Post by ladyarya on Jan 10, 2006 13:05:58 GMT -5
Bear with me if this is in the wrong forum
Starting off with the good news... I'm keeping the promise I made to my doggies and should have a nice new house with a big backyard for them by June. The houses I've been looking at all have between 1/4 and 3/4 acre... so it gives them a good place to run and wrestle.
But buying a house is a big deal and its keeping me up at nights.. partially I'm worried about the dogs.
Buddha has a digging issue. If I take him to the park and turn my back on him for half a second, he'll start digging to china before I can even get a "no!" out. It's hard to give him a leash correction in the park because it's an off-leash park, so I've been working on just saying no, pulling him out of the hole and then distracting him.... but in general, Boo is a slow learner. Once he knows something, he's got it down, but it takes a while for the lightbulb to go on for him. The good news is, I'll be able to leash correct in the backyard because it's not an offleash park.
So I'm worried about him being in a fenced yard and digging under the fence until he gets it that digging is bad.... especially because I know he'd be stolen. Not that I'm moving to a high crime area or anything, but he's so cuddly looking that I've already had people offer to "take him off my hands"... so I don't think he'd even make it to a shelter for his chip to be read if he got out.
Is there anything I can do to my backyard to make it less desirable for him to dig? Is there anything I should be looking for in a backyard to make it more dog-friendly? Is there anything else I can do to deter him from digging in the off-leash park since leash corrections are not an option?
Sorry this is so long... first time home buyer paranoia
Starting off with the good news... I'm keeping the promise I made to my doggies and should have a nice new house with a big backyard for them by June. The houses I've been looking at all have between 1/4 and 3/4 acre... so it gives them a good place to run and wrestle.
But buying a house is a big deal and its keeping me up at nights.. partially I'm worried about the dogs.
Buddha has a digging issue. If I take him to the park and turn my back on him for half a second, he'll start digging to china before I can even get a "no!" out. It's hard to give him a leash correction in the park because it's an off-leash park, so I've been working on just saying no, pulling him out of the hole and then distracting him.... but in general, Boo is a slow learner. Once he knows something, he's got it down, but it takes a while for the lightbulb to go on for him. The good news is, I'll be able to leash correct in the backyard because it's not an offleash park.
So I'm worried about him being in a fenced yard and digging under the fence until he gets it that digging is bad.... especially because I know he'd be stolen. Not that I'm moving to a high crime area or anything, but he's so cuddly looking that I've already had people offer to "take him off my hands"... so I don't think he'd even make it to a shelter for his chip to be read if he got out.
Is there anything I can do to my backyard to make it less desirable for him to dig? Is there anything I should be looking for in a backyard to make it more dog-friendly? Is there anything else I can do to deter him from digging in the off-leash park since leash corrections are not an option?
Sorry this is so long... first time home buyer paranoia