Pet Owners esp dogs

[SarahW]

Presenting Harry, the world's bussiest dogger...

He stays indoors except for "necessity." We have a fenced yard but he's too much of a mama's boy to stay out there by himself.

 

[Free To Canoe]

My lab (Coal) usually stays inside if I leave him at home but whenever possible I take him with me. If I run short errands, he rides along and hangs out in the car (except on very hot days). My neighbor will sometimes let him out during the day if I am gone more than a few hours.

Coal loves the water but I only give him access to the lake when I can supervise.

Wow! Nice pic of the diving dog.
We used to have labs (actually slabs - shepard lab mix).
Now we have 2 cattle dogs. They stay with us. Indoors or out. So that we are there to cater to their every need.

Free to canoe

 

[Dawg52]

My lab (Coal) usually stays inside if I leave him at home but whenever possible I take him with me. If I run short errands, he rides along and hangs out in the car (except on very hot days). My neighbor will sometimes let him out during the day if I am gone more than a few hours.

Coal loves the water but I only give him access to the lake when I can supervise.

Nice pics. Got to love water dogs.

 

[bright eyed]

Presenting Harry, the world's bussiest dogger...

He stays indoors except for "necessity." We have a fenced yard but he's too much of a mama's boy to stay out there by himself.

\\

Harry is sooo cute!

my pooch is indoors and leashed outside, or else he'll run around like a balloon deflating around the neighborhood...he's still a puppy and learning...

 

[SarahW]

Thanks! Harry rules the roost, lol. He's quite bratty but adorable.

 

[tuixiu]

slightly OT =

Today while walking my dog saw her first horse. It was great man it came clip-clopping behind us on this path, dog was sniffing tree, looked back... first time I've ever seen that dog speechless. Her eyes got big as quarters, with 5 full seconds of dog face going "what the fuuuuuuuuuuu?" then started barking with hair on back up and tail down.

Good times.

 

[Urchina]

what if your neighbors is a jerk and taunts and antagonize the dog? Then he blames it on you for not properly training your dog. Would you still leave it outside?

Is this a rhetorical question? Is there any advantage to leaving your dog outside in this type of situation?

To answer the original question: Two cats, indoor-only (for safety reasons and for the wildlife -- domestic cats are major killers of migratory songbirds, who are already struggling in populations in some areas). One big dog, indoor-outdoor during the day, but if we leave she's inside in her crate. No worries, that way, and no chance she'll accidentally get out of the yard (fully fenced and gated).

 

[citrine]

My cat stays inside all the time......unless when he sits in my lap on the patio watching the world go by.
I would never leave my pets outside.....

 

[Caoineag]

2 pugs, always inside unless we are home and supervising outside play. When your dog sleeps 8 hours straight, its pretty easy to leave them indoors for that time period.

 

[FUEGO]

2 cats, outside. That is, until one got hit by a car apparently, and now the other one ran away.

 

[ziggy29]

We have a terrible time here with the results of everyone around us letting their pets roam free. We have several cats using our flower beds as litterboxes, dogs that crap and leave their scent willy nilly all over our property, dead mice and squirrels in the yard, and that sort of thing.

Often they roam just outside our house and send our dog into a barking tizzy.

A couple of times we've seen sharp bone shards left in places where we could have easily backed over them with our tires had we not seen looked ahead of time.

So I think you can kind of see what I think about pets being allowed to roam outdoors.

 

[freebird5825]

We have a terrible time here with the results of everyone around us letting their pets roam free. We have several cats using our flower beds as litterboxes, dogs that crap and leave their scent willy nilly all over our property, dead mice and squirrels in the yard, and that sort of thing.

Often they roam just outside our house and send our dog into a barking tizzy.

A couple of times we've seen sharp bone shards left in places where we could have easily backed over them with our tires had we not seen looked ahead of time.

So I think you can kind of see what I think about pets being allowed to roam outdoors.

Good fences make good neighbors.
I used to have to deal with all that. My dogs got worms several times by eating small critter carcasses left by a previous neighbor's 3 cats. There was an agressive dog 3 doors away that used to come investigate my yard.
I am fully fenced in now. Worth every penny!

 

[ziggy29]

Good fences make good neighbors.
I used to have to deal with all that. My dogs got worms several times by eating small critter carcasses left by a previous neighbor's 3 cats. There was an agressive dog 3 doors away that used to come investigate my yard.
I am full fenced in now. Worth every penny!

Fencing the perimeter is on my "stuff to do when my wife finds a job and I'm more willing to tap into savings" list.

Still won't help too much with cats, though.

 

[Urchina]

Fencing the perimeter is on my "stuff to do when my wife finds a job and I'm more willing to tap into savings" list.

Still won't help too much with cats, though.

Ziggy, for help with the cats you might try a motion-sensor impact sprinkler (the type that shoots a jet of water out about 20 feet). Aim it at the flower beds, turn that baby on and let 'em get hit. Our local organic feed & seed rents them to help with raccoon control, but they're only about $60.

Live-trapping is a much less neighborly option, but might also send an effective message.

Oh, and if you do get that fence built there's cat fencing that can go on top of it -- basically netting that hangs at a 90-degree angle and keeps the cats from scaling the fence.

Can you tell we have marauding cats, too? Our lab has cut down on that problem a lot, though.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

We have a few neighborhood kitties that enjoy stalking our hummingbird feeder. I keep a spray bottle with water at the door

 

[clifp]

I have cat door and my and roommates/girlfriends cats (which has varied from 2 to 5 over the last 5 years) spend a fair amount of time outside. My house is in an extremely pet friendly area no cars, coyotes, snakes or other dangerous things.

 

[steve88]

It seems like the majority of people here keep the dog inside the house. Learn something new all the time. I always thought if you have a yard thats where the dog goes.

 

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

Cats do what they like with their subfloor access to the house. If they get hit by a car one day that's just more catfood for me to stock up for early retirement.

 

[Kronk]

4 cats, indoor/outdoor. They have a pet door. Most of the time they stay indoors, venturing out onto the screened-in porch. There's a 2nd pet door from the porch to outside. The yard isn't fenced, so they can wander about if they like.

One of our almost-one-year olds has decided to become a hunter. Over the last few weeks, he brought inside a headless small rabbit and a live bird. The bird flew away after I caught and released it, so hopefully it lived. I'm hoping that if I keep taking his toys away from him, he'll stop bringing them inside. Almost more disturbing was the appearance of half a dozen feathers near the base of the stairs last week with no signs of a captured bird.

We have another cat who enjoys hunting my dirty clothes. Last night she brought a pair of my exercise shorts down the stairs, growling all the while. At least clothes-hunting leaves less of a mess.

 

[youbet]

One of our almost-one-year olds has decided to become a hunter. Over the last few weeks, he brought inside a headless small rabbit and a live bird.

Stray/roaming cats were becoming a nuisance at our friends rural home where they hid themselves near birdfeeders and knocked off song birds as they snacked. Very upsetting to our friends whose hobby is bird watching.

Last visit we noticed a 22 with a scope near the door. A short while later a bird feasting kitty was spotted and, yep, quickly dispatched! I was kind of shocked to say the least. The dead kitty was placed on a large rock out back where scavangers found and removed it by the next morning.

Around there, I'd keep my kitties inside!

 

[Khan]

The hawks kill more of my feeder birds than the cat does. I figure it's all part of the local ecology.

 

[ziggy29]

The hawks kill more of my feeder birds than the cat does. I figure it's all part of the local ecology.

Yeah. Hawks are a part of nature and processes that aren't pushed by mankind.

An inconsiderate neighbor who never spays or neuters their outdoor animals and results in more than a dozen stray cats and/or dogs, on the other hand...

 

[Khan]

Yeah. Hawks are a part of nature and processes that aren't pushed by mankind.

An inconsiderate neighbor who never spays or neuters their outdoor animals and results in more than a dozen stray cats and/or dogs, on the other hand...

I assure you that all of my cats are (have been) neutered; and I agree it is inconsiderate/stupid not to do so.

 

[ziggy29]

I assure you that all of my cats are (have been) neutered; and I agree it is inconsiderate/stupid not to do so.

I wouldn't imagine you'd do otherwise. I'm just venting a little about my neighbors. Nice people, all of them, but with a blind spot about letting all their (unsterilized) critters run around and raise hell.

 

[Kronk]

Stray/roaming cats were becoming a nuisance at our friends rural home where they hid themselves near birdfeeders and knocked off song birds as they snacked. Very upsetting to our friends whose hobby is bird watching.

Last visit we noticed a 22 with a scope near the door. A short while later a bird feasting kitty was spotted and, yep, quickly dispatched! I was kind of shocked to say the least. The dead kitty was placed on a large rock out back where scavangers found and removed it by the next morning.

Around there, I'd keep my kitties inside!

That's horrible. Your friends killed the cat? I would never ever have a "friend" like that.