15d • Trusty Tidbits
Setting Up Your Yard to Mitigate Hunting Practice
This week I would like to talk about something that has become very much on the forefront of my mind especially as of late and that is setting up your yard to keep your dog from practicing unwanted behaviors.
I will explain my living situation/set up with my dogs and what I plan to do to help with my specific concerns. As you may know I have 2 vizslas, Csili and Káosz, who are young and full of energy plus a pitbull named Lucas who is 12 years old. The vizslas each have their own thing that they “care” about the most. Káosz has a thing for lizards and Csili has a thing for birds (Káosz does as well but his is more for larger birds as we don’t see those ones as often so less practice to counter condition).
We live in an RV where we are blessed to be able to have a little fenced yard and a dog door was able to be installed in the storage chute of my RV. Thanks to for his help with the dog door installation and the building of the platform so they can safely go in and out! My current fence started out as just 4ft tall livestock fencing supported with some posts and a gate but soon Káosz learned that lizards were ripe for being stalked just beyond the fence. This then turned into him hunting for them with no decompression available so his mind was not able to quiet. Even being out of the yard was no help since the lizards are everywhere on property and their existence consumed his mind.
A solution was needed to block his view so now the whole fence is wrapped with garden fabric (double layer) to keep him from being able to look out and have his attention be expended on seeking lizards as this made even going on walks difficult let alone training. Unfortunately, an upgrade is needed due to Káosz learning that a 4ft tall fence is not tall enough to keep him in (thankfully this only happened about 3-4 times and I was on property for all but 2 of them. Both times he was quickly collected and returned home without having gone far). With this newfound information on his athletic skills Paul and I are going to upgrade the fence to a 6ft tall chain link fence with a proper privacy cover (it is from Alion Home if anyone needs some. If you have questions their customer service was very good and quick to respond. Will update on privacy cover once installed if anyone would like to know).
Now that Káosz is able to relax and not self-reward all the time on seeing lizards, even at home, constantly this gives me the opportunity to insert myself into being important to him even though he knows there are things out there that he currently finds quite exciting. With this capability of disengagement from something exciting I am granted a dog that has the opportunity to actually relax which means I have the ability to work on eventually being part of that dopamine high for him instead. This will take time though and more than a fence to accomplish but every bit helps.
Now for Csili and her innate obsession with birds, which can be more difficult. Thankfully, even though I have a tree in my yard and have some woods a stones throw away, there aren’t as many birds and thankfully they don’t tend to stick around too much (having cats with bells on their collars help too!). This doesn’t mean the ones that do come around go unnoticed at times. Without putting up a privacy dome, keeping birds out of sight is much more difficult so for that I just do what I can to not invite them such as no bird feeders or bird houses.
With both of my dogs I did want to note that I have also done some counter conditioning training with them which teaches them there is an alternative, preferable and rewardable behavior you can do instead. Also, I am blessed to work on the property which I live which means I am able to keep a close eye on them and take them out much more some days than most people are able to which helps a lot.
This is just what I am currently doing for the needs of my dogs. What concerns do you have, if any, with your dog and your yard? I will be happy to give my thoughts on what could possibly help encourage decompression and relaxation for your particular situation or others may chime in as well with their advice/experience.
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Setting Up Your Yard to Mitigate Hunting Practice
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