Do you leave your dog(s) in your yard when no one is home?

[elisabeth_00117]

Stark has never been left unattended - ever. I live in an apartment building so this is impossible here.

At my parents house they have acreage and are surrounded by fields, the dogs (Beau, Zoey, Senna and Stark) are NEVER left unattended.

Too many things can happen in an instant. Beau even had a dog run with a 'lid' on it and she was never left inside when we weren't home.

I personally will never allow it, inside is safer.

[MommaBoss]

What is 'unattended?' I'm assuming you mean while you are not at home, however, I learned a valuable lesson the hard way with my beloved Boss when he was about 4 months old. I was at home with the baby who needed a diaper change....so I let the dogs out in the back yard (we have 3 others, a Yorkie, Olde English Bulldog and Sheltie/Shepherd/Beagle rescue) while I went to change the baby's diaper. Well, Boss and the 2 year old Bulldog teamed up to dig a hole and in the process, Boss uncovered a jagged piece of buried glass. It severed an artery in his right front leg...the blood loss was unbelievable. I was in the back of the house for less than ten minutes and when I came back to the kitchen Boss (and the others) were all pawing at the door. Blood was everywhere...puddles of it everywhere and all over the door and deck. It looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre had just happened in my own backyard! At first, I didn't know which dog was bleeding or why, but long story short, after surgery and an overnight in the ER pet hospital, wearing a leg splint for several weeks, he is now as good as new. If I had been away from the house, even to run a quick errand, I'm sure he would have died. This taught me that I need to be where I can see 'what they're up to' at all times, even when I'm at home.

[kelso]

My answer is the same as when people ask if we leave them out in our house alone when we are not home...nope.

Our first GSD was out in the house all the time alone, and if we had a better set up now maybe I would do it more. Allie can be alone in the house at times. But we never leave them outside alone when we are not home.

I do, however, let them outside with each other when I am home. I do not go outside with them everytime they need to pee, or even for a little bit when they just play. But that was after some time. Our house has windows all along the back that I can see every inch of our fenced back yard from the inside. If they are doing anything other than relieving themselves, relaxing or playing nicely they come back in and we can see what they are doing in order to enforce that.

[blackviolet]

My dogs have a doggie door with access to two rooms of the house and the yard, so they get to go in and out as they please. So I don't leave them outside all day, but they do have that choice if they want to. I don't want to keep them locked in the house all of the time, and some of us do use our dogs as a deterrent to prevent theft and keep unwanted folks off of the property. Obviously, that's not the main reason we have them, the main reason is simply to be companions, but it does help to give them a job to do during the day when we may not be home.

As for puppies, I'm not sure when we finally felt okay leaving them home alone. For now, I haven't had to leave him at all, and if I do, I will have my mom babysit him. I think it was around 5 months with our other dogs before we started leaving them alone for short periods of time.

[blackviolet]

I guess I should add that when I'm home, they are in the house all the time, unless they want to play or go potty. If it were a young dog alone that was allowed access to outside, I'd be way too worried about someone stealing him, but I have my other two older dogs, and that's not going to happen.

If we're gone, the dogs have eachother for some company and play, and access to indoors for comfort (we keep the swamp cooler on for them - it's hot here in the desert!) or retreat. It seems that mostly, they choose to stay inside when we're gone.

[elisabeth_00117]

Unattended means = no one in the yard with them (whether we are home or not).

[Zisso]

I only leave my dogs in the secure chain link kennel when I am at work. They did manage to get out of it one day by shredding the gate a little, and that is why the rest of my yard is fenced. I was greeted by them at the front gate and was ever so grateful that this was as far as their escape got them! I would literally die with worry had they gotten out of the yard fence. I swapped kennel gates and wired a piece of plywood inside it so they cannot chew their way out again. When they are in the chain link kennel(324sq ft)
they do not wear their collars just for the reason above...I di not want them to get their collars hung up if they find a way out under it like that.

[JakodaCD OA]

Jean suggested we move this thread to "weekly topics" so that's what I'm going to do

[AvaLaRue]

I have 5 acres of land which is mostly thick woods. We fenced in a decent sized area of our backyard before we brought Ava home.

Before the fence, I would take the shihtzu's out on a leash. Now, I let all the dogs go out and they usually do their business and want right back in the house. Most of the time I do not stand out there with them ( I do not like to be hot). I watch them from the back door or I go to the dining room window so I can see the entire fenced in area of the yard.

Would I ever leave them outside when I am not home? Never ever ever. For one thing, my little Shihtzu's would have a heart attach. They can't stand to be outside. I would not worry about theft of the dogs as there is not a lot of strangers where I live. But as smart as GSD's are, I would not put it past Ava to figure out a way to escape. I could not live with myself if she got loose. When I am not home, Ava is safely in her kennel (with no collar on) and my Shih's sleep on the back of the sofa and wait to see my car pull in the driveway.

[kidkhmer]

I too have always left pups in secure yards both in Australia and now here in Cambodia. From 8 weeks old on . I usually throw out a raw chicken foot and make sure the bowl is full of water and they are fine. Mind you I currently have 15ft brick walls all around our villa with razor wire on top, no snakes and no other predators. Garden is mostly paved so Karma cannot dig holes and there is no shortage of things for her to chew on or investigate. I think the chickens keep her busy too. On the weekend she corralled the rooster into her garden crate and bit it on the arse !