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My Lab Collie cross is doing a sterling job of destroying my lawn, leaving skid marks and digging trenches as she runs around. Any moment now senior management is going to instruct me to rectify the situation...
What can I do to improve durability without selling a kidney?
I've seen a sort of honeycomb structured tile that I assum you place before laying turf and rolling it in, has anyone tried it?
Girlie dog wee does a good job of bleaching your lawn anyway - my wife spent a few years fruitlessly trying to encourage our lab to wee on the gravel...lost cause
Take it for a walk?
Photos of said hound please?
Ideally,photos of the dog grinning on the lawn please.
Re-seed with hard wearing grass seed as its more durable for dogs / childrens play areas etc..
Get a dog who pretends she is a cat and sleeps indoors all day, having to be dragged outdoors... problem solved. You can borrow mine for a trial run if you like?!
Train them properly so they don’t act crazy?
If they are wearing out trenches in the lawn running around they really need more proper exercise though. Any dog bred from a collie will need serious amounts of proper walks, couple of hours a day I’d say. Our springer used to get nearly that and that was only just enough.
Not necessarily true. Our Springer x Lab & Pomeranian get loads of exercise throughout the day but after their dinner they always head outside to play with each other. A large part of that play seems to involve the Pom running circles around the SxL then swinging in to box him round the head while he tries to bat her out of the air.
She flings up bits of turf as she corners, bit like a small furry rally car. Our lawn is slowly getting worse & worse. Still, will soon be good fun with my 1/10 scale Landy rock crawler!
Don't let her run around on the lawn when it's wet or soggy is probably the only solution. Also don't let her wee on it. The other options may help a little but ultimately fighting a losing battle. I care about having a nice lawn so unless it's raining I follow the dog out with a watering can when she has a wee so it's diluted and doesn't burn holes.
Train them properly so they don’t act crazy?
If they are wearing out trenches in the lawn running around they really need more proper exercise though. Any dog bred from a collie will need serious amounts of proper walks, couple of hours a day I’d say.
She gets at least 90 minutes every day, with considerably more at the weekends, but she has a recall issue so I can't let her off the lead. As soon as I do, she goes into hunt mode, her hearing stops working and she's off like a missile after cats, squirrels, birds, leaves, shadows, etc.
She was a re-home and said to be difficult. When we first got her she was anything but and wouldn't leave my side and was an absolute delight but as her confidence has grown she has become more and more disobedient to the point that I know she'll run off if I let her off.
When she eventually comes back, or I manage to catch her, she knows she's done wrong but it doesn't seem to have any bearing on running off in the first place. She's never been interested in chasing balls or sticks and no longer seems particularly interested in other dogs. Her focus is always on the area of the field where she's seen cats/squirrels.
Photos of said hound please?
Here you go;
Looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth...
That's a mighty fine looking pooch and well done on getting a re-home.
My parents have given thier various female dogs Green Um tablets which makes a huge difference to the lawn. You need to get the dose right for the size of your dog.
I've got a lab/collie cross. Also a re-home. Also a difficult dog (not aggressive, but had never been trained or socialised and was 12 months old, so used to chase everything, disappear for ages and knock people over leaping up). She was 12 months old at the time. Now is nearly 6 and has calmed down a lot. Training her took a while and involved a bit of tough love, but she's exemplary for the most part (other than occasionally wanting to fight Border Collies for some reason).
Not much advice re the lawn I know, but I would ask what you've done to try and train her. Critically have you taken her to see an expert in these matters? Reason I ask is that a dog of that type needs a lot of exercise off the lead. needs to be able to run and forage etc. If she was able to do that she probably wouldn't spend so much time trashing the lawn..
Beautiful dog by the way!
not aggressive, but had never been trained or socialised and was 12 months old, so used to chase everything, disappear for ages and knock people over leaping up
Apart from the age that could be my dog you're talking about! She was about 5-6 months old when we got her and she was 1 last week.
Now the days are longer I'm going to take her to classes, just got to find a decent trainer.
That’s a mighty fine looking pooch and well done on getting a re-home.
Beautiful dog by the way!
Thanks.
Ohhh... I've got one of those too... but a black version.
I got her as a 9 month old rescue. Not socialised or house trained. Allegedly a collie x kelpie there is definitely something pointy in there too as her nose and hunt instincts rule.
As Funkrodent says, now approaching 6 years she is much calmer. Through a lot of hard work she is now reliable with farm stock and will come off squirrels rabbits etc when called... but I still have to be very careful with deer.
Keep at it, don't give up on the lead thing. Training classes are a big help. Keep trying to refocus the chase onto anything you can. You can get realistic looking 'rabbits' on a draw line, or to throw. Find something (if possible) that interests her. Mine was never bothered about food rewards when out, but now if she is stopped from chasing a rabbit she will do a token stick chase, just out of frustration. If you can get to this stage it helps hugely as it redirects the adrenaline that seeing a rabbit releases.
No advice on the lawn, sorry. My other dog is ball obsessed so the lawn is cut to shreds from ball chasing.
Apart from the age that could be my dog you’re talking about! She was about 5-6 months old when we got her and she was 1 last week.
Now the days are longer I’m going to take her to classes, just got to find a decent trainer.
Aaaahh.
That explains a lot. So you got a puppy. And you still have....a puppy!
Quite why any dog place would be labelling a dog as "difficult" that is only 5 months old is beyond me. It's a puppy for god's sake, it's meant to be difficult! That's like criticising a toddler for being irrational..
The reality is that dogs of this type are essentially puppies until they're 18 months old (give or take). By that I mean they have boundless amounts of energy and all the craziness and curiosity that goes with that. Once they get beyond 18 months they start to calm down a bit and get progressively easier to work with.
However, you are absolutely right get her to some dog training classes. Worth reading up correct methodologies too. The good news is that the dog that you have is eminently trainable and there is no reason why within a few months you shouldn't be able to let her off the lead and enjoy her running around.
FWIW, mine wasn't in the slightest bit interested in balls when young, but at about two she suddenly discovered them and is a bit obsessed!
This is her tolerating my toddler..
This is her taking on a stick that's so big she should frankly know better..
The pics don't work. 🙁
Best advice is give up on the lawn. Our lurcher digs holes and races about still, she's nine. Its what dogs do really.