Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at
6:45 pm
dog deterrent
Alright, I just received a call from a past client. She has a kennel run for both her dogs, but one has started to guard the housing unit of the kennel, and the other dog won’t stop barking and whining because he can’t get inside, and her neighbor is complaining.
Another issue is that the kennel is about 100 yards from their house on the back side of their property so getting to the dogs in enough time to correct the behavior when it is happening is impossible for her, and I do NOT make 3 am. house visits to clients. She put an ultrasonic bark deterrent in the kennel run portion, and that has worked to cease the dog’s barking, HOWEVER, the dog with the guarding issues needs to be corrected, and the issue resolved. We’ve already removed one source of contention between the two from the kennel, but the fact still remains that there are 2 dogs in 1 kennel that is too small for the both of them.
I suggested the dogs be crated within the housing unit of the kennel so as to avoid the guarding issue, and that worked for a few weeks before the client explained that she had relented, and let the dog out because she could hear the dog whining and barking over the baby monitor she’d set up in the housing unit.
We’ve tried crating one, and leaving the other free, but that is still an issue. Because the one dog has issues being separated.
I recommended crating the dogs inside the house, but she is completely against that idea due to the inconvenience of having to fold away the crates every morning.
My most recent recommendation was to give the dog’s a freedom trial run. The dogs have a dog door that leads into the house’s attached garage, and I recommended leaving the kennel door open at night so the dogs could go in there, or into the garage. Our only concern with this is that the dogs may bark out near where the neighbor lives and cause her to complain again. (dogs are contained by an invisible fence.)
The fact the dogs are soo far removed from the house, and the client is borderline unwilling to adhere to my suggestions in regard to this issue is a bit of a challenge here, and I’m starting to run out of ideas that don’t include bark collars (I hate them, but the husband is thinking about using them)
I’m beginning to think that it would be best to use an e-collar on the dog guarding the kennel when he’s guarding it because the e-collar would offer the correction from a distance, but at the right time. Now, I would only instruct my client to use the pager setting, and the shock button would be taped off so there wouldn’t be any mistakes there, but I don’t really like this idea, and it’s a last resort sor of thing.
If any of you have any recommendations as to how to handle this I’d be grateful. I’m trying to offer them a cost effective solution, but I’m thinking their best bet would be to put in a second dog door on the housing unit of the kennel, and divide the kennel run with a fence so the dogs have their own housing unit and kennel run.
It is extremely irritating to try and help someone whose dogs are so decidedly removed from the family, and all the dog’s want is to be near said family. The dogs do well in the house, but the owners insist on having them outside at night. This is something I have told them repeatedly I’m not a fan of, but hey, that’s how they want it.
If it matters at all, the dogs are both 9 mo. old adolescent, altered males. One is a Catahoula mix (the one with guarding issues), and the other is a hound/lab mix.
They’ve done well with all the other training, but this one issue has just recently reared it’s ugly head, and I’m at a loss.
Hate to say it DOG, but you really should read the entire thing because if you had…you would know I’ve already, REPEATEDLY told them to do so, and they won’t.
I’m pet sitting for them on Saturday, and we’re going to schedule another session to "talk". I’m basically going to kindly put the hammer down on them, and let them know what needs to be done. After the initial training the way they’ve got the dog’s living is basically undoing all the work we’ve done.
Ironically, I’ve told them they need to walk the dogs, but they argue that the dogs get enough exercise running their three acre yard. I host pack walks around town, and have even invited them to join…offering to assist if need be.
It is becoming clear that they feel I haven’t done anything for them…in this area. Well, frankly, as you all know, I can’t do anything if they won’t listen to reason. SOOOOOO, the hammer will be brought!
