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So anyway, I have a young German Shepherd who loves his fenced backyard... Thing is though, I have three trees in it with squirrels. Now, it's not the squirrels themselves that are the problem, but the fact that they make the dog crazy.. The very second I open the back door, he shoots out, leaps off the deck, makes a hard right to the tree on that end of the yard, the squirrels hop through the other trees and then he burns rubber through the back yard to them.. Every single day.
He also stays out there during the day - which is good, but there's no telling how many times he chases them while I'm gone to work. And I used to think it was cute and funny, but now my grass has taken a beating. I planted new grass last spring, but it didn't survive through the summer...
And he's stayed out there all winter too, except for days when it was raining, or really cold. So now it reeeeally looks bad.. Spring is right around the corner, and I can easily plant new grass again, but I know it'd just be pointless.
So what do I do??
I want my backyard to look nice, but at the same time I don't want to keep my dog from it.. Don't get me wrong, he's a great dog and I'm not getting rid of him either. And I've looked around online to see if I could do anything about squirrels, but I can't find anything that doesn't involve killing them, and I don't want to do that.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We had that problem with our two dogs, and they never did catch a squirrel, in fact, the squirrels teased them, and will sit in the tree or fence and scold the dogs. You could get a live trap, catch squirrels and take them miles away and let them go, but that can be illegal. Ours didn't bark they just chased, so it didn't bother neighbors. Eventually I gave up on the strip of grass and just put gravel. We have plenty of lawn in the front and side anyway.
Surrender to the squirrels now because that is a no win for you situation, put an area of gravel for the hound to run in or train the hound not to run there.
Ehhh. I have this same problem, but my dog is not out there constantly. My back yard, between the rain and the dog running after the squirrels, is destroyed. And he's not usually out there for longer than 1/2 to 1 hour at a time.
Catch them---- are you kidding? There seem to be hundreds of them.
Only answer for me is to ignore them and let the dog chase them.
Get yourself a really mean half wild cat from a cat rescue that places barn cats. Don't feed it until it catches the squirrels and has squirrel for dinner.
Why care about the grass? Your dog is occupied and having fun. The squirrels are occupied and having fun. It's great exercise for both.
And the grass doesn't mind.
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Fire! Fire!
