Dy4bc81

My boyfriend actually ordered a shock collar and said it is a possible option (a last resort for us) to stop him from this behavior. As I mentioned before he loves being outside and I don't want to keep him indoors just because of this. Not only is it tearing up the yard but he will quite frequently jump and bark really high pitched bark while next to the fence and i'm afraid he is going to injure himself by possibly getting his foot caught in the fence or land wrong after a jump. I really really don't want to have to do this to him but my boyfriend has pointed out that bc's are extremely intelligent and it won't take long at all for him to associate the shock with the squirrels and give up on them. It has 4 "correction levels" along with a "good and bad tone" Once again this is a last resort for us and hopefully we can find some other way to divert his attention away from those darn squirrels!!!

More than not liking what it's doing to the yard, I like even less what it's doing to Jackson! I know that BCs are very obsessive, but this has become an inappropriate form of obsession (even the vet says so). There are so many other activities that we do together in which Jackson acts obsessively and it's ok with me, but this one just doesn't seem right. It's already a hard and fast rule that outside time is for play and potty. Believe me, on a bad day he's reprimanded every few seconds when it comes to the squirrel issues and rewarded for the good stuff of course. I've had to "ground" him indoors before simply because he wouldn't obey and just give up the squirrel obsession for that particular day. I really hate doing this though since he loves the outdoors so much. I believe he's too smart of a breed to have to be grounded inside, tied up, or caged his whole life because of an obsession gone bad. He can learn how to behave appropriately...I know he can! He's a BC...of course he can!! We're just searching for that one key to get this guy to direct his attention elsewhere. I just want the day to come when I can come inside from playing with the boys and actually stand there in my kitchen, make dinner and watch them from my window continue to play and not have to stop and reprimand every two seconds because they are acting inappropriately. I can't always be every single place where my boys are, but I believe whole-heartedly that they can still behave when I'm not right there beside them. We just have to find the key to make it happen! Thanks so much for your comments, tips, and encouragements

My 10 month old BC Jackson is obsessed with squirrels!!! I think it started out with boredom, since he LOVES to be outside and we would go out and play with him for quite a while then come in he would want to be outside still so we would let him out while we were inside (we have a pretty large fenced in back yard) He noticed the squirrels climbing the poles, and trees and running across the yards so naturally he would try and get at them. It has gotten to the point that my boyfriend has had to put pieces of wood down along the fence because he has worn all the grass down and when it rains (or snow melts this time of year) he will be a mud caked dog after being outside for a few minutes. When we first let him out he will walk out on the back porch and he would scan the back yard, and we thought it was a cute little thing he was looking for "bad guys" in the yard or something but as we watched him we realized he was scanning the trees for the squirrels!!! If he spots one he will sprint out toward it. He will stop dead in his tracks if we yell at him though. He knows he isn't supposed to be running along the fence or jumping when they get close (we all know those darn things just tease the dogs anyway) When he is doing any of his obsessive behaviors and we open the door he will immediately lay down and give us his "what I wasn't doing anything" look. We spend time playing with him and now even have a 2nd dog, a 3 month old boxer for him to play with but he still obsesses over the squirrels even when our boxer Tyson is wanting to play. He also tries to get raindrops. When they drip off the back porch he will pounce on them and used to dig holes trying to find them. My boyfriend cured this too by putting plywood down so he can't dig. We are going to do some landscaping this spring and get rid of the plywood obvously..... So..... Does anyone have any suggestions to get him over his squirrel obsession????