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002. Hey, Rover would rather be outside all day than cooped up inside!




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This article is from the Dog Behavior FAQ, posted to rec.pets.dogs newsgroup. Maintained by Cindy Tittle Moore with numerous contributions by others.

002. Hey, Rover would rather be outside all day than cooped up inside!

False. Dogs are strongly pack-oriented animals. They prefer best to be with their pack whenever possible. If you are inside, they will want to be inside with you. If you are outside, again, they will want to be with you. If you are at work, while they would still like to be with you, this is not usually possible. In this case, does it matter whether the dog is kept inside or outside? It turns out that many dogs behave well when kept inside; bark, dig, and whine while kept out in the yard. Why is this? Your home is the "den." Dogs prefer to be closer to the center of the den -- the place where the pack's smells are most acute. While some dogs are happy to stay outdoors during the day while the rest of the pack is gone to work, a great many dogs develop behavioral problems as a result of daily "expulsion" from the den.

In addition, a dog with access to a large territory may feel compelled to "defend" all of it, resulting in other types of problems: frantic barking at "intruders," and so on. Restricting the amount of territory it has to protect may reduce this type of behavior.

A good compromise for many dogs is access both to a restricted part of the house and a restricted part of the yard. The inside-outside access keeps him from feeling ejected from the "den" without having too much territory to defend. A dog that can't be trusted inside and is destructive outside will probably benefit the most from being crated during the day. With most dogs, if you crate them through puppyhood (which also helps with housebreaking), by the time they are mostly adult (from 8 months to 24 months of age depending on the breed) you can start weaning them off the crate. Because they are used to spending the time in the crate quietly, they will form the habit of spending that same time quietly whether in the crate or not as adults.

 

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