I live in a good neighborhood & my dogs are out in my 6' stockade fenced yard ONLY when I am home & able to keep an eye on them. They are in the house, with me, at night.

Coperheads here, too & my female has killed a number of snakes that came into the yard...fortunately the non-venimus type, so far. I have acres of woods behind & around my house & am quite sure there are coperheads out there, in the stone walls or wood piles behind my back fence. Also have coyotes, foxes,the occasional bear that comes down from the ridge & even a mountain lion earlier this summer....not to mention the loose dogs that occaionally are running around & I have intact dogs that are very territorial & pack drvien.

My dogs get along & each have a ball to play with & I have no issues with them outside together alone. But I still don't leave them out there unsupervised. Too many things can happen.

I Just don't feel it is safe to leave dogs outside unattended, EVER. I have way to much of a financial & emotional investment in my dogs, not to mention the hundreds of hours spent in training. Why would I ever want to take that risk.

I have several people I know, that have had dogs left unattended outside, have bad things happen.

There are too many CRAZY people out there, doing god knows what poinening dogs for fun, snatching dogs for sale to labs, for fighting ring bate or just to grab & sell if they think that might be worth someting. Or even to collect rewards on valuable dogs.

it's different if it's a pet. after riding around all day my dog and i needed time apart, besides .I have to keep my horses outside. i do bring them into the stalls at night ones has came in the mud room with me lol it's what a person feels comfortable with. there is no way to guard against everything ...

delete double post

Myself & my friends that have working dogs have them in the house at night. Can't do much to thwart an intruder locked out in a kennel at the back of the house. IMHO My dogs are also companions.

I know that there are others that keep them in kennels 24/7, unless working them. To each his own...just not the kind of relationship I want with my dogs. But that's just me.

As for kenneling working dogs 24/7...IMO...if you have to kennel a dog in order to build the drive needed to work it...then the dog doesn't have the proper drive for the work & I wouldn't consider it a working prospect.

Everything going well so far. Thank goodness Bob knows what to do. Husband is putting her in at night and feeds all of them in their crates. He is also taking Molly with him when he is checking/feeding cows during the day so she is getting her exercise/attention. I know Bob will be glad to get back in her routine Sunday night as will I.

Cheri - My son is showing his market steer and breeding heifer this week. No pets allowed on the fair grounds except for service animals. I wouldn't even think of bringing my cattle dog up here anyway. She has shown a lot of working drive. I don't think people would appreciate her working their show animals and we are way to busy working for me to supervise properly.

Thanks for everyone's support and advice.

Posted before I read the recent posts. I am slowly changing how we live with our dogs since finding Leerburg site. As for leaving my dogs out at night, we live in the country. Anyone that is stupid enough to try to take one of my dogs will get bitten. My husbands Aussie basically treed (sp?) our cattle hoof trimmer the other day. We leave her and my sons Border Collie outside of the yard for security. They do not roam and we have not had any predator problems for our livestock and no one gets out of their vehicle unless we are around. Also, these 2 dogs have no desire to work stock. Although they did not fulfill their intended use, they have worked out as ranch security. The 2 that stay in the backyard and the pup are working dogs. The oldest is an awesome cow dog. The middle one just needs commands on her and as the weather is starting to relent we will begin training on her and the pup.

In an ideal world we could board the dogs when away, my husband would be on board,and my dogs would be perfectly trained. of course my son would be perfect, I would be drop dead gorgeous, and probably would have won the lottery by now also. However, this is how my life is now and I am doing the best with what I have. We are happy, the dogs are happy, we are doing well and as Oprah said, "when you know better, you do better". I believe that and always will always strive to do better!

Ok. It is nearly 5 a.m. I gotta get ready to go to the showbarn. Have to classify the steer today and turn in weight cards. Son will get here tonight with Ag Teacher. I have to pass inspection, LOL. I love my life even if I will be exhausted at the end of this week.

Finally home. We got in around 9 last night. We won a 2nd place with the steer which got him in the sale. The heifer was 4th. I am starting the 7 days worth of laundry. Ugh!

I asked my husband how things went with my pup. He said ok except for her running around the house. I kind of looked at him funny. I wasn't sure what he meant. I went to get her to put her in her crate for the night. Instead of meeting me at the door and sitting politely to be asked in, she dashed in and I had to grab her to put the leash on. That done, I took her back out the door and made her sit/wait. Then I put her up as usual. This morning when I opened the crate she shot out ran all over the house like crazy and jumped up and over the couch. She has never ever been on the couch! What a disaster. I will get her back on track today. I have my work cut out for me. Besides going back on our training schedule, I will be planning and building a set of outdoor kennels for all 5 of the dogs. I will also begin planning for the big show season which starts in January and goes through March. I have some serious training to do with my husband. It could have been worse, at least she was brought in at night and no one was hurt.

Congratulations on your placings with your cattle, that's a LOT of competition down there.

Sounds like the youngster took full advantage of Dad's dog-sitting skills!

 Quote: Tracy Collins

My suggestion would be to have a heart to heart with the husband that would go something like: honey, I know the dogs aren't your thing, but they are important to me and I can't really enjoy my trip worrying about them for a week. As a favor to me, could you please try to keep up the dogs' usual routine? If there's any part of their care that you don't understand, I'll show you how. It would mean a lot to me if I could count on you to help me out. It's for me, not the dogs.

Or something to that effect.

What Tracy said. But make sure you show some cleave, or, depending on how willing he is, just show the whole package. Being a women gets you what you want. hahah