Tie Out

[shellbell]

I don't like tie outs. My neighbor in the 90s had her collie on a tie out, family in the backyard with her. One of the kids ran out of the yard, dog sprinted to follow and tried to jump a short fence and instead broke her neck because she had reached the end of the cable. It wasn't an instantaneous death and I, unfortunately, got to witness it and help my neighbor.

Same type of thing happened to my aunt and uncle’s dog when I was younger. The dog was on a tie-out in the yard, fireworks were going off at fourth of July, the dog was startled and jumped the fence, hung himself.

[Bamps]

We have acreage and just finished fencing the last side. A permanent, sturdy for livestock fence is expensive. It is less expensive if you do the work yourself. We saved about $5000. doing the last section ourself. It was about an acres worth of .

Thats why I don't have my 80 acres fenced.

[charliebbarkin]

Agree with everything else said here. No tie out of any kind, find an empty space to play (where you can also work on recall! Bonus!!).

Fair warning though, I used a tennis court once and it ruined Charlie's paw pads forever. They were shaved down very deep, bleeding, and very painful for him. At no time did he express he was in any pain, no limping or whining or slowing down. I just happened to see blood on a tennis ball after he stepped on it and then I made him stop. Imagine having to load your 100 lb lab up into your suv because he can not even put his front paws up to be lifted in. Thankfully I kept a blanket in the car and was able to get that under him and use it to lift him in. The vet told me that now his paws will always be compromised because that tough outer part of the paw pad has been torn off. And it is true. Now his paw pads will rip and shave down very easily. I keep pain medication, wrap, socks and booties on hand just in case. And if we play on any surface other than grass, I check his paws regularly throughout play.

Good luck, I hope you can find something soon! Maybe you could find a friend with a social lab between 2 and 6 to help with socializing and correcting your youngster? Sometimes a young dog just needs some time with an older dog to understand that not all dogs want to play the same way. Charlie used to think for the longest time that all dogs were just like the puppies in puppy class, and they all wanted to play. He learned quickly some old dogs just aren't feelin' it.