Leaving Cameron outside

Hi everyone- since this is the first time since living with my parents that I've actually had a backyard and deck during the warm months, I have some questions about leaving Cameron in the backyard by herself.

FIrst of all, we have a 10x20 deck off the top story of our house, with stairs that go down to the fenced area of about 15x20 that we just recently put up for Cameron. The deck also has a gate so that we can close it off so Cameron can't go down the stairs into the fenced area, which works especially well if it is wet out because we don't have a full yard of grass yet.

Anyway, I left her on the deck the other day while I went for a run, and she was fine, but I just worry about leaving her unattended while not in her crate-- What if she were to get stuck between the deck posts or something? Or start digging in the fenced are and get out? I want to be able to leave her there for short periods of time, because she has much more room to run around then in her cage, plus she can use the bathroom, but I am just to paranoid about it.

Does anyone else leave their dog outside unattended? If so, how did you start- just with short periods of time? Any input would be appreciated.

 

other worries you need to consider is PEOPLE - will someone steal the dog, poison the dog, torment the dog, etc. Unattended dogs, left outside, are a target for people who sell dogs to labs. Here, in NH, last year a kid stole a dog from someone's yard - duct taped the dog's legs together and dragged it behind his car.

I don't think any dog, or cat, is safe left outside when no one is at home.

 

We used to keep two dogs outside and never had a problem in 10 years. Well, except the unbearable guilt I will feel for the rest of my life now that I know better....

But you are talking about for just short term, not all the time!

My question is this - do you know that Cameron would prefer to be outside? I mean, WE think it would be nicer to have more room to run around. But does SHE think so, or would she just lie around waiting for you to get home?

I guess if you want to try it, I would advise to somehow make her THINK you have left and observe her. See what she gets into and where the potential dangers are.

Of course, make sure she has water available, and a sheltered place to get out of the sun.


Jamiya

 

I agree with Jimiya, does Camerson like to be outside?? Wylie would just die if she couldnt be outside, on the other hand Jakes cries like a maniac if left outside, he hates it. that is why we have a dog door, to make both happy

likeyou said it is for short periods of time. I would just watch, leave her outside while you are in the house and see how she acts. then you can see if problems crop up like digging, barking, or sticking her head between posts

Honeybear

 

Nala LOVES to be outside. But only if someone is with her! My husband left her out once for about 20-30 mins to go pick up the kids at school (I was out of town and we didn't have Bonnie yet). She broke the storm window on the door crashing against it, wanting to get back in. I could have killed my husband when he told me! Nala was unhurt, lucky for him.


Jamiya

 

I am happy she was not hurt .Sam does that ,he loves the outside ,but only for short times ,then he comes crashing against the door as if all the hounds after fox were after him .Seems as if I can't stop him from that either .I have even left the door ajar and still he comes so fast as he doesn't look ,just wants back in .

 

Mine don't like to stay in the yard alone either. They like to do their business and come right back inside. If I leave them out there too long Sebastian bangs on the door with his paws and Natalie howls quite loudly.

 

I leave my dogs outside unattended all the time. The only time I let them in is when I'm home b/c they tear stuff up. There are things you have to deal with. One dog of mine was stolen. Now I have a padlock on my fence just in case. My dog does like to dig (not necessarily to get out, just to dig) and chew up things. But before I put him out there, I went all around the yard and looked for anything he could possibly get into or hurt himself on. I go out there every few days and do a yard/fence check. No problems. If I see a problem developing, I fix it.

As far as starting, I would leave the dog out while you are there and check on them to see how they are doing and what they are doing. Then gradually leave them unattended for one hour, then two, etc. until you feel confident leaving them. I started mine from the time when they were puppies (6 wks). At first I just let him out for a few hours and when I did I checked on him every 10 mins or so. Now he's basically out 95% of the time and he does fine with it.

I'm not into crate training. Personally I feel it is best to leave a dog out (given the right accomodations - fence/shelter/etc). I have big dogs (st bernards ) so leaving them in a crate is not good (too small) and they are very active so they need stimulation, etc. I have never had any major probs with it. the only big problem i ever had was when someone stole my dog. That really had nothing to do with him being out, that was due to some $%$#^# who will burn in hell forever. I could have kept him in I guess but he would've been miserable. It's a tradeoff.

 

I leave Jasper outside all the time. When I go to work she stays out side, when i get home she comes in side for about 1/2hour and then crys to get back outside again and she'll go lay on her bed. She sleeps inside in the Laundry of a night time with the back door open but the screen door locked, blanket and pillow on the floor and she's apples..... :wink: :wink: :wink:. If she needs to go to the toilet, she just barks which wakes me up and I let her outside.

I have never used a crate and I never will start to use one. Jasper likes her freedom to much. I do check to yard every afternoon when I have gotten home just in case she's dug under the fence (I'm not saying that she would do that, but I still check, I'd rather be safe then sorry). No-body has attempted to take Jasper as she is a very protective dog, and will bark at unfamiliar voices and unfamiliar people.

We got her when she was 6 months old (i think :?: :?: ), and because we lived with my in-laws at the time, they had 2 corgi's, so Japser grew up around them and stayed outside with them when she was younger. She had little playmates to play with and because corgi's are kinda lazy dogs, (well they were anyway), they just layed around the house all day, so Jasper did to. We were letting her outside for a few hours every day, then after a while she got used to staying outside.

 

Well the truth is that Cameron would rather not be alone, period. She is very attached to us and when she is left alone, she howls quietly for at least 20 minutes I would imagine. I didn't used to know this, but I had to check on something in the backyard right after I left the house one day (her cage is against the slider so she can look out), and I heard her howling. Then when I left her on the deck the other day, I noticed her howling too when I cam back after about 15 minutes. When we get home from work after about 7-8 hrs though, she is not howling, so she must only do it for a little while.

Anyway, I guess my point is that she loves to be both inside and out, but would prefer to be with us in either situation. However, that is not always possible! I just thought outside might be better sometimes because she does have a TON of energy and I thought she would like to have space to run. But maybe, like some of you said, she wouldn't even want to run anyway because she would just lay around missing us!

 

One thing I would worry about is the neighborhood. Is everyone there a dog person? If your dog howls after you leave, I don't know what the neighbors would think.

I've heard too many cases where people are annoyed with someone's dog and act irrationally and hurt/poison the dog. People can sometimes be sick and not care that they are hurting a living creature... a family member.

It's sad that we have to worry about those things in this world.

I just wondered if this is something you have to worry about. I would hope that it wouldn't be, but I guess you never know.

 

I did have to call the police on my neighbor's dog last summer. They had one dog that barked nonstop the entire time they were gone - whether inside or out - but when out it WAS HORRIBLE. A larger beagle bark...nearly drove me insane. And last year it was 4th of July and the dog was outside barking nonstop for hours (and I'm sure a lot of it had to do with firecrackers and all and the dog was probably scared) but when I saw 2am got around on the clock and this poor dog was still barking I finally caved and called the cops. I had to work the next day.

Maybe you could ask a neighbor if your dog barks/howls while left alone outside and for how long before you make a final decision.

 

Nala used to stay outside for 20-30 minutes by herself, but it was fairly rare. After running off some initial energy, she would wander around the yard and look for interesting things to do. She pretty much stayed out of trouble, but she got bored and wanted to come back inside (or even better, she wanted one of us to come outside and play with her).

Nala will stay outside with Bonnie now for longer periods of time. It's usually Bonnie who wants to come in first. She just stands there and stares at the door, though, so I don't always know until Nala comes crashing against it.

I am trying to discourage the door crashing by either watching more closely so I can let them in before she crashes, or if she has already crashed I give it at least 10-20 seconds before I walk to the door to let them in. By then she has 4 on the floor and I am hoping the connection has been broken between crashing and the door opening. It does seem to be better than it was. I think Bonnie has helped to teach her to just stand and wait instead of crashing.

Bonnie has really been the godsend for the "hate to be alone" syndrome. They are confined to the family room during the day when we are gone, and we have not had any major disasters yet. *knock on wood* The only messes we have had are occasional small piles of upchucked yard debris, probably from Nala eating too many sticks in the recent past.

I have noticed that either dog is totally fine if the other dog is absent as long as I am home. If I am not home but another person is (especially one of the kids), the dog is mostly fine. We have had to leave Bonnie all by herself a few times and I guess she was okay, but I am pretty sure she was anxious the whole time. There was no hard evidence, though. I'm thinking Nala would revert to massive chewing on inappropriate things if we left her home alone without Bonnie, but I could be wrong.

I have been overall very pleased with adding Bonnie to our family. I was always afraid that we would need another hyper dog to keep Nala busy, but it turns out that Bonnie does just fine! The current "problem" is that when Nala gets even mildly excited for any reason whatsoever, she immediately turns to Bonnie and starts to chew on her legs or ears and lure her into wrestling/playing with her. And Nala goes deaf when this happens as well. We are back to working on self control again, LOL.


Jamiya

 

My mom keeps her lab outside while they are at work. He used to have the run of the yard, but one day when I was in high school I cam home to find his collar cut and laying on the ground, and Charlie was gone. I had just finished my diploma exams that morning, and when I got into the house there was a message. The local high school (not mine) had him in their office. It seems our lovely neighbour had cut his collar and let him take off. (He worked nights and always complained about the dogs in the neighbourhood. He was the only house that didn't have one). One of the kids saved him after he almost got hit by a van and brought him inside.

My mom was so worried. I was glad he was okay though. My step dad ended up having quite the talk with the neighbour (never told us what he said, but the guy sold his house and moved later that month).

Now they have a dog run for him away from the main fence area so noone can see him. (he's not a barker anyway). And he does fine. He loves to lay in there and try to jump up at the birds.

I guess it depends on how much you trust your dog. Harley isn't allowed outside period without supervision. She has gotten out 2 times, and both have been very fortunate she didn't find a loose dog around somewhere.

 

Jimiya glad to hear Bonnies is helping Nala and vice vera. love to hear she is "godsend"

Puggle, the main problem you have to worry about is Camerons barking. I had the same problem with Jake. I never knew he barked when left alone. I started getting notes from the police because somone turned my in. I thought, not my dog, he never barked when I was around. So I wnet ot my neighbor and she said he did cry sometimes for hours when were were gone. I wish she had told me. I never knew who kept calling the police complaining. But after that I put a dog door in. He is happy as a clam (whre did that phrase come from) he just wanted to be in the house, didnt matterif we werent there, - that was his comfort zone. I love the dog door because Wylie is the opposite she loves to be outside

I agree with Mary, you will have some very pissed off neighbors if you dont get the barking under control, and someone may do something.

Honeybear

 

After reading your post I immediately thought of my neighbor who lost her dog, temporarily, because a couple of neighborhood kids went in to play with the dog while she ran to the store.. After they left they did not close the gate and the beagle found something interesting to smell on the wrong side of the fence. One smell led to another and he was gone. We drove around and eventually found him. This is why I know I can't leave my dog out even though he loves to sit on the porch and dream the afternoon away. :cry:

 

My neighbour hood is great where we live. My next door neighbour has a dog (not quite sure of it) that used to howl none stop when it was little and it used to drive mum and I up the wall. But because I am such a dog lover it didn't worry me that much.

There is an old lady that lives over the back of us that I was really worried about because I thought Jasper's bark might annoy her and she might get sick of it, but I ran into her down at the club one night and I ask her straight out if Jasper's barking annoyed her, she commented and said 'no' it doesn't because she know's that there is 'somebody' or 'something' out there that shouldn't be there and it makes her aware of the unusal surroundings....

On occasion our neighbourhood is bad for people jumping fences and knicking clothes off the line, so this makes her and myself aware that somebody is around.

I have two storys about that happening, but i'll tell them a little bit later.

 

We live in a small, pretty nice neighborhood, and probably the only one of our dogs who would just up and leave with a stranger without at least barking would be Haley. Even so, we don't leave ANY of them out tied in the yard or in the fenced parts of the yard, expect for maybe a couple minutes as I run up and grab something from the house, and even then, I'll stop in and ask someone at my grandparents' house to keep an ear on them. As many decent people as there are in the world, there are also sickos who would take a dog and do horrible things to it, and that's not something I'm chancing with our dogs. We'll let them on our deck with the doors at each end open, and even then check on them every 10 minutes or so, there's no way someone could get up there and take one of them without them or one of the dogs still in the house raising a ruckus and getting our attention, even if we didn't see them opening the gate through the door. If we had a solid fence (not chainlink or picket, but solid wood, concrete block, or the like), at least 6' tall, and locked securely, I'd feel relatively safe letting them (at least Haley and the 3 little ones, Goo is a fence jumper) out in it alone with frequent checks on them, but otherwise, no way. Too much risk of someone walking by and tossing in something that could hurt them, or lettign them out, or even taking them. It could be that I'm just paranoid because one of the breeds we own is a "high theft risk", and I've heard accounts from others about dogs disappearing from yards to unknown fates.... but I figure better safe than sorry. They sure don't suffer for it, and it keeps me in decent shape to, having to make sure they all get exercise :lol: