A week ago Cheyenne became our foster-dog! My Uncle James and Aunt Rebeccah Brown were re-stationed from Colorado to Washington, and won’t be able to start renting a home with a yard for the dog until their house in Colorado sells. So Dave and I agreed to take care of Cheyenne for a while. It took a little time for her to adjust, but now that she’s gotten used to Dave and I she seems a lot happier.
Dave and I are at work or school for the majority of the day, so Cheyenne spends the most of her time in the back yard. I’ve opened up the kids play house for her to seek shelter from the rain and snow. She has a queen size feather blanket in one corner that I found for free on Craigslist, food, water, and toys. But her favorite part about the back yard are the neighborhood cats!
We have two that live across the street along with two other dogs. Since they’ve been around dogs they are curious enough to keep coming back. When I come home and Cheyenne won’t come when I call chances are she’s watching one of the cats up our tree, on top of our shed, or perched on the play house staring down at her. They like to watch each other (Cheyenne doesn’t bark, so I’m sure that helps the situation).
We’ve taken her over to Dave’s parent’s house to play with their black lab, Bailey. They seemed to enjoy tearing around the house and yard together. Every once in a while Bailey would bark because Cheyenne wasn’t paying enough attention to him. Oh dogs! What a mess they can be.
We purchased and installed some baby gates to keep her out of places she shouldn’t be in, and keep her out of trouble at night time. Here’s a picture of Cheyenne in our front entry way converted into Cheyenne’s bedroom. She likes her bed and will just go lay down if it gets too late at night and we haven’t gone to bed yet. She’s really good about laying down and not being too loud when the time comes to go to sleep.
Here comes the challenge... She periodically likes to dig in the yard! Any suggestions on what we can do to get her to stop?!? We've trained her to stay off the couches, keep out of the bedroom, even stay with me in the front yard when I'm weeding or head to the car or back yard by herself... but where to start training her not to dig... I think she's bored because we leave her home alone Monday through Thursday from 7am to 6pm. Any recommendations would be very helpful!
I have some dog digging advice but you won't like it. When I took Blaze to obedience class and asked about digging the answer was to give her a square in the yard that was a safe place for her to dig. They suggested putting in some sand since dogs really like to dig in sand and planting in toys and goodies so when she dug there she would find all kinds of wonderful treats. Then you praise her for digging in the right spot.
ReplyDeleteBlaze is tearing up my yard and her most favorite place is right off the front porch. I've got 3 inch holes all over the yard and some MUCH bigger. My problem is the same as yours- with a sand pit the cats will use it as a litterbox and then she'll eat the poop. Dogs totally do that which is why I never get kisses from dogs. Gross! Anyway. I'm not totally convinced that taking the time to convert a square of my yard into a digging play area is really going to limit Blaze to that section. That was the obedience school only suggestion. Good Luck and let me know if you do it and it works.
Thanks for the insight Kathryn! We need all the help we can get. She did good for 3-4 days, but Saturday she started a little digging again! And Dave was in the back yard with her... Gerrr
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