Puppy in the backyard?

[Sidewayz]

How old should a puppy be before he is left in the backyard during the day? I have a Lab puppy (Jake) and for now he stays in the kitchen while I'm at work (9+ Hours a day :( ). When he gets a little older he will probably be moved to the backyard during the day so he doesn't destroy my kitchen. My yard does have an 8' stockade fence around it and plenty of room to play.

John T.

[d'tails]

Is the yard puppy proof? Is there adequate shelter? I would say if the pup destroys your kitchen it will destroy your yard. Train the dog, exercise it regularly (before you go to work would be ideal), and as the dog matures you should be able to leave it outside. If the dog is mature and would be safe, then it would be ok. I don't think there is an appropriate age. I could never leave my dogs outside for 9+ hours and expect to have an intact yard and happy neighbors when I returned. Every dog and situation is different.
Do you leave the pup alone outside at all? If so, how does it act? does it cry? Will it play alone? Will it dig or bark out of boredom? I have barkers. A leaf will do for them. I just can't leave them alone. 1 starts and the rest join.

[SmoothCollieluver]

My personal opinion never. You have no idea who or what can come in your yard while you are gone. Or what the puppy will do while he's bored. Unless you are putting him in a locked run with a top on it I wouldn't do it, peirod.

[Rottweilerlvr]

IMO, I would never leave a dog/puppy outside in a fence or what not, without supervision.

[wyattabby]

i'd say like d'tails mentioned make sure there is nothing he can chew up outside that you don't want him to. also, i wouldn't just up and leave him one day, i'd let him outside for an hour or so first (keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't start digging out) and gradually increase the time so he gets used to being alone outside.

[ClarkFarm]

Any way you could have someone stop in at your house while you are at work?

[Patch O' Pits]

IMO it is better to keep the pup inside for reasons others have mentioned. If he is destructive in the house try crate training

[Sidewayz]

I guess I should've included a little more info here. Jake LOVES it outside. He doesn't mind if we leave him out there, and my yard is puppy proof. nothing but grass, dirt, and a huge pecan tree. He has his own little house, and a cat that he loves to play with. I'm just afraid that when he gets big enough and bored, that I won't be able to confine him to the kitchen only.

Maybe I grew up differently, but I have known several people and families (especially out in the country) that leave their dogs outside all the time, with no harm done. I just don't see what is so bad about it that you guys would say to NEVER leave a dog outside alone. Could ya fill me in on this one?

John T.

[SmoothCollieluver]

I think the never leave a dog outside alone statement is going a bit far. I would never leave my dog outside and leave the house. But he is free to play outside while i'm home, my old dog she loved to be outside. It was hard to get her in. But for her safty if we left she came in. But we live 5min from down town chicago so it's a very populated busy suburb and I don't trust people.

[turnerlvv]

Well the reason I would say NEVER leave your dog outside is that I live in Vegas and it's like 120 degrees here and people still leave their dogs outside!! Also you never know what your dog can be allergic to. Jazz got stung by a bee and was covered in bumbs within a half hour. Benadryl fixed that but it still scared me. :( But really it is your choice if you feel you should leave your dog outside. :D

[Sidewayz]

That makes much more sense to me now, as I tend to forget that people on the internet don't live in the same town as me:o I live in a pretty small town in Oklahoma, and our weather isn't so bad.

[Tori's mom]

I'll add a reason to this one. My grandfather had a dog poisened while he was away (the dog was tied outside in a very small town). My father also had a dog poisened (rat poisen!) while he was at work. Dad's dog was kept outside while he was at work and he lives in a very rural area, the dog could not have been disturbing anyone as there are NO neighbors-
My dogs will NEVER be left outside if I'm not around, it's just not worth it to me. I agree that that is a persona choice, but I thought this was info worth being aware of.

[StarfishSaving]

A coworker had her dog poisoned when she left her outside- in a fenced yard, and the dog was on a trolley run- for just a couple of hours. Someone, just for kicks, tossed a steak that was injected with antifreeze over the fence. Cheyanne ate half of it and died a horrible death that destroyed a family.

Another coworker's outside rabbit was skinned alive and left in its hutch neatly arranged on its folded pelt- someone did it just to be cruel, or funny. She lived in a tiny town the middle of nowhere, pretty much.

A friend's dog- a rottweiler- went over her fence and got her collar tied up and hung herself. Another small town, this one full of dog lovers.

I worked at an animal shelter where we had people bring in dogs that we found out that they stole for different reasons. We got calls from people whose dogs were let out of their fences to roam, etc. when they were at work or school.

My good friend's grandfather's dog was poisoned- in MY town!! It's a tiny neighborhood mostly comprised of with no other real crime. Most of the residents are retired or elderly.

I used to assume my dog was safe outside because of the overall quiet of this area, and because I had "dog proofed" the yard. But now I know that they are safest when left in the house. Three of my four dogs do not have to be crated- it took George 6 months to overcome his pica so that he could be left out for his own safety. Now he never has to be crated. Our Irish setter is still a puppy and so is crated but he doesn't mind. We leave him a Kong with some frozen food in it and he willingly goes to his crate when he wants a yummy treat!

I'm in agreement with the other folks. I'd never leave my pets outside unattended. As active dogs (setters, border collie), they would I'm sure rather be out there but they're the ones who would suffer most if someone wanted to play a cruel trick on me or them. The way I see it, what they want versus what's best for them are different things and I'm responsible for their well being first, happiness second. :)

Edited to add: To make my position here a little more clear: I'm sure that the vast majority of outside dogs never have these tragedies happen to them. You hear a lot more about it when you work in animal welfare because you're exposed to more of it. I don't believe that most animals will suffer a horrible fate when left outside, I just don't see the point in the risk.

Certainly, I never heard of any of this at all in my neighborhood but then one day, someone's dog was poisoned pretty much right down the road. It didn't have to be that dog- it could have been mine! We used to leave Sally outside but no more! Probably 60-75% of my town owns a dog and it's a retirement community for the most part, so you would think it would be totally safe and then something like that happens.

To me, if something as simple as keeping my dog inside when I'm not home could potentially save her life, I'll do it. It's not hurting her to sleep on my bed and clean out a Kong with the TV on instead of digging holes in my back yard and sleeping on the deck. :)

[SmoothCollieluver]

My grandma lived in a rural town and her dog was fed ground glass while she was at school (as a kid, the fire dept gave them the german shep to help protect them as their mother had died and father worked 2 jobs to support the 4 kids.) The dog was very good but the neighbors were afraid of it so the killed it.

[StarfishSaving]

My grandma lived in a rural town and her dog was fed ground glass while she was at school (as a kid, the fire dept gave them the german shep to help protect them as their mother had died and father worked 2 jobs to support the 4 kids.) The dog was very good but the neighbors were afraid of it so the killed it.

That is so sad. Poison is a bad death but I can't imagine...

Ground glass...

[SmoothCollieluver]

Ya she would never own a dog as an adult it was too painful.

[Tamaryth]

Wow! These are some of the most horrible things I have ever read. I live in a great, family oriented neighborhood in a small town in Louisiana. It is just so beautiful outside and Max wants to be out there a lot. I don't leave him out there now but when he gets older I do plan on letting him stay outside longer (backyard). Our intent was always to be able to leave him outside on good weather days. If we left him inside we would have to crate him all day and that seems even worse. There have been no other mysterious pet deaths or anything of the like in my entire town. In fact, I only know a few people who leave their pets inside and those are clearly small, indoor dogs. Everyone, and I am literally meaning everyone that I know (with large dogs)has outdoor dogs, who are only let in during extreme weather (really hot or really cold). I am just shocked by everyone's responses on here about not ever letting a dog stay in the backyard. It is such an unfamiliar concept for me. :eek:

I think I am going to get paranoid now. :(

[ClarkFarm]

I would be wary of someone letting your dog out as a prank, not realizing or just not caring about the consequences. Be sure to lock your gate(s) for your dog's safety as well as your legal protection.
We had a teenage boy open our pasture gate, letting out the four draft horses. It was in the middle of the night. A wonderful person driving along the road stopped and pounded on our door until I answered and let us know our horses were standing right along the main road with cars whizzing by! We now lock our pasture gates as well as installed dusk to dawn lighting around and had a gate installed to the road that goes up beyond our house. The boy was caught at rifle point about a mile down the road by another horse owner. I hope he learned a lesson and was scared out of his mind.

I leave Lucy in the yard if hubby is home but otherwise too busy to keep our socks away from her (lol) and I have to run off somewhere.
What are you going to do when the weather isn't so nice?

[Nancy]

Someone opened the gate to our yard & left it open when we were at work. All 4 dogs were out - 2 in the front yard picked up by the next door neighbor, and the other 2 went off in different directions, but other neighbors picked them up. I live in a quiet suburb & thought everyone was safe, and certainly our 100 lb dog wouldn't let anyone come into the yard! The golden was in the front yard, but the schnauzers are small & the color of ashpalt and sidewalk. My husband happened to be on his way home from work so we gathered everyone pretty quickly. We were lucky. Now they're inside with a dog walker in the afternoon.

We never did find out who opened the gate and why they didn't close it!

One midweek day, driving home from the vet's office, I saw a little mini schnauzer walking along the side of the road. I pulled over to pick him up. About that time he came face to face with a coralled horse, and ran across 4 lanes of traffic. Fortunately, the traffic stopped, and I picked him up. I called the # on his collar, and the owner directed me to their house. He was about 2 miles away from home! He was also on one of the busiest streets in the neighborhood.

[canvasjockey]

As far as leaving a dog inside or outside while no one is home, I think that there's no absolute right or wrong. It's a matter of knowing the potential problems of the dog and the environment (yard, neighborhood, etc). There are no guarantees - inside or out. That's why we just have to make the best decision we can knowing our pets, our home and our neighborhoods.

Working in the veterinary/animal field off and on for about 15 years, I have encountered few incidents of others doing intentional harm to dogs left out in yards (poison, releasing, etc). Certainly not as much as accidents both in and out of the house (inside - getting into bottles of prescription meds, finding mom's stash of chocolate, getting into chemicals; outside - rattlesnakes, toads and other wildlife - and collars getting caught on things both in and out).

We have a client with a lab pup who's only 4 months and has already eaten a dead rat, a rat poison "cake", and a toad (some here are potentially fatal) - all while inside his house.

That's why I really like crate training for those early, crazy puppy stages, where they can be so prone when alone, out of sheer boredom and excessive energy, to get into the craziest things. Especailly with a lab pup or other "high energy" breeds. I do think being left alone outside is really best left to mature dogs.

[Tamaryth]

Max is going through those crazy puppy days where I don't even know how he gets into what he gets into. We are crate training him and it is going very well. My husband is home every other week, so during the weeks he is here, he just lets Max out most of the time (out of the crate - but mostly in the house). He goes out for a total of about 2 hours a day, when my husband just HAS to get some work done. He will let him in the backyard to play and go upstairs to the office to work. During the weeks that my husband is out of town, Max is crated from 8:00am - 12:00pm and from 12:30pm - 3:30pm. When my daughter gets home from school, she lets him out and plays with him but while she does her homework, she will let him out in the backyard to get some of that pent up energy out. Our hopes were that when he was older, we would let him stay in the backyard during those hours that I am at work or she is at school. Of course, during inclement weather, we would keep him crated.

[DoggyMom]

Lily is crate trained, but I don't crate her very often. I wouldn't leave her outside unsupervised either, but that is more because of where I live rather then a personal choice. Around here, we have coyotes (a lot), racoons, skunks, possums, rats..no telling what else. There have also been mountain lions. A coyote got through our fence last night while we were bbq-ing a late dinner..thankfully Lily was inside the house. So for safety's sake, she does not get let outside alone. If I have to leave, I always try to find someone around our neighborhood that can watch her (in their home or mine) otherwise she goes to a nearby dog daycare.