blasted countersurfing dogs

[DanStokes]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

The scooter has really helped King burn off his energy and be a better house dog. I took him out this morning already and (his choice) he ran almost all the way around the half mile circle - 15-20 mph. Probably NOT the right solution for the Bloodhound but might have helped John with his Shepherd. At say, 15 mph, it only takes a couple of minutes to do the 1/2 mile.

Hope the electrified kitchen works out for you
Dan

[milner351]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

Unfortunately - we had to find our shepherd a new home after 5.5 years. She was getting aggressive with Lee, and with all our attention on him, we haven't had the time to get her the daily runs she needs to not become destructive. It was an emotional roller coaster - but - undoubtedly the right thing to do. She's part of a neighbors friends family now - they are empty nesters with plenty of time to spend with her - so she really is better off - and we don't have tumble weeds of dog hair in our house anymore!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

Your bloodhound sounds a lot like my Weimaraner.

He requires at least one scent track per day. It gets tough when it's ZERO degrees outside like today, but he insists on it.

We take a sock, or glove, or anything that there is a pair of, and we let him have one - he goes right into his kennel (if we're lax, he'll BRING us a pair of something, drop one off, then go stand by his kennel).

Then, we take the other glove/sock/whatever, and go hide it somewhere on the property. Doesn't matter if it's in a tree, in the barn, wherever. Upon returning, as soon as you tell him "Search!" he takes a maximum of 60 seconds to find whatever it was you are hiding. And that's his daily ritual. If we don't do it, GUARANTEE that he'll throw a fit while we're at work, chew holes in the wall, destroy something.

Work dogs are just that way I guess?

ps your dogs look happy.

we do much the same thing, I load up a kong with peanut butter and throw it into the woods then tell her to 'find' it. we were at wits end with this one before I started doing that.

[ls7gto]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

my dog fence came with a tester for testing it. the brand is dog watch. it really worked well, and he did became protective and territorial . i miss that dog more than every car and ex-girlfriend I ever had.

[dieselgeek]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

Your bloodhound sounds a lot like my Weimaraner.

He requires at least one scent track per day. It gets tough when it's ZERO degrees outside like today, but he insists on it.

We take a sock, or glove, or anything that there is a pair of, and we let him have one - he goes right into his kennel (if we're lax, he'll BRING us a pair of something, drop one off, then go stand by his kennel).

Then, we take the other glove/sock/whatever, and go hide it somewhere on the property. Doesn't matter if it's in a tree, in the barn, wherever. Upon returning, as soon as you tell him "Search!" he takes a maximum of 60 seconds to find whatever it was you are hiding. And that's his daily ritual. If we don't do it, GUARANTEE that he'll throw a fit while we're at work, chew holes in the wall, destroy something.

Work dogs are just that way I guess?

ps your dogs look happy.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

We used treats to teach them not to eat something we leave laying around. I have them sit, and I hold the treat near them. If they reach for it I pull it back and say no. When they get that idea and they wait, then I say 'Okay' and that is the word they react on. Im still working on getting them to leave the treat on the floor until I say okay, but with three of them very motivated by food its difficult.

If its on the floor its theirs. Although the husky will tend to do whatever it takes to get to something that smells good.

the bloodhound is off-the-charts focused, I have this stuffed sheep that I originally bought for the dogs to chew on (the only reason I garage sale). The first time she started into it, I realized that it would make a huge mess so I tossed it downstairs and it works as either a doorstop, dust mop (okay, so I'm lazy)... anyway, she is not allowed in the basement and is kept out by a baby gate. She gets downstairs maybe twice a year - and she still remembers its there and looks for it. Everytime. So trying to get her trained not to go on the counter - she's a good dog, so she knows she did bad, however, once she starts to focus - nothing else matters and she never forgets....

I'll have to look into the inside, invisible fence solution, I don't want them to get punished for going in the kitchen - simply for going onto the counter. I was worried that the fence would be too powerful for such a use. It sounds like it won't be... I think outside, we'll continue to rely on the fence - once she is on a track, you could hit her with a bat and she won't flinch, put down her favorite treat and she'll walk around it, it just doesn't matter.... it's kind of cool to see (and really important for tracking), of course, it's also the source of frustration.

[dieselgeek]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

Yeah, the choke trick worked awesome when I used it at a friend's house 30 miles away. Tune to 600mhz, way down low.

Out where I live, in the middle of effing nowhere, there is a CRYSTAL CLEAR "Country Farm Radio" smack dab on 600.

I almost made my own higher frequency transmitter out of megasquirt parts. No shit. but then I figured I could just take an extra spool of wire and turn it into a much longer probe extension for my multimeter. I started halfway around the loop, and had breaks in both sides of my test point! argh. Anyways, dug maybe 20 small holes for test points by time it was all said and done.

I only spent about $500 - the $3000 is how much my neighbor spent on his "Professionally Installed System" - the wife was arguing that maybe it would have been better to spend the 3 grand than fiddle with the DIY version. She does not know me as "dieselgeek" like you guys do though! I ain't buying the Motec when the Megasquirt gets the job done! :-)


The training part was super easy because I ran the wire along our perimeter barb wire fence (it's tall, the dogs can walk right under it, it's more for deer and wandering cattle).

If I had it to do over again, I would only bury it under the driveway. The rest of it I would just lay on the grass and use landscaping staples to hold it. After a few weeks you cannot see it anyways and it's easier to get to for testing.

I rented a small cable trencher for $75, it worked good.

[STINEY]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

No fooling, you really couldn't get the AM trick to work? If I remember right, the frequency was WAAAY down on the scale, it seems weird to me that AM is that busy in some locations.

Not arguing, just weird to me. The AM trick worked excellent for me - I had to do some heavy backhoe work which I knew would cause damage, couldn't be avoided. But with earphones it was simple and kinda fun locating the breaks.

Not that I want to make a habit of fixing it.

Our pooch has developed into quite the protective animal since the fence installation. She has always been gentle and sweet, but woe to the stranger who crosses the invisible line. Downside is I now find all my delivered car parts tossed in the front yard, instead of tucked onto the back porch. Piles of milkbones usually are found the same day as parts arrive too, weird....

$3000? No way, system cost me less than $200 at TSC, and I gave it to my wife as a birthday present. Installation was relative easy, I made a bracket to mount an anhydrous knife I borrowed from work to my garden tractor, and made a nice trench/cut in the sod with it.

Does that mean I get to spend the extra $2800 on car/shop stuff?

[dieselgeek]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

How about stringing wire along the counters and running a fencer to it?

(I take no responsibility if you forget to turn it off before YOU or the LADY of the house need the kitchen)

;D

Or do that but with another Pet Fence instead of an electric. You can turn down the transmitter to where it's only good a few inches from the fence.

I have 5 acres bordered by a pet fence I installed myself. Where I went wrong was, not testing the spools of wire - one of them had voids in the copper line but the insulation was fine. High resistance that stopped working altogether after about 3 months. So last spring I set about discovering the break - talk about a massive undertaking, I couldn't get the usual "AM radio, RF choke" trick to work because there are a ton of crystal clear AM radio stations in the same frequency - so I strung an extra spool of wire to extend my test probes, and isolated the THREE breaks in the bad spool of wire... restrung, and now it's been working great ever since. About once a month I put the ohm-meter on it and measure resistance. About 1700' of 20-ga wire gives around 13 ohms resistance in the winter, and about 19 ohms in the summer.

Wife was telling me for months "See, you shoudl have just spend the 3 grand like the neighbor did"

Anyways, now that I have a handle on how to maintain and test it, I love the thing. PetSafe (same people who make the SportDog units) is the brand I used.

[STINEY]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

How about stringing wire along the counters and running a fencer to it?

(I take no responsibility if you forget to turn it off before YOU or the LADY of the house need the kitchen)

;D

[Thumpin455]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

We used treats to teach them not to eat something we leave laying around. I have them sit, and I hold the treat near them. If they reach for it I pull it back and say no. When they get that idea and they wait, then I say 'Okay' and that is the word they react on. Im still working on getting them to leave the treat on the floor until I say okay, but with three of them very motivated by food its difficult.

If its on the floor its theirs. Although the husky will tend to do whatever it takes to get to something that smells good.

[fine59]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs


i know what ya mean...cant keep mine out of the pool...damn dog

[70chevyC-10]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

I had one of those fences when we lived out in the country. My Shepherd loved riding in the back of my pickup and one day I forgot to take his collar off before we went for a ride into town. Saw him in the rearview kinda jump a bit when we pulled out the circle drive - Oops, sorry buddy, my bad.

[STINEY]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

I installed an invisible fence on our property, completely encloses the 3 acres (didn't want to lose a dog to the traffic again) SportDog brand I believe.

That thing is great. I see no reason you could not blockade the kitchen with one... training is the key, its not hard, just important. The dog need something visual for the training process, lets them know where the line is.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: blasted countersurfing dogs

I've done that - electric fences, electric mats.... note that one is a bloodhound - her nose knows, so food can rot on the electric pad or next to the charged wire; however, she will reach around the wire to get food.... her cohort isn't so smart/sensitive, but he's smart enough to know that if she's avoiding it, he should too.... oh yeah, and she can smell if the electric charger is on... next up, I think, will be invisible fencing.... and it's not just food - plastic, cardboard, cell phones, dishes, pots, pans