The problem
Do you live in a place where people leave their dogs in the yard all the time and all you hear is dogs barking? Sadly, in many places in the country, this is the norm and animal welfare being what it is, in most places if the dog has water and some shelter, animal control is powerless. It’s heartbreaking to those of us who want better for our animal companions. Besides that, the barking may drive you to close all your windows and put in your noise cancelling earbuds.
Or maybe the dog digs to escape and terrorizes the neighborhood, or worse, gets hit by a car. Escapism is another reason I’m a huge fan of Whistle GPS trackers, even for peace. I’ve used them ever since we adopted BooBoo over 13 years ago, back when they were Tagg!, and we still use Whistle today for Gertie.
So, why do so many people think that dogs just love to hang out in yards? In fact, it’s a common reason for surrender at rescues with people saying “he just needs a yard” But, does having a yard or being put out for long periods make a dog happy?
Newsflash: having a yard isn’t some magical cure for the dog with behavior issues and being put out in a yard for long periods of time might actually cause or exacerbate behavior issues.
A yard is a convenience. It’s not a solution for behavior problems. For some fearful dogs, who may be afraid to walk outside initially, yes, it may be a safer place to potty. A yard is a convenient place to let your dog out to potty when the weather is bad so you don’t have to walk them. It’s a convenient place to throw a ball around or have a playdate. But most dogs do not just go into a yard and entertain themselves and tire themselves out. A yard that is familiar to your dog is pretty boring and uninteresting and becomes their toilet, not a place they’re super excited to go play in all alone. Sure, they’ll play in it if you’re out there playing or running around with them, but merely having a yard isn’t going to be a solution for exercise or enrichment for a high energy dog without effort on the human’s part.
People think dogs just want to hang out outside but dogs are social creatures and they want to be with us. Many dogs move around the house with us, going from room to room, or keeping tabs on everyone who is home. But most dogs don’t want to be isolated in the backyard. Contrary to common belief, the dog isn’t going to exercise or tire himself out all by himself. Which is where the barking comes in.
Dogs left outside for prolonged periods often bark from boredom or frustration. They may want to get back inside and are frustrated they can’t. They may bark at wildlife that gets away. They’re barking to release energy. They’re barking to pass the time, because there’s nothing to do in the yard.
Also in the frustration category is fence barking or barrier frustration. If you have a friendly dog who’s constantly left alone and barks at the fence because he’s not able to interact with dogs passing by or your neighbor’s dog on the other side of the fance, that can cause or exacerbate barrier frustration. Barrier frustration can be scary for owners because it can look very aggressive – lunging, growling, barking. When this happens with dogs, owners may assume their dog is aggressive and decide to not give them dog-dog interactions, when really this deprivation will only make the frustration worse. And in some cases, when that frustrated dog finally gets access to other dogs, they are so over-enthusiastic that can tip over into a scuffle.
If the yard is used as a management strategy for something like jumping on guests, the dog could learn an association or being isolated could exacerbate the dog’s underlying issue. Picture this: your dog jumps on guests because he’s excited people are visiting. You put him outside so he can’t jump. He barks and maybe jumps at the door, because he sees the fun he’s missing out on, getting him more amped up and more frustrated, similar to the dog-dog scenario I described above. When you finally let him back inside, he’s more amped up than he was before and jumping more and maybe even mouthing and increasing attention seeking behaviors. If you’re in this vicious cycle, reach out. I can help you.
The solution
Training, engagement with you and enrichment! Go outside with your dog, even if it’s just to walk around while he goes potty. Take your dog for a sniffing walk if he’s comfortable walking. Give him a puzzle toy and let him hang out with you. Practice some training or activities like trick training, nose work, cooperative care training or even just rehearsing basics. Enrichment isn’t optional. It’s not a nice, extra thing we should be doing for our animals – it’s a critical part of their well-being, health and happiness. Enrichment is ensuring we are meeting all of a species’ needs.
Dogs come pre-wired with many skills like sniffing, chewing, dissecting and scavenging that many domesticated dogs don’t have a good outlet for. Family dogs often find themselves with endless hours of lounging around and not having an ability to use these skills, which can lead to boredom, destruction, frustration (for owners and dogs!) and decreased quality of life. But let’s be clear, the point of enrichment is not to tire your dog out – it is to providing outlets for natural behaviors. This not only improves quality of life but is essential to their overall health, mental and physical and often has a happy side effect of tiring them out. But exhaustion is not the end goal of enrichment.
What are some examples of instinctual dog behaviors?
- Chewing
- Digging
- Sniffing
- Barking
- Chasing
- Scavenging
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Running/herding
- Licking
- Dissecting/shredding
- Interacting with their own species
- Sleeping
We need to be sure we giving our dogs an opportunity for all of these in the course of normal life for our dogs. Of course they don’t need all of these every single day (except sleeping!) but access to a diversity of activities is important. But if your dog is barking or chewing a lot, what are they trying to tell us?
There are many ways to increase enrichment but one of the easiest ways is to take the simple act of feeding our dog and turn it into an activity that improves their quality of life using food toys, easy training and scavenging games.
Enrichment can also help fearful dogs build some confidence by getting them to interact with with environment and can be a better option than trying to hand feed a fearful dog. But no dog should have to work for all their food, especially fearful dogs. We don’t want to force a dog to engage with us just because they’re hungry. There should always be some “free” food offered if the dog wants to “vote with their feet” and choose not to engage with us.
But please, don’t just leave your dog in your yard, for his well-being and for your neighbors’ ears.
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Happy training!
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