Farm dogs running away

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elisa
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:11 am
Location: Finland
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Farm dogs running away

Post by elisa »

Asking for a friend. (Situation not ideal, I know, so please constructive ideas.)

So there's now four farm dogs on a huge yard - one oldie male and then young mum (recently spayed) and her two male pups of like 6 months (one is likely to still go to a new home). Super friendly dogs that love people and attention. Mum and pups have recently started running away to explore the countryside, which is not safe and neighbours of course do not appreciate. Other than tying them up, how could one positively discourage the running away?

I'm thinking they are bored. They don't really get all that much attention - school just started for the kids (all under 10) and such. So they go exploring. So we make it rewarding for them to hang around. Call them over for some pets (and random treats or play) as often as possible. I'm thinking maybe a change in feeding could help as they get food in the evening - maybe if this was a bit more random for a while then they would have reason to hang around. Then of course have the kids spend more time with the pups (the calling them often bit). And they are farm dogs so the farmer could ask them to hang out with him more instead of them just being on their own while he is out and about. (My friend is the wife and she works long hours. There is also an au pair, but the dogs are not really her job.) Of course all easier said than done. Though it is a "hang out more with the dogs or they die" -situation so there's gotta be motivation.

So any other ideas on like flipping the situation to encourage hanging around? I know there's people tuned to dog psychology here.
JudyN
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Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:20 pm
Location: Dorset, UK
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Re: Farm dogs running away

Post by JudyN »

Is there any chance of fencing the yard, or part of it? If they were confined to a smaller area it might not mean they get even more bored as a large featureless yard might not be much more interesting than a small one, and it could be 'enriched' in some way. Then encourage the family to take them on walks/outings as much as possible - the farmer is probably the one able to do most here. And there's no reason the au pair couldn't be asked to walk the dogs as part of her job - for a raise, of course!

I'm not an expert, but my guess is that any solution that involves the dogs having access to the coutryside isn't going to work because there's just so much fun to be had out there.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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