be left alone...I'll never say never, but with ours it is very rare. If they are, they are separated. And yes, how I wish I'd kept up with all the crating...only a few are amenable to the idea now, and the blind boy can't be crated - freaks completely out. If we're gone, the few and the proud go to crates - the others are separated by baby gates, which they have a mortal fear of for whatever reason. May as well be a 6' brick wall.
Amusing story, though...they were left in the house, all loose, while I ran to the store one day. Everyone was napping. (This was before I decided it was a lousy idea to leave them all loose at one time). I didn't secure the front door behind me when I left...I came home to 2 police cars, 2 animal control vans, and 7 dogs playing Free Willy through the neighborhood. The wonderful retired couple next door had herded a few into their yard since our yard was locked from the inside....and they were standing firm between those dogs and animal control and the wife was absolutely NOT going to let them go...and while she had the police and animal control backed up next to their cars and giving them the what-for, her husband snuck out their back door and gathered up the other three and put them in a neighbor's yard we didn't even know (but who turned out to be his sister). I came home to an utter mess and in the middle of all the confusion had to produce a kennel license...we'd just moved and I had NO CLUE where to look. Fortunately, we are in a small town and a quick call to the shelter that licensed us cleared everything up.
I just don't leave them unsupervised - I'm fortunate, I work mostly from home and the rest of the time my husband and I pretty much juggle our schedules. Yes, I'm in touch with the fact that the world thinks we're nuts, but it works for us. I'd absolutely be crushed if anything happened that was avoidable.
Moral of the story: keep up with your crate training. If yours aren't crate trained, LOCK THAT DOOR! If they are outside, lock that fence and make sure there aren't any exit areas. Check your fence regularly for weakened areas and repair immediately. If the worst happens and they do get out, at least you've got the defense that you did your best to secure them. Considering the fines in some cities for an at-large dog and the fact that most shelters are overworked, I'm not taking the chance of one of mine getting picked up and possibly euthanized because there was a breakdown in communication. Supervising them lets my mind rest easy that I'm doing everything I can to keep them all safe and happy.
I suppose if you have a single dog this isn't a problem This is the one of the main reasons we don't leave our 7 unsupervised at all. Dogs really aren't that different than people. Everyone's getting along famously, then one walks by the other and gives the hairy eyeball or mutters "yo mama" and a scuffle can start.
I laughed out loud at that too! I also wish I could have seen the "amusing story" in person...although with Sam's descriptive writing...I have a pretty clear picture. Thank goodness for AWESOME neighbors.
Originally posted by Sam I Am: "Yes, I'm in touch with the fact that the world thinks we're nuts, but it works for us. I'd absolutely be crushed if anything happened that was avoidable."
Are you happy? From everything I have ever read that you have written says...YES. That's all that matters. Forget about what others think. I love our dogs as much as anyone loves their human kid. If you are going to make me listen to a story about your kid...you need to listen to a story about my furry kid (lol)! Everything evolves around our kids. They makes us happy. Our best vacations are ones we take with our dogs!
We did have an experience with a neighbor kid when we left our dog in a pen in Asheville - we have my mother in law at the time [stroke] and the dogs really had to be outside. This dog was wonderful with kids but everytime this one boy came to the house my dog would growl at him.
I came to find that the boy was sneaking over and poking him with sticks and teasing him.
The father felt that all dogs were bad [kid had been bit several times jumping peoples fences and running through their yards] and never put any responsibility on himself or his kid. I wound up moving the pen to where I could see it and brought the dog inside as much as possible. Bottom line - kid teases dog mercilessly - dog bites kid [we NEVER had that happen because I was VERY careful] - guess WHO is a fault.
Oh this kid was UNINVITED EVER to my house - he tried to forcibly pull off my daughters underpants when she was 9 and he was 11. He was trouble all the way around.
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