I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

"Janet Boss" wrote in message:

I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?

Regardless of whether any dog I have (or may have) can be reliably boundary
trained, I would have ZERO peace of mind if I left them in a position where
they could potentially get out. Not that it answers the question, but even
if I reliably boundary trained a dog, I would never find out just how
reliable they are with no human around.

I have known one person with a GSD (and a large farm type situation) who had
a reliably boundary trained the dog, in the sense that the dog had access to
the great outdoors 24/7, and never ran away.

Suja

Janet Boss wrote:
I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?

I wouldn't do it. Ever. Even if I had 100% confidence in my boundary
training I wouldn't.

And I don't have confidence, not at all. All three of mine are
rabbit-crazy and we're practically hip deep in baby bunnies right now,
lovely, chaseable delectable baby bunnies that go *squeak* crunch when
you bite them. The JRT goes bye-bye mentally when he's hunting and the
BCs aren't much better. I would never bet their lives that boundary
training would hold while they're in the grip of bunny lust.

If I were 100% certain that my dogs would never ever run off for any
reason I still wouldn't leave them unsecured because you've still got to
worry about other people's dogs. And wandering idiots. Etc, etc.

At my house the dogs are confined by a fence and they are never outside
when we're not home.

Janet Boss wrote:
I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?

I had neighbors who boundary trained their Lab. The dog was
trained never to leave the yard, and in fact had never left the
yard ON FOOT. When they took the dog for a walk, they put her in
a car in the driveway and drove several blocks. They figured
that would be secure, and in fact they never saw her even attempt
to leave the yard. But I never saw her outside unless one of
them was also present.

FWIW.

FurPaw

--
My family values don't involve depleted uranium.

To reply, unleash the dog.

I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?



When Riley lived at our house (when his owners also did), he was left
outside untied. He wouldn't try to leave the property and we knew it.
Occasionally, when someone was leaving in a car, he'd want to follow them
but a quick "get back to the house" or "stay" would usually always work.
That is still his biggest downfall, he's too dumb to run away when his
current owners leave him out untied.

Maui is fine untied but only when someone is home. When we all leave,
the dogs are inside. I have no doubt that Maui would try to leave the
property in search of his family if he could. And Cali, she'd probably just
hang out with the beagles until someone came back.

"Suja" wrote in message
...
I have known one person with a GSD (and a large farm type situation) who
had
a reliably boundary trained the dog,

A friend boundary trained his Aussie/Border cross to stay on his work
property. I've seen the dog sitting at the edge of the road and barking at
a cat on the opposite side but not leaving it. That's with a physical
boundary of the road. I don't know as the line is so absolute or solid
where it's a field going into a woods.

in the sense that the dog had access to
the great outdoors 24/7, and never ran away.

Not running away is a whole other thing. Dogs are such pack animals that
most of the ones that I've known don't wander all that far away naturally.
(There *are* exceptions.)

Back when everyone, me included, just let dogs outside to wander around the
yard and the farm, the dogs mostly stayed home. They usually had their own
boundaries that they set - and that may have some physical delineation - and
stayed within them. It's pretty common for a dog to claim and protect his
own "yard" - however large or small he determines it - and to understand
that when he steps outside of it that it's no longer his property.

Our previous schnauzer would make his rounds at least once a day, policing
his property and marking the perimeter. He determined where that line was.
About once a week, on a nice day, he would go about a quarter mile up the
road and/or a quarter mile out the lane out back to, I suspect, check
marking posts there. Otherwise, he was back at the door or stretched out on
the deck within a few minutes. We didn't leave him outside when we weren't
home but I'm certain that he wouldn't have run away.

The road got busier and I got more protective and we now have a fenced back
yard. These two dogs love to get outside the fence to get out to the
mailbox to check on the smells there. I don't know about Sassy but I'm
pretty sure Spenser wouldn't wander very far on his own.

Stray dogs passing through an area also seem to understand these lines and
respect them.

We would let our beagles run loose on the farm. They would either hang
around the house and barn or wander off into areas to hunt rabbits. One of
them used to go visit Grandma and Grandpa every once in a while. (He lived
there before DH and I got married.) It was about four miles and he always
traveled by road. He'd get some treats, take a half hour nap on their couch
and then come home again. At the same time, we used to dogsit a friend's
lab a couple of times a year. We had a pond. Cinder would come over about
once a week, take a swim, stop by the house to say hello and then go back
home - that same four miles away.

Our neighbors down the road still let their dogs (two male labs) outside
unsupervised. The dogs stay home unless accompanying one of them on a walk.
The dogs aren't left outside when no one is home. On a couple of occasions
I have looked out into my yard to see one or both of the labs (and their St.
Bernard before them). I always call - not because the dogs are a problem
but because I know they don't want them wandering up here or anywhere else.
We're probably a quarter mile from their house so it's not far to a dog.

My mother's neighbor ( living in town) trained his dog to their yard. The
dog is let outside for potty trips on his own. The dog also goes outside
with the neighbor when he's working in the yard. It seems pretty solid.
But I don't tempt either his dog or mine by dawdling in my mother's driveway
when I arrive with the schnauzers. I have seen other dogs being walked past
their property when the dog was outside and he had no reaction to them at
all. But I don't think I'd walk my reactive dogs right along his property
line to test it.

Judy

Janet Boss wrote:
I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?


I would never rely on boundary training. That being said, I would
never rely on a fence either. I would feel more confident with a dog
that is 100% boundary trained than an untrained dog left out in a
fully fenced yard(regardless of fence height). I have seen dogs go
over and under fences, including 8 foot walls. This is why I dislike
the shelters in my area that require a fenced yard to adopt dogs. It
further propagates the false security of a fenced yard. I don't have
a fenced yard, and it isn't something I consider necessary. I
boundary train my dogs, past and present. I still never let my dogs
outside without me standing out there with them. If they have to deal
with Michigan's crappy weather, I'll deal with it too.

Nick

On Apr 16, 4:29 pm, Janet Boss
wrote:
I'm curious how many here feel they can rely on boundary training with
their dog(s) (Past or present) when nobody is present/home particularly.
If you do believe in it, what makes you feel 100% secure? If not, why
not?

--
Janet Bosswww.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

You don't test your dog's boundary training like that; it's not fair
to the dog. Human teens and preteens can get caught up in the
excitement or agitation of the moment and do "bad" things they
wouldn't ordinarily do, without any conscious intent to break the
rules; how much more so a dog, with less ability to rationalize or
foresee the likely consequences of an action when emotion and instinct
take over?

Boundary training is additional protection for the dog, but it should
never be expected to do the whole job.

Lis