Since this is the Canine Behavior Series rather than a medical or general care series, the emphasis here will be on hazards in the backyard that cause behavior problems. Lots of things that happen to dogs unsupervised in back yards can physically injure or kill them, but that is outside the scope of this discussion.
If you want to consider leaving your dog outside without your supervision—even inside a fence—please research the physical hazards beforehand, along with considering the behavior risks. Many things you can do will reduce the risks, once you know them.
Other Animals
When you have a fenced back yard, you hope it will provide a safe place for your dog to run, play, and eliminate. You might be quite startled to learn how many other animals use the yard or areas just outside it.
Some of them come only at night. This can explain why the occasional dog becomes spooked about going outside after dark. It’s not that dogs can’t see in the dark. Unless the dog has a vision problem, the night vision of dogs tends to be quite good. Depending on where you live, some very dangerous animals may visit in the night hours.
Other dogs may eagerly go out at night to try hunting the skunk, possum, raccoon, or any number of other living things—a habit that has the potential of strengthening the dog’s instincts to pursue and kill other animals, including family pets. If you have more than one dog, they may get into a fight over who gets to tear up the animal they’ve found outside. This can lead to fighting over other issues as well.
One measure that helps reduce predation outdoors—both your dogs preying on other critters and other critters preying on them—is to turn on a light before letting your dogs into the yard at night. This becomes a signal to the critters that the dogs are coming, and most critters will leave. It doesn’t take long at all for them to learn what that light coming on means. The light also allows you to see what is going on out there when the dogs are out at night. [Also see Critters Your Dog Wants to Chase.]
Dogs on the other side of the fence, whether passing in a public area or spending time in an adjoining back yard, can pose behavior issues for your dog. If you’re there to supervise, though, these can become training opportunities.
Call your dog to you and away from the fence whenever the dog even starts to think about getting into a barking frenzy or fence-fighting. Do this enough times and you’ll avoid having your dog develop a dangerous attitude toward other dogs like the one on the other side of the fence. You’ll also avoid having neighbors enlist the aid of authorities to deal with the barking disturbance. [Also see Barking.]
If you have a fenced yard, it may not occur to you that another dog could enter the yard. This has been known to happen; in some cases the resident dog has been injured or killed by the intruding dog, or a small dog has entered the yard of a big dog and been killed. Watch over your yard and talk first to the other dog owner (if possible) and then to the authorities if necessary to prevent such a tragedy. Behaviorally, this kind of experience can make a real mess of your dog’s attitude toward other dogs.
Children
Children are by definition immature, and do not understand the consequences of their actions. A dog unsupervised in a back yard, whether inside a fence or tied out [See Tie Out (Tethering) as a Means of Confinement] is an easy target for children that can cause damage.
Some kids like to tease dogs to get the dogs to react. When the dog reacts in a manner that might be reasonable to protect property the dog perceives as being threatened, children may feel justified in escalating the teasing into aggressive or cruel acts.
Children may tease a dog over a fence or through a fence. They may tear pieces off your fence and throw them at your dog, or hit the dog with them. They may enter your yard or open the gate and release your dog. Some of this stuff is done to show off for other kids or to respond to a dare. Some of it is boredom. And occasionally a seriously disturbed child takes advantage of an unprotected dog to commit atrocities.
The physical risks to your dog in these situations are obvious. What is not always obvious to people is that dogs frequently become aggressive to children because of these things happening when you are not there to see. Dogs usually have good reasons for fear or aggression toward children, and back yard experiences are often at the root of the problem.
Children can also tease dogs inadvertently. They may simply be going about the business of being kids: running, screaming, pushing, shoving and otherwise experiencing their world. This often overstimulates dogs, and the result can be an injured child or worse.
Be sure to have your dog under control whenever children play in your yard. The situation can create a training opportunity if the children will follow your directions and you have a working relationship with the dog. You can teach many dogs to ignore rowdy children with careful, positive conditioning to the situation. But when you are not able to control the dog or the kids, put the dog in a separate, safe area rather than expose the dog to learning dangerous habits and the kids to getting hurt.
Adult Neighbors, Meter Readers, and Workers
Dogs can become overstimulated by people passing the yard on the other side of the fence. You can manage this by supervising the dog and calling the dog away from the fence every time. One neat solution is to screen the dog’s view of an area where this is happening. In the process, you can prevent habits such as barking, lunging, and jumping out of the fence to get at people.
If the people are passing in front of your home, sometimes it works to arrange your fence so that the dog’s view in that direction encompasses only the back wall of your house. When the dog can’t go up the sides of the property to look out toward the front, you eliminate a lot of risk as well as noise.
When the people are in yards adjoining yours, make sure your dog’s behavior doesn’t prevent them from using and enjoying their own property. This interferes with quality of life for everyone involved, and will put you and your dog on the wrong side of the law.
Fencing the dog back from the property line fence can greatly defuse this situation. Combined with calling the dog to you whenever any barking starts, you’ll both please and impress your neighbors, while at the same time having better control over your dog’s excitement levels.
Be careful about standing at your fence talking to a neighbor standing on the other side of the fence while your dog is running around in the yard. People have gotten bitten this way. The dog is at the boundary of territory that has likely been scent-marked with the dog’s urine. Friendly behavior can switch to protecting that boundary in the blink of an eye. If you want to teach your dog to relax and be sociable with the neighbor in this situation, consider having the dog on leash and in a head halter to increase the margin of safety.
When a meter reader or other worker needs to enter your yard, the best thing to do usually is to put your dog inside. If the dog can see the worker through the window, call the dog away from the window and praise and pet the dog for coming to you. Then you may want to add a treat or brief game with a favorite toy. Do this over and over until the dog either leaves the viewing post or stops making any noise at all when watching the worker.
If you simply cannot get your dog to calm down with the view of the worker through the window, cut off the dog’s view out that window. One way to do this is by confining the dog in another room. Otherwise, this situation could cause a dog to have a potentially dangerous arousal level when the dog comes face to face with the worker.
The dog allowed to get worked up over the sight of the worker might later react to people who look or dress like that worker or to other people who enter the yard. The dog then has a behavior problem that could have been avoided and may result in someone getting hurt. It puts limitations on your enjoyment of your dog and where you can go and what you can do together. It’s so much easier to prevent the problem in the first place.
Sometimes you may be available to work your dog on-leash in the area with the worker, where the dog will not disturb or endanger the worker. This is a great opportunity to control your dog’s attention with movements and treats [See also Eye Contact], and build a positive attitude in your dog toward people who come to your place to perform services.
Opportunities like this are solid gold if you’re able to use them to full advantage. But remember the goal is to keep the dog reacting positively to the worker. Any sign of fear or aggression from the dog is a setback.
If you have multiple dogs and want to work with them around a visiting worker, confine all but one dog and work only one at a time, on leash and under your complete control. Someone who has come to your house to perform a service should not be expected to deal with loose dogs, more than one dog on leash with you (except in emergency), or a dog out of control. Don’t put anyone at risk. Your dog is the one who suffers the most if a human gets hurt, but it’s darned expensive for you, too. Utility companies have good lawyers.
Sadly there are people who steal dogs out of yards for various reasons, and an unsupervised dog is at risk from this, too. If the idea is for big, protective Rex to protect himself from thieves, how exactly is he to know the difference between a thief and anyone else? In situations like this, it’s usually not a thief who gets bitten, but quite often someone else does. The best protection role for a dog to play in your backyard is simply to bark and alert you when something requires your notice. For that to work, of course you need to be supervising.
Other Hazards
Some people consider feces-eating a behavior problem, though it’s actually more of a management issue. The most reliable solution is to keep feces picked up from the yard and closely supervise the dog outdoors until the habit fades. It also helps to provide a reward for the dog who turns quickly away from the feces and comes on your call [See also Eating Dog Feces].
Digging in the yard is another behavior common in dogs left outside unsupervised. You can redirect your dog from digging if you’re supervising. You can also create a digging place for the dog and teach the dog to dig there instead of in your flowerbed. [See also Digging.]
Eating other things in the yard can be a lot more dangerous than feces eating, and again this is likely to respond only to supervision. Some neighbors will feed or even poison unattended dogs over the fence with the potential for deadly results. Dogs also commonly eat rocks and other things that have to be removed surgically. Fencing your dog’s exercise yard back from the property line fence can make it easier to provide the dog with a cleaner and safer enclosure for elimination and a little exercise.
Many dogs jump over or dig under fences to exit the yard. A sufficiently determined dog can defeat almost any fence. This habit may start for a number of reasons, including the dog being left outside without you during thunderstorms or fireworks [See also Thunderstorms and Fireworks Phobia]. An intact dog, male or female, may begin leaving the yard when dogs in the area are in heat. Once the roaming behavior starts, it easily becomes a strong habit.
Dogs lose their homes due to habitual roaming. It’s hard to be responsible for a dog you can’t reliably keep home. Your best bet is to supervise the dog in the yard and prevent the roaming habit from ever starting. Punishment does not work to solve this problem. Supervision is the key.
Backyard Heaven
Your own fenced back yard is a wonderful refuge for your dog when you’re supervising to keep the dog safe. This is a place the dog can go several times a day with minimal effort from you. A backyard means plenty of chances for your dog to eliminate, which makes housetraining easier at all stages of life. It means a place to stretch out and run around a bit. This opportunity helps dogs to unwind and get along better with other family members.
Dog care is easier when you have a fenced yard of your own. You can do all sorts of training and have tons of fun with your dog in you yard. It is a little spot of backyard heaven.