Need your advice on a stray dog my son has adopted

My son adopted a sweet female lab or lab mix puppy that was a stray. We guessed she was around 6 months. She is very sweet and doesn't jump on his 2 1/2 year old son. He lives on an acre that is fully chain link fenced.

However, when my son leaves for work, the dog will dig out or jump the fence and run away. He started leaving her in the sunroom while he was gone but she jumped though a glass window. So he started to chain her in the yard while he went to work.

She got out of her collar and out of the fenced yard as well. She was gone for a couple of weeks. She came back last weekend to eat. She now appears pregnant.
He has treated her for fleas but has recently spent $300 to also treat his house.

We are animal lovers. I have never had a dog that was such a runner. Is there any hope to solve this problem? Any help to solve the flea problem? I have never had a flea problem with my dogs.

Anyway, Thanks for any advice!

dixie said:

My son adopted a sweet female lab or lab mix puppy that was a stray. We guessed she was around 6 months. She is very sweet and doesn't jump on his 2 1/2 year old son. He lives on an acre that is fully chain link fenced.

However, when my son leaves for work, the dog will dig out or jump the fence and run away. He started leaving her in the sunroom while he was gone but she jumped though a glass window. So he started to chain her in the yard while he went to work.

She got out of her collar and out of the fenced yard as well. She was gone for a couple of weeks. She came back last weekend to eat. She now appears pregnant.
He has treated her for fleas but has recently spent $300 to also treat his house.

We are animal lovers. I have never had a dog that was such a runner. Is there any hope to solve this problem? Any help to solve the flea problem? I have never had a flea problem with my dogs.

Anyway, Thanks for any advice!

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Not to get off the question. When the dog runs away you stand the chance of her biting someone. Then you will have more problems. I had a dog like this. It was a big Irish Setter that we adopted. She loved to jump a 5 foot fence all the time.We had to give her to the Irish Setter squad.

It takes a lot of training, love and care to keep a dog at home. Most will run away. And, your son learned the hard way that when a female Lab is in heat, they will run to find a mate. We had one run from a Kennel she was boarded at while we were on vacation. Luckily the kennel owner found her the same day and, because of a heart problem Jodi had, we took her to the Vet and had her aborted/fixed immediately. The last 2 Labs we've had, we had spayed as soon as possible so we would not have any more pups, nor did we have to put up with the mess when they were in heat.

We have used a crate/kennel to help train our Labs and that helps a lot. Our "wild child" Dakota is 18 months old now and we had to spend a lot of time working with her, keeping her on a leash and finally we bought a "electronic device" AKA shock collar, to get her attention. We had never had one like Dakota either, so had to change our methods. She got into everything and anything, so she went in the kennel at night and when she got too wild in the house. Dakota and Kelly (our 12 1/2 yo. Lab) are never left outside on their own. We don't have a fence, live in the country and on a lake that gets occasional alligators. Dakota comes from two great hunting parents, so she loves to run. We take her for a couple of walks a day, let her run in our neighbors huge lot (she's gone 6 months of the year) and just generally let her get LOTS of exercise. And she is outside with DH when ever he is doing some yard work. And NO leash is needed and she does respond to NO and other commands. But it has taken awhile and a lot of patience!

Maybe your son needs to build a regular dog kennel outside with a cement pad and a very high and covered chain link fence...a run. And take her out and just run the legs off of her when ever he can. See if a Vet will neuter/abort her now. Unless things have changed, it's hard to know if a dog is pregnant until about the last 10-14 days before they whelp.

Put her on a good anti-flea, anti-tick, anti-heartworm med! Ours are on Revolution year round because Heartworm is prevalent in the south. And neither of ours has fleas, and Dakota is out most of the time. Good luck to your son.

I've had success with Invisible Fence. Over the 14 years living here, we've fostered or owned 9 different dogs of all sizes and breeds and none have broken out of the Invisible Fence once trained; well worth the investment.

I believe every dog and cat should be spayed or neutered unless you are a licensed breeder or show the animal. This world has too many homeless animals that are starving or euthanized. Makes me sad. Spaying and neutering is healthier for the animals, so I'm told.

Good luck.

Canine Training 101

The pooch is most likely suffering from separation anxiety. This can easily be worked through and he will have a great dog if he is willing to put some time into it. If he would like to e-mail me, I can walk him through the steps and we can work through this one on one. It's too lengthy to put everything in here...because it depends on what the dog's issues are, and then the appropriate response and training. I have been training dogs for 40+ years, and there is absolutely no need for an electronic fence (AKA electric shock) or any other shock collar. Once the animal knows it's loved and will not be abandoned, it will gain the confidence it needs to stay at home.

To be frank I think your son has done the wrong thing, but probably for all the right reasons. A new dog really needs to have somebody with it for most of the day, at least until it is settled in and into a routine. That is possibly even more important with a stray. It has been abandoned before and is probably trying to find your son when it breaks out.
If your son is away all day a young, active dog is really not a suitable pet.

try a harness

You can get a harness the dog cant pull out of. This will work much better than the collar. But quick have the dog fixed. Go out and visit her as often as posible if your home during the day.

Once the dog has been spayed she should calm down.

Cindy

ouaifer said:

I have been training dogs for 40+ years, and there is absolutely no need for an electronic fence (AKA electric shock) or any other shock collar. Once the animal knows it's loved and will not be abandoned, it will gain the confidence it needs to stay at home.

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I did NOT want to get a shock collar for Dakota, but we had never had a Lab as head strong and stubborn as she is/was, or as smart. All of our other Labs were "English" or show Labs and they were very easy to train.

Dakota is an "American" HUNTING Lab. When she gets focused on something we couldn't get her attention! We tried a training school...clicker type. She worked great in that class with treats (we had never had to use treats before and always had very well trained dogs), but on a walk if she saw a bird or rabbit she would run and not listen to me or DH. Four times she pulled me to the ground when she took off after something. Luckily I did not break anything. I couldn't keep that up. So I ordered a shock collar. No, we don't use it all that much now but at least I can point the control or the telephone or the remote at her and she drops the shoe, or what ever. But we were really at the end of our rope with her and ordered the collar. We feel we have failed her, but now she is better and we love her dearly.

NTHC said:

Once the dog has been spayed she should calm down.

Cindy

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Sorry, Cindy but I am ROTFLMBO. We had Dakota spayed at 4 months and she was calm for about 24 hours after surgery and now the only thing that is calming her down is AGE!!!! And she is only 18 months old. I only wish I had a 1/4 of her energy. I'm not sure that spaying or neutering automatically calms a high energy dog down.

ouaifer said:

The pooch is most likely suffering from separation anxiety. This can easily be worked through and he will have a great dog if he is willing to put some time into it. If he would like to e-mail me, I can walk him through the steps and we can work through this one on one. It's too lengthy to put everything in here...because it depends on what the dog's issues are, and then the appropriate response and training. I have been training dogs for 40+ years, and there is absolutely no need for an electronic fence (AKA electric shock) or any other shock collar. Once the animal knows it's loved and will not be abandoned, it will gain the confidence it needs to stay at home.

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Right on.

Keeping a dog on a tie-out for extended periods of time is really awful for the dog and breeds more behavior issues. In some rare cases, dogs have strangled themselves. Dogs need their people and when alone, they need something to keep them busy (Kong is THE BEST DOG TOY EVER).

Flea collars, those once-a-month drops, etc. are easy preventatives for fleas.

I'd suggest he take poochie to the vet and make sure she doesn't already have a microchip - if she's a runner, she may have 'parents' desperately looking for her.

Good luck! These issues can be solved with the right training of the trainer, then of the doggie, and consistent reinforcement.

dmharris said:

I believe every dog and cat should be spayed or neutered unless you are a licensed breeder or show the animal. This world has too many homeless animals that are starving or euthanized. Makes me sad. Spaying and neutering is healthier for the animals, so I'm told.

Good luck.

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Amen! Can't say it strongly enough---spay and neuter your pets!

We don't own dogs--only cats, but have been fascinated by watching "The Dog Whisperer" http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/dogwhisperer/ on National Geographic Channel. For dogs that run (and many other problems), Cesar Millan suggests regular walks, even though the dog has the run of a large property. A regular daily walk tires the dog out and establishes the human as the pack leader. I think you can rent the first season of the show. It's amazing what people can accomplish when they're (the people, not just the dog) trained properly!

JoAnn, try walking your hyper dog regularly and properly and see what happens. I'd be really curious to see if it works even when Cesar Millan and a TV camera aren't in your face to follow-up on your progress!