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Something in backyard distracting him?

1K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  Viking Queen 
#1 ·
So beau is a very quiet dog. He rarely ever barks, only to alert (like doorbell rings). He’s getting obedience training and has learned come and touch (and others - he’s very smart).

All of the sudden, this week we let him out back to go potty like normal. He usually just runs to the bush and pees. It’s common area, but there’s a fence there. He’d have to run around front to get out of the community. Now he LUNGES out back. He will bark, start sniffing and run into the bushes. I’m scared to go back there because of poison ivy etc.

I’ve never seen him like this. He just sat at the window for 45 minutes. He usually can’t be separated from me so he will follow me back to the bedroom and we will snuggle. Now he’s so alert at what is out back. He also barked for like five minutes till I told him to calm down.

I don’t know what his deal is. It’s been three days. We don’t take him out back anymore, only out front on walks to distract him. He’s so interested to find something back there. I do live on the east coast so I thought it was hurricane behavior, but now the hurricane is not coming towards my state anyway.



I really just want to know what it is. Anyone had this happen where their dog is so interested in something like this? Any ideas?
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like an interesting animal - possibly a cat or wildlife. Whatever it is is probably long gone, but once he has had the excitement of the chase there is always the hope it might return. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
 
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#3 · (Edited)
That just happened with my puppy. For two days she was obsessed a portion at the bottom of the house and especially a vent to the space underneath. On the third day she frantically dug a hole under the steps next to the same area and when I went to check she had her head submerged in a gushing flood of water and mud coming out of it.
I thought she had broken a water pipe, but it turned out that she had sensed a serious connection leak under the house and also located the resulting flood pouring invisibly through rocks below dirt & grass under the stars.
She’s only five months, but she alerted us to a major plumbing failure that would have cost plenty in damages & water bills if it wasn’t for her persistence.
On the other hand, she had a period of constant nighttime barking in the living room whenever she sat in a certain spot on the couch. It was driving me crazy so I sat in the spot and tried to look in the same direction as she. It turned out she was just seeing her own reflection in some glass cabinet doors.
There’s always a reason for barking.


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#4 ·
Mythrider I agree with the others, he’s smelling something is different with his environment, probably another animal. It could be the animal itself or a scent left behind. And since he got very excited, he will remember this area and will keep checking it and getting excited over it for awhile. If nothing else exciting has occurred here then eventually the interest will fade.

If there’s poison ivy that you’re afraid of contacting, then I would have my dog on a leash for 100% control. I wouldn’t let my dog get into poison ivy and then come into the house and spread it around on objects and on me. My friend has gotten poison ivy from petting a dog.
 
#6 ·
Also I’ve never gotten poison ivy. My mother though is SEVERLY allergic to the point where they end up putting her on steroids because she passes out from it. He’s currently leashed at all times. He never used to run back there, that’s why I never worried till now.
 
#5 ·
I have him leashed if we take him out back now but he still lunges so we don’t even bother. He never used to run into the bushes. I wonder if the animal is still there and he wants to alert it that there’s a hurricane? (I’m in Maryland and we are on watch that it might shift).

I want to show my dog trainer what he does. It has to be some animal right? There’s a bunch of animals out back and I usually only would take him out back to pee. My husband would take him out back on a leash though.

Now I’m as curious as him to know what animal it is and if it’s still there!
 
#7 ·
I am quite sure there is something out there, like a rabbit , squirrel, armadillo , The other night mine was on alert too, didn't bark but kept staring at the "greenspace" behind our home. We are leashed always and came back in and my daughter then went out with her boxer, he is loose, he also gave a look but went about to do his thing and thankfully she stayed with him. Then she heard kip, kip. it was coyotes, 3 of them, We live in a gated subdivision and they have been coming thru here all week, two nights down at our tennis court where we also saw a young deer then my backyard and my neighbor around the next street also has woods behind him and heard them howling. It was only 8:15 in the evening. Another neighbor had one in his yard at 8 in the morning. So you never know what lurks and I'm sure he is trying to tell you something.
 
#10 ·
We figured it out finally! I was eating dinner and a raccoon started walking against my sliding glass door. Guess he’s friendly, but he scared the crap out of me. I have never seen one that close before. Only thing separating us was glass. I won’t let beau out back anymore.
 
#12 ·
Aah glad you found your culprit. Yeah raccoons appear friendly but really they are not. The rare just out seeking food. When I had some feral outdoor cats I use to put food out for them. It was not unusual to see the cat back away and sit on a chair while waiting on the raccoon to finish eating. One morning the raccoon brought her 4 babies with her, then I said enough is enough and stopped leaving the food out . I would clang pots to run the raccoons off.
 
#13 ·
Haha I won’t be feeding it. The builders of the neighborhood used to feed the raccoons and foxes and they are all friendly here. But I wouldn’t get close to the raccoon. I know they’re jerks. I think they are scavengers and don’t realize the food they are stealing is considered stealing. It’s in their genes.

I wonder if beau has been feeding it. I can picture him leaving a chewy out there for the raccoon... haha
 
#15 ·
A friend of mine was quietly reading in her living room one night and heard her dog crunching on kibble in the kitchen. She looked up to see her dog sleeping on the couch next to her all the while hearing crunching in the kitchen.

Upon investigating the sound she found a raccoon eating the dog food in the kitchen. It had come in through the dog door. She chased it out, although it did not want to leave.

Thereafter, the dog door was locked in the evenings.

Her dog, part wolf, slept through the whole commotion. Apparently she was into food sharing.

Raccoons can be really nasty and can tear a dog up, if so in lined. Be careful.
 
#17 ·
You could try a motion activated sprinkler. We sold them at the feed store and customers had good results scaring away skunks, raccoons and deer. I used one for scaring away hordes of drunken college students who thought it was ok to party in our front yard, pee on the trees and puke in the bushes. It was successful and entertaining, at 2 AM

https://www.amazon.com/ScareCrow-Motion-Activated-Animal-Repellent/dp/B000071NUS
 
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