addeo@moovax.DEC (09/11/84)
Please bear with me, this is my first submission...Thankx I have a 6 month male Black Lab. named Radar and my problem is where should i keep Radar when i am at work or not at home. In the beggining, when he was a pup (8 wks.) i kept him locked up in the kitchen. This was just until he was paper trained. Now he's trained to go outside in one spot with no problems. I remodeled my kitchen since then which now makes it impossible to leave him there. At about 4 months old i gave Radar the run of the house. This was a disaster. He completely ripped up my couch cussions. So i had to act fast. I figured that he was to young to have he run of the house so i deceided to to keep him in the front portch, which is only 4' x 6'. This worked out fine during the summer even though it did get very hot in there. What i did, when i was home, was wedge the inner door open and leave the outside screen door locked so that he couldn't break loose. I would also keep his food on the portch. When i was away i would lock the inner door and leave him food and water for the day. Well now that the colder weather is comming along i can't leave the inner door open because of energy costs and also i had hopped that he would have the run of the house by now for "watchdog" purposes. Last week i tried to give him another chance at the run of the house but is was just as bad. He tore up an Indian rug to shreads. So i gave him hell and the next day gave him still another chance. When i returned from work that day he had gotten into the garbadge and it was all over the place. I cleaned it up and the went to a softball game and when i returned he did it again. Needless to say he is back on the portch. I have a basement but there are things to be eaten down there also. I am in desperate need of some suggestions. Is Radar still to young for the run of the house? When will he be old enough? Am i doing something wrong to make him get revenge? Help me before Radar eats me out of house and home. (and i mean literally). Please direct all responses to: Rocco Addeo Net: MOOVAX (node # 56.40) Digital Equip. Corp. 274 Cedar Hill Rd. Marlboro, MA. 01752 (617) 467-4489 If you can't get to our node please ask you net manager to check his network master file. We had a sudden node # change....our new node # is 56.40. Thankx Rocco
halle1@houxz.UUCP (J.HALLE) (09/13/84)
I am posting this since the reply is of general interest. You were doing all right at first, but you didn't keep it up long enough. The biggest mistake most people make is giving a dog too much freedom too soon. You want to gradually increase his space. 4*6 is OK for now, but you want to soon give him a little more. Can you partition off a portion of the basement? What ever you do, be patient. He probably should not have the run of the house until he's 9 months to a year. In fact, you might want to allow him only a partial run of the house even then. You might also try varying his location if you can. Try a bathroom. There's not much to damage, and it can be quite comfortable. If you are worried about the door, leave it open and buy a couple of kiddie gates. (Two should be enough if you have some ingenuity.) Good luck. I hope you succeed.