^CYTRQ^
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Feb 19, 2007, 6:18 AM
Post #1 of 7
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Hi everyone. I'd just like to give you a brief background of the problem I've been having for quite a long while now. I have a 4 year old Labrador who's a little too intelligent for her own good. She started to like to escape from the house compound when she was about a year old. Our house used to have chain-link fencing surrounding the perimeter of the garden and due to its flimsy and unsecured nature, it would be subject to my dog's pushing and scratching. So much so that she'd just stick her head under the fencing and push her way through to the other side - either to my neighbour's house or to the road in front of the house. So we tried to block up the bottom of the fence with flower pots and anything we could find lying around the house, but to no avail. She'd just push through those objects to get through the fence. So we decided to have some renovation done to the house, which included building a 6 foot concrete wall with iron fencing around the house. We obviously thought that since the house was in desperate need of repair anyway, that this would do the trick in making the house look a little nicer and prevent our dog from getting out. So for a few weeks after having our house nicely renovated with a nice sturdy brick wall surrounding our garden, we managed to keep our dog in. But one fine day, she was caught in the act of jumping up and climbing over the 6 foot wall that was built!! THERE ARE NOT EVEN ANY FOOTHOLES!! YES, she jumped, grabbed the top of the 6 foot wall with her front legs, and used her hind legs to claw her way over to our neighbour's house!!! I had to go to our neighbours' house to get her back everytime she did it and it is quite embarassing, although they said that it's ok since they love the dog too. So this went on for many months with me trying to provide her with lots of chew toys, taking her for walks everyday at different times of the day, playing with her, bringing her inside the house to chill out and even letting her sleep in my room at night! I'd say she has a good life in our house. She's always content when she's inside the house. Could it be because of lack of stimulus when in the garden? I don't think it's a case of separation anxiety, cos she doesn't make much of a fuss when she's alone. These days i keep her indoors most of the time as she's housebroken and doens't do any damage when alone indoors. But what can I do stop her from wanting to get out of the house in such an extreme way when unsupervised in the garden? OR should I just resign to letting her stay indoors all the time? Mind you, keeping a lab indoors means tonnes of fur on everything, lots of vacuuming and mopping weekly and the occasional flea investation, which I control by using a spray insecticide on her. I have no problem with keeping her indoors, but my brother makes a fuss. Any behavioural remedies to this problem will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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